I usually paddle day trips with no load but my 235 lbs.In a crosswind, the Voyager will work me to death if I don't have the cover on.It wants to go directly upwind.Moving the sliding seat has little impact, but I have been experimenting with my 40 lb counterweight Reina.
If I put her in the bow,handling gets noticeably worse unless going upwind. But, put her in the stern, and the boat really becomes more manageable.
For the benefit of us duffers, someone please explain that.
OK, it works like this By having the weight forward, the stern comes out of the water. You can then paddle into the wind as the canoe weathervanes.
Evidently with weight in the stern the boat must be balanced with both the bow and stern in the water. That allows both the bow and stern to grab the water keeping you from weather cocking.
Another way of saying this is that when you paddle forward there is more water pressure on your bow. The wind blows on the entire boat, but the pressure on your bow is like a giant hand holding it down a bit leaving the stern to be freer to move with the wind (and so blowing the stern downwind). A rudder or skeg can counter this stern movement. But also, shifting weight back both adds more resistance to the stern and helps lift the bow a bit (removing some of the forward momentum resistance).
The boat generally should be trim Get a little level.
Put the boat in the water and then with no one in it,
place the level on the hull somewhere in the center of the boat.
Keep moving it until you locate the bubble in the center of the level.
Once you find the right spot, either mark it with a marker or put a blob of epoxy under the level and mount in permanently.
When you are ready to go out with your dog partner, get both of you in the boat with the level in it’s place. Move you or your dog partner around until the bubble is in the middle.
Now you are good to go.
Bow heavy, and you are going to zig-zag all over the place.
Bow light, and the wind will play havoc with you.
If you are serious about paddling, you should do it !
Your voyager and many finer boats are designed so the stern will not "squat " in the shallow suckwater . This extra
bouyancy will cause the stern to be more inclined to
slide away from the wind. In effect turning the bow into the wind. By putting the canoodle in the stern you are skegging the stern so it is less inclined to
slide away from the wind. Simple solution is always have the canoodle with you!
I had the same experience By placing a level in my Voyager the first season I had it, I found that the seat was mounted too far foreward in the canoe. I had to put it within an inch of being all the way back to be level with me aboard.
I assumed that with the design emphasis on tripping the canoe was designed to carry more gear in the stearn than the bow (as there is simply more room there).
I started taking along a 5 gallon plastic jug which I would fill part way with water and toss in the stearn. For the first season I even had some parachute cord rigged up so I could slide the jug foreward or back on the fly to experiment with trimming the boat in different ways. It worked pretty well !
When I load the Voyager for a trip I have heavier gear in the back to the point where I am level with the seat in the middle of the rail so I have the most versatility to adjust the seat for winds that may develop. (I rerely move it though in actual practice).
I have also fashioned my own cover which helps immensly when paddling in windy conditions (largely inspired by the OP’s reports of how well his Cooke cover works on the Voyager).
string...
Your Voyageur is simply stern light... Any moving air that gets funneled down below the gunwales will catch the highest point with the most volume to it..which is the stern, from your butt on back. Without Reina, just throw in & tie down a large volume airbag in back, that fills the hull from the sternplate to just in back of you....and add a little weight underneath it at the very end...and things will improve.
my $.01..