Damaged Skeg, To Fix or Not To Fix

[wallychaser]

Hi, was out fishing with a group of fellow worker last weekend. One of the other boats (new boater) hit a rock fairly hard, bent the prop (alumn) which is getting fixed, it also damaged the skeg, took a good sized chunk out of the front of it and bent the whole thing to the left a good inch or more. (This is an inboard engine, 150ish I will guess) I recommended that it should be fixed, others said not to worry about it, "should be ok as is, just fix the prop". Am I out to lunch on this? I know if it was my boat I would fix it, and get the lower leg check over. Other thoughts on this?
Nick

 

[bnicov]

Re: Damaged Skeg, To Fix or Not To Fix

A bent skeg will not run true and will drag. It should get fixed. Pull the lower yourselves and take it to a welding shop and it should run $125-200 at most to repair.