WOW--You guys act like a nice stainless steel skeg guard was a piece from the Devil !!! Here on the West side of Florida, the water no matter where you go, is very shallow at times and most people touch the bottom, which is all soft sand, almost everytime they go out to party at a sand bar or to a pub and grill----Soooo you end up spending more time sanding and painting your skeg because it gets all scraped up from the sand....There are more boats with skeg guards on them then not...AND as far as it effecting the water to the prop?????? Don't know who came up with that one ???!!!

If you don't think it effects the water to prop why do people spend thousands to have there lower blue printed? ski boat.. fishing boat.. who cares! Performance boats care.

Skeg guards are like curb feelers or pocket protectors. Don't be that guy!

If you have time to do it, then do it right. Weld a piece in, flap disk it and paint.

Wow, I guess I'm a nerd. I have not one .....but two skeg gards. One on each drive of a 99-29ft Baja Outlaw with pretty much stock power that run's 70 no problem. If i take them off how much faster can I go?

I use my boat, but I don't intentionally abuse my boat. I have drug the drives heading up river at Havasu, just a little off line, it happens. I have had the skegs in the sand on beaches at Havasu and other lakes. Again it happens. I have never had to paint my skegs because they looked thrashed with paint gone. I do care about the looks of my boat, and I personally like the looks of the shinny skeg gards with the polished stainless props. But then again, I have a bimini top too. No Pocket Protector or a key ring hanging from my belt with 100 or more keys, or a cell phone and multi tool hanging on my belt, or a tramp stamp or any tat for that matter (oh...I'm gonna get it for that) and I don't drive a Pacer, but I do have two Skeg Gards. lol

Only thing going on my skeg is a condom for protection.

Lets see a better pic of that prop...Maybe it's just the reflection off the drive but it looks like it hit the chunk of skeg?

if you take off the skeg guards you may pick up a few mph, also if you want the skegs to look nice just sand off the paint and leave them clean. Or you can just sand them to clean them up and make sure the water flow to the prop is as clean as possible.

This has been an interesting read!!
I have skeg guards on my 38 and now I'm thinking maybe I should take them off......might be those last 3 mph I need to beat my buddy!
Are they seriously that bad to have?

I would file it down paint it, cut the other one to match it so when the dipchits at the launch ask why your skegs are like that tell them it made your boat go 15mph faster.