First we need to ask the obvious question, does it always pull to the same side and travel in a big circle?

I paddled my guillemot for the first time yesterday. For the past two years I've paddled a white water perception kayak. In comaprison, the Guilemot tracks straight. But it's not like it has autopilot. I still need to pick a point ahead and head towards it with the nose pulling to one side of the point and then the other as I paddle. The boat will turn if I stop paddling.

I only weigh 145lbs and believe it may track even straighter if I had more boat in the water. But it's fast and I like it!

Dwight
: Help!!! I have completed my Guillemot and took it out for a trial run this
: afternoon. I was surprised that I had a hard time getting this kayak to
: track straight. This is only the second kayak that I have built or
: paddled. The first was a Skimalong II which tracked straight but was
: difficult to turn. Since I am a novice, I am curious as to whether the
: Guillemot should seem so difficult to get to track straight. I am almost
: positive that I built the boat straight according to the string line that
: was placed over the forms during the building process. My question is
: whether the problem is my lack of paddling knowledge or is something
: wrong???!!!!! I realize that this boat is much different from the
: Skimalong which is all I have for comparison. I was under the impression
: that a longer boat would track straight and would require more effort to
: turn than this one demonstrates. It seems to want to turn on its own
: despite my best efforts to get it to track straight. I should mention that
: this boat was paddled in a lake where there was little current if any. Any
: comments or suggestions are appreciated.