After hearing how you cut off the tail of your boat, I'm not all that surprized that it swings around alot. The reason that most boats have a nice long tail is to help them track better in the water not to mention make them more efficient. If you look at the rear of a whitewater boat, you see that they aren't the same V shape that sea kayaks are. thus you can spin a WW boat really easily while you can't spin a sea kayak so nicely. did you ask nick what cutting off the tail of an Auk would do to its performance?

Number 1 - keep paddling and improve your technique. even consider a lesson.

number 2 - paddle some other kayaks and determine if yours is doing something different from theres.

then consider a skeg/rudder.

I expect that you might need one however. You maybe should have changed the spacing between the stations than cut the last few stations right out altogether like you did.

good luck and keep paddling,
pete c

: Hi all: I recently completed a modified great auk. I wanted a shorter boat so
: I just chopped it off a couple stations early. I have been out on the
: water for quite some time over the last two months and I'm starting to
: learn a little about its performance.

: Oddly, in rough chop it handles like a dream, and tracks very straight. In
: flat water it doesn't track as well, and I often need to correct my
: direction with extra strokes. Sometimes in completely flat water it tracks
: so poorly that I 'wipe out', almost doing a complete 'doughnut', and
: actually need to stop paddling with a backstroke to restart on my intended
: course.

: So I was thinking that I could benefit from a rudder. Can anyone tell me
: about building a rudder vs. buying one? Could I get by without a rudder,
: and maybe just add some tipe of skeg or something?

: Also, could it be that all my problems are due to my paddling technique? I am
: a complete novice, and this is the first kayak I have ever paddled.

: -Charlie