When you commented about adding water for ballast, the bells started ringing in my old noggin! The weekend before, about 9 other boats and I paddled a small swift river for 5-6 hours and I didn't really notice the spinning phenomomen (well, about 10:30pm at the campground things were spinning, but that was due to the adult beverages). Saturday I went with my son and the end swapping was very prominent. The only difference? When paddeling with a group of kayaks/canoes, the ice chests are typically in the canoes, this weekend, I had one BEHIND my seat! It's logical that if the center of mass is foward of the center of drag, the boat will be "stable" when coasting. I'll try it again this week with the mass foward in the boat. Vernon
: I would think foreward would be the way to go. Remember building those cheap
: balsa wood gliders? The little clip-on weight went on the front, making
: the C.G. foreward of the wings/body. (It also kept the nose from getting
: busted up when it crash-landed on the driveway.) The rest of the plane at
: the rear had more surface area, so it 'weathercocked' to go straight. It
: sounds like your C.G. is slightly aft of the kayak's midpoint (midpoint of
: the waterline with you in the boat, that is) and that the bow is
: unweighted and unstable.

: It should be a relatively easy exercise to find out -- take a weight like a
: jug of water and place it in front of you to see if foreward is the way to
: go.

: Dean