I found that it was waves that tended to turn my boat more than wind. The angle of the waves plus any current can really drive you off course. You said the left pull continued when not paddling, if you waited long enough would you have stopped? The first few times I had my Ches.16 out in rough water it always pulled left. It was mostly caused by my inexperience in the boat (hard chines) and the wave action against the hull. It only took me 2 weeks to figure this out!
Have fun, keep paddling and consider adding a skeg, I am.

ScottH.

: I've just taken my Great Auk out for its first paddle. It worked great in
: flat still water. However, in choppy water with a stiff breeze it pulled
: to the left fairly strongly. It didn't matter whether I was going up wind
: or downwind or sideways to the wind. Any thoughts out there as to why this
: was occurring and how to correct it? I tried to shift my weight around to
: correct the problem but to no avail. When I got home I flipped it over to
: check the straightness of the keel, but as expected, it was straight as I
: could make it (makeby a little bit of a wave if you look real hard and use
: your imagination). Thanks