Hi Tracy,

Here is a link to an article on the Lightning Paddles web page on "paddling a kayak straight".

http://www.paddles.com/library/straight.html

Balance and trim are important and should not be ignored - but a poor paddling style can cause even a hard tracking 'yak to wander all over the lake.

Most of my experience is in hard chime S&G kayaks. This year I had the chance to paddle two Guillemots [Thank you John and Greg!!!]. I had no problem with tracking but I could feel that the Guillemots were very responsive. It is not that it doesn't track, the Guillemot is just following what you are telling it to do - lots of kayak designs just don't respond that well.

You have a great boat there - a bit of practice and you will be fine. I am looking forward to building my own.

Happy padding.

Hank