When I paddled the full size Ch17, it tended to weathercock pretty strongly. The CH17LT was much better. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I'm fairly light weight (170 lbs), but if I was building one, I'd install a retractable skeg. My current boat has one and I've paddled several other skeg equipped boats. I find them to be quite useful in some situations. They don't seem to have any disadvantages when you don't need them, unlike a rudder, which can create problems of it's own.