Weathercocking—the tendency of a kayak to veer into the wind—can make paddling a kayak in a crosswind frustrating if not exhausting. What elements of your design help alleviate weathercocking?

Weathercocking is usually most pronounced in situations where the water is fairly flat but the wind is blowing. As waves get bigger they start blocking the wind, so keeping the profile of the boat low presents less sail area at lower wave heights. I install retractable skegs on some boats, but find that in most open water conditions a skeg is not necessary so long as the boat has a fairly low profile. I have also decided that if the cost of weathercocking is low, a little bit is OK. My designs tend to be easily turned. While this means that wind can blow them off course fairly easily, it also means that it is very easy to get them back on course. Where a stiffer tracking boat may be quite difficult to turn in the desired direction, a looser boat responds to the paddlers strokes with little effort.
--Nick Schade, Guillemot Kayaks
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Most boats will weathercock or have a tendency to “turn to wind.” This is a result of pressure differences between the bow, which laminar flow wants to hold, and the stern, which is less “locked in” relative to the bow. By balancing the behavior of the bow and stern we reduce this tendency. Our boats are also balanced above the water to reduce the effects of wind. It’s important to see any kayak as a balance of variables directed at either a specific objective, or a broader objective. Skegs and rudders provide a paddler additional options in trimming a kayak for more directional stability. Certainly endless debate occurs over the validity of both, but we feel they both have merit depending upon the kayak’s design intent and the paddler’s needs.
--Murray Hamilton, Johnson Outdoors
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Some of our boats, such as the Wisper and Kahuna, have low decks, fairly hard chines and lots of keel aft. They are almost neutral in wind. We do provide a strap-on skeg for the Wisper; and although the Kahuna does take a rudder, most folks don't bother with it. Our K1 Expedition is a real cargo carrier and has higher decks. The rudder is standard, as it is with the doubles. The longer Khasalano can weathercock, but it is easily turned with a lean. A rudder or skeg is optional. Our sit-on-top kayaks are unique in having a drop skeg to control weathercocking.
--Doug Simpson, Feathercraft
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We work with our rocker profile and hull shape to balance good tracking with turning response. Our kayaks have minimal overhang on the ends, as overhang acts like a sail causing a kayak to weathercock.
--Greg Barton, Epic Kayaks
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We aim toward low-profile boats and utilize both skegs and rudders.
--Jim Koutros, Seda Kayaks
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Reducing weathercocking is a key element in all my kayak designs. It is an example of necessity being the mother of invention. I have had an artificial hip since 1967 and cannot sit in the same position for extended periods of time with my feet on rudder pedals. I change my leg position frequently in a kayak with both knees up, one knee down, then both legs down, etc. For thirty-five years I have designed kayaks that could handle long distance wilderness paddling without a rudder. For me, weathercocking was the key design element to master. I wrote a proprietary computer-aided hull analysis routine that was the key to solving the problem.
--John Lockwood, Pygmy Boats
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Hmmmm. We get a couple comments a month about how my rear decks are humped for extra storage and folks think it causes weathercocking. For sure it has some affect on the boat, but globally the long waterline on the vast majority of my designs keep the boat on track. My most predictable comment at events is that we have two boats in one, a long waterline to keep the speed and glide up and a voluptuous upper half of the boat with accented rocker to assist you when you stumble on nasty weather!
--Mark Hall, Delta Kayaks
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The stern keel angle and depth in relation to the chine position when moving forward; and the bow keel depth and angle in relation to the chine position when reversing.
--Nigel Foster, Nigel Foster Designs
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A skin-and-frame boat such as ours inherently minimizes weathercocking because the pressure of the water against the hull fabric of a loaded boat tends to scallop, giving the hull almost full length multiple skegs that go a long way toward preventing our boats from wanting to turn into the wind.
--Phil Cotton, Folbot
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If you have a particular kayak design that has been on the market for many years, has it evolved from one year to the next? If so, how? Alternatively, how have your designs evolved from the first touring kayak you designed to the most recent?

