: My self designed 12' kayak, using the free Bear-Boat design program, is just
: terrible in its tracking, especially when loaded and with the wind and
: waves coming from the rear. About 10 paddle strokes and it goes out of
: control and wants to swing around. Because of this, I cut my longer trip
: plans down quite a bit. Maybe with every ones help I can fix this
: somewhat, later this fall or winter. My kayak did get nice comments about
: its looks everywhere I went and I ran into quite a few people that told me
: they build strip-built canoes, but only seen one.

John,
My old 13' whitewater kayak does the same thing. Since when I bought it 22 years ago I was going to use it on both whitewater and flat water I wanted to be able to make it go straight. The builder fashioned me a skeg which took care of the problem.
I've seen lots of skegs of this board. Go with a retractable one.
Sounds like quite an adventure.
Roger