: A newbie question.

: The itch to build a strip kayak just won't go away but I am having trouble
: deciding on which design to build. I currently paddle a fiberglass Arctic
: Hawk with which I have a definite love/hate relationship. My first problem
: is that I don't seem to fit the boat. I am 6'2" and I have never felt
: that I had enough room for my knees. The Arctic Hawk just isn't a terribly
: comfortable boat for me to paddle over any sort of distance.

: My second issue with the Arctic Hawk is weathercocking. I am always having to
: shift my paddle and cock a hip to keep the boat anywhere close to across
: the wind which with time gets annoying. (The boat does not have a skeg.)

While you are building your new kayak keep paddling your Arctic Hawk but you should trim it to eliminate the weathercocking. All you need to do is to add a little weight far aft. Put a water bag under your stern rigging and add water into it until the kayak is neutral in a crosswind. If there is room in your cockpit opening, moving the seat back also works.

Adding the right sized skeg is another method to make a weathercocking kayak wind neutral but it also makes the kayak much harder to turn. (Make the skeg too big so the kayak leecocks and file it smaller until the kayak is wind neutral.)

Happy Paddling
Dave

Photo by Duane Strosaker