I’m with Karen above. My background is whitewater so in many ways it’s simpler. Yours is a common comment/question; How do I get the boat to go straight? I have found 2 things to be true:
When the paddle is pulled through the water, if it is angled, the water will deflect to the side. That action will create an opposite reaction on the boat and cause it to turn. It can be done on purpose to control the boat, or inadvertently causing a lack of control. Watch your paddle blade move through the water or close your eyes to focus on feeling the resistance of the water as the blade moves through it. If the blade is angled and the water is veering off it to the side, you should be able to see and feel the difference if you’re focused on the process instead of the results.
The other thing is controlling the turn sooner. It’s not uncommon for there to be some wiggle in the path of the boat. Less so with linear flatwater boats, but still some for all but pros. The farther out of alignment the wiggle gets, the more difficult it is to correct. A 5 or 10 degree wiggle either way isn’t too much trouble to correct. More than that and the momentum of the boat in the water starts to really work against you so significantly more to overcome.
Hope this helps
All boat hulls have a top speed. Kayak, canoe, sail boat, basically any thing that does not get up on plane. There’s a formula to figure it out. If you paddle a boat faster that it can’t go it will turn hard as the water piles up in front for the bow. I’ve never experienced it in my Pungos but my old Aspires would do it. Also I have an old town next and it does it really bad. My wife will get up a head of me in her Pungo and if I paddle to hard trying to catch up the Next will turn super hard and there is no stoping it. After I realized what was happening I just don’t try to go very fast with the Next. If my dog is in the front of the boat pushing the bow down it even worst.
The moral of the story is you can only go as fast as the boat hull will allow.
If you have only used other people’s kayaks before perhaps you have not spent a lot of time kayaking. If so, it might just have been bad luck that you ran into that wind condition. A week ago I was out with some friends, one of whom has owned his kayak for several years. He and I were both experiencing bad weathercocking. He said he had never had weathercocking that bad before and I put my rudder down, which I rarely do. Maybe check weight distribution as people have suggested and have another try.
This does not seem to be an issue here, but worth entering in the discussion:
Most boats weather cock (never buy a boat that lee cocks). This can be overcome in various ways … skeg, rudder, loading the boat a bit stern heavy. Very few boats do not weathercock, but there are exceptions such as the Mariners designed by the Broze brothers.
We tend to focus on wind effects, but currents are also an important effect - more so the stronger they are.
Side note to rsevenic’s comments: I ran a search on “lee cocking” and the first results were a string of reports on a Sgt. Lee Cocking, a British constable who made the news due to having claimed a female perp he was transporting abruptly straddled him in the cop car en route and forced him downstream, as it were.
I also had similar problems with an Old Town Loon 138. I tested the boat every way I knew how and finally determined that the boat was just designed with not enough fin in the stern. Although I have never been able to determine if the hull is exactly symmetrical on both sides of the keel at the stern of the boat. Anyway, I was able to test that the boat is capable of holding a straight course while coasting and surfing, but it is extremely sensitive to the slightest bit of wind, or current. When I say “coasting”, I mean while there is still inertial energy. As quickly as that rubs off, the boat will wander.
Once while surfing on a very nice tug boat wake, the boat held course perfectly with no help at all from me. By the way, the Loon will surf on any little ripple (not that much of an exaggeration).
The best fix for all of this is to never buy a boat without a skeg, or a pronounced rear fin. I’m not a rudder guy–except on a ski.
Bottom line is that the Loon is great for paddling upstream on a river with an eddyline–it will turn on a dime.
Glad it worked out for you. Treat that dealer well! I have a solo canoe set up like a kayak and use a long kayak paddle. I can be centered in my seat, boat evenly trimmed, and turn my boat by pushing down on one seatbone. Many people aren’t aware of how they’re sitting as they paddle. If you weight the right seatbone as you stroke on the right side you will turn unless you’re sweeping. If you intend to sweep on the right and weight the right seatbone you’ll be fighting yourself. When I want to go straight, I make sure my weight is even and use a higher straight stroke. The blade enters the water at my knee and exits the water at my hip. The blade is perpendicular to the boat and water as it enters the water and I rotate the blade as I exit the water so it’s parallel to the boat and slices out of the water. This reduces lifting of water and friction. When I’m on flat water, I set my blades so they’re feathered. The other replies have lots of good info. Have fun!
