: My kayak weathercocks slightly in 10-15 k winds with skeg up while
: making way...good.
: But...when not moving forward/drifting....it turns sidewaze to the
: wind...and waves.
: How can i get it to aim into the wind when at rest not moving
: forward...drifting.
: I tried putting a sea anchor out but in calm water w/mild winds no
: change.

: Adding ballast up front might do it?

Weathercocking while moving happens because the bow is pushing water aside so you can move forward. This causes a high pressure area at the bow. The stern is pulling away from the water causing a low pressure area. The bow then becomes the pivot point for your direction of travel and the wind acting on the side area of the boat causes the stern to skid away from the direction the wind is coming from. Therefore you turn into the wind.

A bit of skeg will fix this. Too much skeg will cause leecocking, turning away from the wind.

None of this applies when you are stationary. The pressure front and rear is the same so now the wind and waves act on the side area of the boat with no pivot at the bow. Since the front usually has more side area than the back the bow will be blown away from the wind. If you have any equipment on the forward deck move it to the back deck to equalize the side areas front and rear, or better yet, make the rear side area larger to keep your boat pointed into the wind. If you have no equipment on deck find something to increase the side area in the rear. A cooler full of beer should help. ; )

I doubt if ballast up front will help unless you add enough to really sink the front end and then handling while under way might get squirrelly.

~Bob