the tab 652 is well above the waterline when deployed the arms 610 and 620 swing downward the leading edge of the tab 652 a can be inclined into the water by an actuator not shown in fig2 thereby creating a drag force to either steer or decelerate the watercraft alternatively the trailing edge 652 b of the tab 652 can be dipped into the water to trim the watercraft one of the main advantages of the embodiment illustrated in fig2 is its capacity to stow the tab and its associated mechanism safely above the bottom of the hull so that a watercraft featuring such a watercraft control mechanism could be beached or used in extremely shallow water without risk of damaging the exposed parts of the watercraft control mechanism illustrated in fig2 is a watercraft control mechanism whose tab or tabs are fixed at an angle of inclination of approximately 15 degrees such a watercraft control mechanism could be used only for steering or decelerating and not for trimming the tab or tabs are translated from a retracted or stowed position as shown in dotted lines to an operative or submerged position as shown in solid lines by one or more linear actuators although fig2 presents a simple vertically oriented actuator it should be known to those skilled in the art that there are many equivalent mechanisms that could be just as easily implemented for raising and lowering the tab or tabs it should also be noted that the determination of the optimal angle of inclination of the tabs.