Sporty swept skeg vs strait skeg?

[Image 21]

this is a swept skeg



this is a straight

cool thanks it all makes sence now or is starting to

[havingfun2]

I have an omc stock (so I believe swept) on a vegas V.
At mid 50’s can almost let go of the wheel. By mid 70’s there is so much steering torque I can hold it, but no way to corrective steer.
The omc’s lack of skeg length has made me nervous when running high.
I’ve been reading here and trying to research this as I was wondering if a performance lower would be my best bet.
I’m guessing to add a big torque tamer to the omc, it would reduce even more “rudder” ability of the skeg when up on the pad.

Looking a pictures, a cle and a sporty both seem to have at least an inch more skeg length. Even a swept skeg seems to have a lot more surface area than an omc.
<O
I think I get the drift of, as the engine is raised, as lower comes out of the water, less of it is available for rudder counteraction against the prop. This progresses all the way to prop shaft surface running. At this height, all the rudder torque is focused on the skeg.
<O
I’m starting to wonder now
(a) skeg length is good?
(b) Skeg surface area needs to be swept or due to crabbing the leverage between the front and rear of the skeg can be great enough to make it fail?

[baja200merk]

at 70-100+ on my mirage i could see the steering cyl was way off center because i had to turn the wheel to keep the boat going strait.

i have run omc cases over 2in above the bottom but the problem is the tiny skeg make syou have to turn the wheel and there for the case is not going through the water strait and scrubbing alot of speed off.

You can try adding to your skeg a few guys have done that with good results, basically copy a sporty skeg.

merry christmas

[Tom Foley]

well i would have a tab welded on it probably by marty powel but i guess your saying that still wont solve the problem?

I've got over 300 collective hours on my Sportmasters , no problems , Swept skegs . I also know guys that have many hours on staight skegs with welded tabs ..no problems .Choose your weapon !!

[baja200merk]

Since I just got a notification someone liked this 10yr old thread time for an update.

Strait skeg left hand sporty (limited prop choice and minimal setup) with jbweld stick torque tab goes 115 quickly. 20s in reach with the new tune but built the right hand so lefty went back on the Skater shelf. Thousand+miles logged works fine.

Strait skeg right hand with jb stick torque tab is good to 118mph so far but conditions were terrible. Works great but change of plans.

We are testing the first set of 1.60:1 Evinrude gears so both sport masters are back on the skater shelf until the new setup is assembled/tested.

[Steve G]

Could someone repost pictures of the straight and swept skegs?