In my experience with weather cocking (and leecocking) two things are usually at play: how I am trimming (locating) my loaded gear (or where I my seat and weight are located in the kayak when not paddling with gear) and how much skeg is deployed relative to trim. Most boats, without skeg/rudder deployed, are designed to weathercock (turn upwind). The deployed skeg or rudder counteract the weather cocking. If you are Lee cocking (turning down wind) with a fully deployed skeg, try pulling the skeg a bit for partial deployment. If you are in a loaded boat, try to move some more of the load to the stern.
Go out out on some breezy days, play around with the trim, and stay near shore. You’ll begin to get a bette idea on where to locate your gear and/or your seat for minimal cocking.
thanks for the advice , am day short 2/3 hr trips so no gear at all, front was turning downwind sharply also when waves hit, ( same direction) will try trimming skeg, have noticed it does fill deploy straight away which the Skerry does not so .
many thanks Greg
Back band needs work too! read many stories in that
Sing , thanks, here we have strong currents as 25ft tides , winds normall nw or sw regular 15 to 20km easily especially with tides , skerry always hanles well but heavier and skeg probably 60 - 75 angle. Pintail fully drops to 90 , will play with skeg trip as no loads
all trips face cross current and winds as that the direction out to Island hop here on Deer Island
thanks again
If playing with the level of skeg deployment doesn’t help, you might think of moving the seat to affect the trim, especially if you usually paddle the boat without significant gear load. I had a Greenland S&G kayak that leecock without a load. It was a matter of the foam seat being too far back. When I relocate the seat forward .5" at a time, I got it to where it was pretty neutral on a 15 mile MPH wind.