The skeg (on my Skerry) is glued and screwed. The screws stayed in, countersunk and filled. I am a bit concerned that if I need to find them in the future I don't know where they are . . . 

The screw heads are in the boat of course and I glued and screwed a wormshoe to the bottom of the skeg, using 20 mm brass screws, again countersunk and filled. It's as solid as a solid thing.  :-)

   @Yambo

Thanks for the feedback.

I also realized I'll be screwing through the hull again for the mast step and daggerboard trunk, so I guess arriving at the right method is even more important! 

But wait!

No skeg fastening thread would be complete without a mention of the no-screws option. SImply bed the skeg into epoxy/woodflour putty. Use tape from the side of the boat, over the skeg and down to the other side to stabilize it until the putty cures. When the skeg is stable, remove the tape and put some big fat fillets (maybe an inch or so) along the length of the skeg.

While the fillets are wet, paint them with unthickened epoxy (using a disposable chip brush) to get a baby's bottom, no-sand finish. Then as soon as that's done. take a length of glass tape, roll it up tight and put it into a small vertical container of epoxy. Once it's soaked and you've squeezed out the excess, unroll it along the one of the fillets and smooth it into place. Then do the same for the other side.

What you end up with is a bonded attachment with a perfectly wet-out piece of glass tape. The fillet smoothly transfers the stresses between the boat and skeg while the glass provides tensile strength. There are no evil metal fasteners (evil because the threads cut the wood fibers, corrosion makes them spall, they expand and contract from heat and cold at a different rate than wood and work themselves loose and they act as stress concentrators).

So don't build a lovely watertight hull and then punch holes in it. Just lose the screws.

Note, this method also works for mast steps and daggerboard trunks. I've never had the pieces come off on any of my screwless boats and one of them is over 9 years old.

Have fun,

Laszlo

So over the last couple of days, having read this thread, I've just fastened my skids and Skeg to my PMD as manual suggests, with screws and thickened epoxy. I strongly considered Laszlo's screwless suggestion, but in the end... I was just not brave enough. Now I'm wondering... once everything sets up, should I back out the screws and inject the holes from the bottom with thickened epoxy? Would this be as good or better than leaving the screws in situ?

Thx,

P

   I think it depends on how you will be using your boat. If the skeg is there just to keep your boat tracking smoothly and straight through the water, then you could leave the screws in place, being sure to cover the heads with enough epoxy putty to keep the water out. If you think you'll be dragging your boat over rocks and scraping the skeg down over time, I'd take the screws out and fill with epoxy putty.

Am I misunderstanding something here?  I thought the screws for skeg and skids went into those parts from inside.  That's what we did on our PMD kit, and I can't imagine we didn't get that idea from the manual, though I don't remember exactly.  Makes sense, though.  If you put them in the other way, there's nothing to screw into but the bottom panel, which doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Maybe I'm not understanging what all y'all are sayin' here?

.....Michael

Yes Michael, the screw heads are inside the boat.

   I want to try the no screw option for my SW Dory.  Anybody know where I can see pics or video?  Thanks.

I laminated my skegs out of ply and machined them prior to attachment.  I used the hull as the form for the lamination.  Once cured, I cleaned it up, did the shaping and then just used thickened epoxy and some weights.  No fasteners.  Then I used large fillets and glassed over them.  I tried that "keel guard" stuff mentioned in another thread, but it wouldn't stick, so I used 3M 5200 black as a super-durable protective layer.  Here's the pics of the process.  So far, I'm very happy with them.  Our beaches in the PNW are very rough.

   Thanks!