Weathercocking

Weathercocking is the name given to the tendency of a kayak to turn into the wind when moving forward. The opposite of weathercocking is leecocking.

Weathercocking is caused by the interaction of the wind on the paddler+kayak and the water on the hull. If a kayak is being pushed by the wind, it will move in the direction the wind is blowing and will generate resistance to the motion. The resistance is due to the hull being pushed through the water. If the kayak is being paddled forward while being pushed by the wind, the pressure distribution on the hull changes.

If you only paddle forward, then the water pressure is distributed across the front of the kayak. If the wind blows the kayak sideways†, then there is a water pressure distribution on the side. If we add the effects of these two pressure distributions, then there is more pressure on one side at the front and less on the same side at the back of the kayak. This results in the kayak turning into the wind.

There are a few things that can be done to lessen the effects of weathercocking.

• Reduce the size of the kayak in the wind. This can be done at the design stage by making a lower kayak. Not carrying things on the deck will also help a lot.
• Increase the resistance to lateral motion. A long keel (less rocker) or a deep keel can do this but makes the kayak more difficult to turn.
• Increase the lateral water pressure at the rear of the kayak (or move the centre of the pressure distribution rearward). This can be done by deploying a skeg or rudder. This also has the effect of increasing the resistance to moving sideways, which in turn reduces the weathercocking.
• Change the load distribution in the kayak so that the trim is slightly stern heavy. Pushing the stern down shifts the pressure distribution rearward. This can be done by loading heavy gear in the stern or by adding ballast in the stern if you're not carrying gear. If you have a sliding seat (found on a few kayaks like the Mariners) slide the seat aft.

Correcting for weathercocking with the paddle also works. Use a stronger stroke on the windward side. This can be done by sweeping on the windward side and using a more vertical stroke on the leeward side. Extending the paddle to windward also helps.

Note that since weathercocking is due to the interaction of forward and lateral motion, changing your paddling speed will change the amount of weathercocking. If a kayak is balanced against weathercocking at one speed, slowing down will cause it to leecock slightly. Similarly, speeding up will cause it to weathercock more.

†Regardless of the wind direction, we can consider the lateral direction and fore-and-aft direction separately. The fore-and-aft component makes paddling harder (if from the front) or easier (if from the rear). Only the lateral component moves the kayak sideways and causes weathercocking.