The NBxl is a high volume boat, not sure how you are going to pull this one off but you might seek out some folks at www.connyak.org that like to modify the NorthBay. I paddled the first NBxl demo boat CLC made, it pivots from the bow and with a breeze weathercocks strongly, in winds above 15mph and any distance of paddling one might begin to think it was never tested as it's weathercocking and nature of responsiveness is not good, it's bad. A little over a year ago I and a well known British paddler with the initials DH paddled it with another paddler and he just shook his head, "Look at this!" as he attempted his trademark turn,,and the kayak didn't. It has a nice range of secondary stability. After paddling it a short stretch I put the NBxl upside down next to the NB and started measuring bow/stern deadrise angles comparing the two. The XL has more of a v in the bow than in the stern and to a degree that is much greater than the NB. They are very different boats. Couple with the comparatively greater windage aft than the NB the xl accentuates what the bow/stern are doing.