Hey John,

Your bladder idea would work fine. I paddle fresh water so I am not carrying water with me, but on my last trip which was 8 days long with lots of wind and waves, I found my kayak was quite sensitive to weight distribution. I had my gear in 5 drybags, the ones with food, stove etc were quite heavy, whereas the drybags with clothes were quite light. As the trip wore on I became quite good at packing my kayak for the conditions that I was going to encounter, eg more weight forward for headwinds, more weight to the rear for tailwinds, an even distribution for crosswinds. If conditions change, unless you are on a long crossing, you can just pull up on shore and redistribute a few items and your good to go.
If you went the bladder routine and the bladders weren't held in place with gear, you might want to rig a method to fasten the bladders in place so they don't shift when you are in rough water or when you want/need to roll. If you fasten them in place you could use them for daytripping as well.

Try it let us know how you like it.

Ken

: Hi all,
: I've just been reading various posts about weathercocking. I have tossed up
: various options for reducing the said evil. I've just come up with another
: one, probably not good for day trippers, but for any expedition where you
: need to carry plenty of water.
: Put a bladder in the front compartment and a bladder in the back one and
: connect with a hose through the bulheads. Add an inline tap next to you
: and adjust the balance of the boat by opening the tap and letting water
: flow from one bladder to another by positioning the boat on the waves
: until you get the right balance. Sounds whacky, but it might work. If the
: inline tap idea doesn't work some sort of squeeze pump might work, but
: then you will need to have two and split the hose before and after them.
: Just an idea. I get them sometimes.
: John K