I'm submitting this to the building section because I have some building questions at the end of this.

My kayak is not finished. I don't have bulkheads in, no bungie chords holding the hatches down, no bungies on the deck, no foot pegs, no ropes lifts on the ends. It is seaworthy enough though so I put float bags in the ends and taped up the hatches with strapping tape. Then my friend Cid and I went kayaking on a 12-mile trip on Sunday in Ebey slough, which is really a bunch of forks of the Snohomish River. I wasn't going to consider this my launch since my kayak isn't done, but after 12 miles, how can I not. Today we paddled a couple more miles around Greenlake. Sorry, no pictures.

Here are some of my observations on my new kayak. It has a somewhat low initial stability, but high secondary stability. It behaves rather nicely and I was never caught off guard where would have had to brace myself. It handles the boat wakes really well whether I was perpendicular to the waves or parallel to them.

Cid and I traded kayaks for a little bit and I paddled his new Guillemot 18. The kayaks are very similar in how they handle. I like the legroom of mine more because it doesn't feel so tight fitting, but his tracks better than mine does. That leads me to my problem. When I was paddling upstream in a very mild current, the current would sometimes grab the front end and try to turn me around. The wind would also have its time with me if I wasn't paying attention. Cid had a hard time going straight in my kayak. I didn't have a hard time, but I did have to pay more attention than I would have liked to. When we paddled Greenlake we didn't have any current to deal with, but we did have a little wind. The wind would try to turn both of us when it was at our side and we would have to do a lot of corrective strokes. Neither kayak tracks real well, but mine is a little worse than Cids.

When looking at the bottom of my hull, it seams as though the back is not V-shaped enough to get any "bite" in the water. I would like mine to track a little better, so here are 3 possible solutions. I'm wondering which one is the best solution and why.

1: I could put a triangle strip along the bottom at the aft-most 3' or so of the hull where it's under water, or I could just build up a bead of fiberglass instead of a wood strip.

Advantage: This would be real easy to add and would always be helping to keep me straight.

Disadvantage: I'm not sure that this would help very much.

2. Skeg: I put my aft bulkhead about 6" aft of where most people put theirs so I would have more storage inside the cockpit. This pushed my aft hatch back slightly and so I have a great spot for a skeg in the very front of the aft hatch compartment. The skeg would hardly take up any of the room in my aft compartment since it would be forward of my hatch cutout, and it wouldn't interfere with loading of the dry bags. The skeg blade would also have to be easy to remove and replace if it got damaged. Does anyone have a good plan for a skeg, and a plan for the lift lower lever?

Advantage: I would get the tracking I need and would be able to raise it if I didn't want to use it.

Disadvantage: I would have to deploy it and it wouldn't always just be there like the trim strip. I would have to route a cable for it and come up with a place to mount the cable control. It would require more maintenance than a trim strip

3. Rudder: I could cut off the back end and add a rudder.

Advantage. I could easily correct for anything from wind to currents, or just use it to turn.

Disadvantage. I would have to route 2 cables and 2 ropes. More expensive. Doesn't look as good in the water. Upsets many of the readers of this board.

So what is your opinion of the best solution and why?

Thanks in advance
Dale