Our K1 Expedition has evolved directly from our first K1 which we made in 1980, and sold in 1981. That boat had a sewn skin with an attached spray skirt and a zippered rear deck. This was the first folding kayak with a tubular aluminum frame. We eliminated the zippers (which were prone to break and leak) in 1990 and introduced the rigid coaming and the first hatches in a folding kayak. In 1998 we lengthened the K1 and introduced the higher volume, upswept bow. In 2000 we replaced our glued, hypalon hulls with our welded Duratek ones. We also started welding our hulls to our decks then. The rigid fiberglass coaming was replaced with our welded, attached coaming system in 2006. The frame has been strengthened and simplified along the way.
--Doug Simpson, Feathercraft
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Our philosophy at Epic Kayaks is to take technology and concepts learned from racing kayaks and incorporate them into touring kayaks. This is the same way that many of the features found in today's passenger cars originated in Formula 1 or NASCAR. Our first kayaks borrowed heavily from both conventional touring kayaks and racing craft. We're now on our 2nd generation of touring kayaks - the X series. As we field tested our original designs extensively in a variety of conditions, we've been able to deviate even more from what people consider a "conventional sea kayak shape and look" into boats that perform and handle with more ease and efficiency for paddlers of all ability levels.
--Greg Barton, Epic Kayaks
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Our Glider has been on the market for many years. We continue to improve the design using new materials technology, which allows us to improve the build strength while minimizing weight. We also continue to improve features like layout, rigging, and ergonomics over the years. The difference between the first Glider to today's version will be significant from the paddler's perspective, but not so much from the fish's!
--Jim Koutros, Seda Kayaks
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Over the years my Queen Charlotte has evolved from a classic Greenland-style kayak with a flat rear deck and fore deck into the Arctic Tern that for the same volume has more foot room, a lower more comfortable sheer, more useable storage space, and beautiful lines. Sea kayaks are over five thousand years old and good kayak designs are to a certain extent timeless. As an anthropology major who has made an extensive study of traditional kayak designs, the big design shift for me has been to take native designs and alter them for Americans with bigger feet, longer legs, and a higher center of gravity, who need boats for kayak touring and day paddling instead of hunting. Several of my designs were altered during their extensive sea trials. But there has been no need to change their paddling characteristics since then; they had, before their release, hit that sweet spot I was after. I have added a recessed rear cockpit on several of my designs to aid in executing an Eskimo Roll and changed some boat accessories.
--John Lockwood, Pygmy Boats
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We just celebrated our two year anniversary so I really cannot answer this question.
--Mark Hall, Delta Kayaks
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The question of evolving designs is interesting. We have definitely learned from the many models we’ve designed over the years. This data base continues to grow, and the wealth of experience on our team is phenomenal. We are fortunate to have world record holding shapers, a head of design who is a world renowned paddler and ex-Olympic Slalom coach with years of paddling/design experience, superb computer and CNC (Computer Numerical Control) experts etc. Collectively that is a powerful mix. Certainly we pull attributes from past successful models and apply them to new ways of thinking. It’s also important not to read your own press too much, and paddle competitor’s boats often with an open mind. When refining a new design all this experience comes to the forefront. I think we’re constantly getting better!
--Murray Hamilton, Johnson Outdoors
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My designs have evolved over the years as I try different boats in different conditions. I find that while a great design will work well for one group of conditions, there may be specific conditions where I want improvement. I may tweak a design to improve that performance desire. However, this usually involves a tradeoff in some other condition or performance criteria. As a result, I usually do not change the existing design, but will add another design based on the new criteria. In this way I can provide boats specifically tuned to the performance desires of a wide variety of paddlers.
--Nick Schade, Guillemot Kayaks
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The largest number of changes made to any one model of my design included changes in the deck and outfitting. The Vyneck, Silhouette and Legend each went through two different cockpit sizes, progressively larger to accommodate changing trends. Changes in deck fittings, first from soft protruding anchor points to recessed anchor points when recesses first came into use; the use of pumps when these came into use; upgraded hatch systems when market-ready kayak hatches became available; and the upgrading of back supports, internal bracing and foot-brace systems. I also added retractable skegs in response to market pressure, although the kayaks were designed to handle without skeg or rudder, which is how I use them.
--Nigel Foster, Nigel Foster Designs
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Everything that you learn from a boat design that is "good" tends to get carried forward to subsequent models. Our oldest current production model is a two-seater that was developed seventeen years ago. We have probably made 50 improvements over those years, each backward compatible so that folks could upgrade if they wanted to. Generally speaking, our early designs have become lighter, stronger, and narrower over the years.
--Phil Cotton, Folbot
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