Paddle left, go left... hmmm?

Nuther possibility
I think Eric may be onto something, as many others here may be, but, it may be a twisted boat. Poly kayaks are all unique. Melt a thousand and you have a thousand slightly different boats. Nature of the beast.



Some get pulled weird from the tool hot amd may have a bend in them, or the keel. I’ve seen this a lot, and next time you look carefully at the ends of a poly boat you may as well. Usually these get chopped, but every so often one gets through.



Run a laser down a leveled boat on stands and measure things…you may get a suprise. Another trick is a line stretched bow to stern and see how/where it intersects the cockpit. Yeah, also check the seat!



I’ve seen this several times over the years and one particular Skerray was nicknamed “lefty”. I think if it’s as noticeable as you describe you may have a tweaked keel.

Thanks
I have a laser level so when I go out to buy a boat, i will certainly take it with me.

Don’t want to mention names
but he has years of experience as a kayak instructor, is certified and done trips, races, rescues, etc. with a good rep.

If I take another class, I think I am going with the sea kayak folks though and do a one on one or two for one instructor. I asked him what I was doing wrong and all he said was practice more to get used to the boat. We only had about an hour of on water time and I did fine doing all the strokes from a stand still and going slowly. The whole boat just felt cumbersome, but then the sit on top is so open and comfortable, it was kind of like going from a bike to a tank.

Feedback
IF someone gives lessons in a deformed boat or a boat that just does not track, that’s not really fair to their customers. Lot’s of us post here about the best instructors but it’s fair to post the details when you did not have a good experience.

yeah, but it could have been me…
being off sided or such and I would hate to put the blame on anyone when I was at fault. It was a learning experience either way. I just took the class so that my friend would not feel funny taking it alone, but have been wanting to take an advanced class and learn to roll and do real rescues.

Most of my rescues in the sit on top have been from laughing so hard and falling out or pulling a friend out the mud when he tried to ride the SOT like a horse and got stuck in a mud bog… so I feel I got my money’s worth, even though I was frustrated with my performance.

Just listening , but this has …

– Last Updated: Sep-19-08 9:03 AM EST –

..... interested me some . Curious nature I guess .

I don't kayak , at all , but do paddle .

What I keep hearing is left , left , left , left ...

So I was wondering , how did you make the yak go right ??

Shouldn't there be a ballance acheivable somewhere between the right movement and the (over exagerated) left tendency , that ends up going straight (tracking straight) ??

It just seems to me that even in a bent and twisted boat , there should be a combination of right and left strokes (plus your own CG shift) that ballance the track to a straight line . Maybe not though ??

I’ve been caught in a cross tide before.
and then you have to sort of shimmy your way out of the converging currents while still moving forward, but this was the weirdest thing. The only way I could get it to turn right was to actually do a right back rudder with the paddle to swing it around. I could not, by paddling with the left side, turn it right, no matter how hard I tried. I was quite baffled by it too!!! I would like to know the intricacies of it… design flaw in boat, center of gravity off, paddle angle wrong, more paddle on one side than the other, etc. It drives me crazy rethinking it!!

not sure what you mean by a cross …
… tide , though I’m guessing it is what it sounds like . Two currents going in different directions and you are on the shear line ??



Maybe like an eddy line or converging currents around a sharp island point ??



Anyway , I see some side slip involved , which seems normal . That slip could be lengthy and exagereated making for a long turning process . Yaw would be a big factor there . Consider when downhill skiing , you slip quite a bit elongating the turn . I think think a boat side slips quite a bit also , especially the paddled boat because of the low power ratio to the force causing the side slip or skid (wind, currents) .



A craft doesn’t always have to be pointed (keel line) in the direction of the track , it can be yawed to one side and track on what would appear to the paddler to be a quartering advance (moving towards the side and forward at the same time) . A slip or skid depending on which way the stern is oriented with the turn .



Wondering if this has something to do with not seeming to be able to turn right in that cross current ?? Maybe not enough paddle power to complete a hard and sharp turn in such conditions , so it is a long drawn out slipped turn ??