Most paddlers think that going straight is primarily a function of boat design. Tracking is probably the most sought after characteristic in sea kayaks. Stores are loaded with long, straight keel lines, tippy cross-sections, and lots of rudders. Most paddlers would argue that my rudderless, rockered, rubber kayak is no match for a Kevlar rocket when it comes to tracking, and they would prove it to themselves by paddling both boats one after the other. And sure enough, they would be right -- for them.
I am fortunate to have come to sea kayaking from solo whitewater canoeing. Because its done only on one side, a solo canoeist's forward stroke must be done carefully, and in whitewater, efficiently. I am doubly fortunate to have spent several years teaching whitewater canoeing for Tom Foster at the Outdoor Centre of New England, during a period when Tom's focus was the perfect forward stroke. Only those of us who know and love Tom know just how focused that was, but all of us came away from that period with an unusual sensitivity to the nuances of the forward stroke.
Because of those experiences, I think that tracking is 80% paddler and 20% boat, and that most kayakers spent too much money on their boat, or give up stability, agility, and playfulness in their boat -- or both -- to compensate for bad paddling technique. I think because kayaks are easier to paddle straight than canoes, that kayaks actually foster bad technique -- to the point that their design must compensate for it.
Like all things worth doing well paddling straight is a complex task, requiring the balancing of several variables. Every paddled boat, canoe or kayak, is directionally unstable, because each stroke turns the boat toward the opposite side. The first of the variables is how far the stroke is taken from the center line of the boat. The further out, the more leverage it has to cause a turn. A 230 cm (90") paddle used horizontally -- say at a 30 degree angle -- has about a three foot lever arm, two feet beyond the gunwale of a 24" wide boat. The stroke's lever arm is nearly as long as the stroke itself. Taking the stroke close to the boat's gunwale reduces the lever arm, and thus the turning force, by nearly two-thirds! See figure 1. That is the single most important step to paddling straight.
Stroking close to the boat requires that the stroke be moved forward. There are several benefits to that. Most importantly, stroking in front rather than to the side fosters much improved stroke mechanics by encouraging torso rotation. (Since much has been written about it, I won't belabor the benefits of powering the stroke with torso muscles rather than arm muscles, except to say that the increase in efficiency is dramatic). Moving the stroke forward encourages a more vertical stroke. Vertical strokes run parallel to the boat's center line; they have less turning force than curved, horizontal strokes. Moving the stroke forward also require a shorter stroke (more on the benefits of that later). Forward placed strokes are the front-wheel drive of the kayak world. See figure 1.
If you do all of the above you will want a shorter paddle. Buy one. It will improve your mechanics, and when you relapse to bad technique, the lever arm will be that much shorter. There is an interesting trade-off here. The shorter the paddle, the more horizontally it can be held and still maintain a short lever arm. This is the basis of Greenland technique, which uses short paddles held horizontally. (Finding the right paddle length is a whole article in itself. For now, suffice it to say that most people use a paddle that is too long, thereby exacerbating the problem of paddling straight.)
All of this theory on stroke placement and mechanics has been said many times before, yet paddlers tend not to use it or use it poorly. That is because it is usually not presented in conjunction with another crucial F variable--how power is applied during the stroke. See figure 2 below. Most paddlers do not use option (c), a hard start tapering to an easy finish, yet without a strong start, the virtues of torso rotation and forward placement are lost. Reaching forward and rotating stretches the torso muscles in preparation for a strong contraction. Starting the stroke easily wastes this potential. Finishing strong to compensate requires arm muscles, which are a weak substitute.
To see why power placement is so important to going straight, think about the novice with a monster paddle doing a long curved stroke and finishing hard with his arms somewhere behind him. Body mechanics force that finish to contain a strong sweep component, perhaps as much as 30 degrees to the boat's center line. See Figure 3. No wonder he goes in circles more than he goes straight ahead. Doing the same stroke, but starting hard and finishing easy would significantly reduce the turning force.
We are not done yet. The car analogy is fine to extol the benefits of forward placed strokes, but is totally wrong when it comes to how a boat turns. Cars, because their front wheels are castered, not only stop turning when the driver stops turning the wheel, they actually return to straight ahead if you let go of the steering wheel. Boats are exactly the opposite. Once they start turning, they will continue to turn unless the paddler stops them, and actually will turn with ever increasing sharpness if left to their own devices. Turning momentum is the last variable.
A long, wide stroke with a strong finish will generate lots of turning momentum, which continues until it's halted by a similar stroke on the other side. Because the boat continues to turn with increasing sharpness between strokes on opposite sides of the boat, each correction stroke must overcome the preceding stroke. This style of paddling is unstable since each stroke must be stronger or longer than the last in order to keep the boat headed straight. It is why beginners in rudderless, rockered boats wind up broadside within eight or ten strokes in spite of their best efforts. Short, quick strokes with an easy finish taken close to the gunwale minimize the turning momentum. Since equal power can be generated by a few long strokes taken slowly or more shorter strokes taken quickly, there is no disadvantage to the short strokes. If you don't believe that, check the stroke rate of racers.
Turning momentum also demands attentiveness. The paddler must watch how each stroke moves the bow relative to the destination and adjust the next stroke accordingly. I try to subtly vary each stroke's energy and distance from the boat to increase or decrease the turning momentum as necessary. The ideal is a slight left, right, left, right movement of the bow. Like all ideals, it is usually short-lived, so attentiveness is important. I think that is the real reason paddlers want tracking. They run out of mental energy long before they are physically tired. Kicking back and letting the boat or rudder do the work is a lot more relaxing.
So why would you want to work at paying attention, at stroking forward and close, at a strong start to your stroke, at shorter strokes with shorter paddles? If you want to kick back, relax, and still go pretty straight, there is no reason. Trash this article, plunk down your money or your rudder and paddle away. But if you want your boat, what ever it is, to paddle better, if you want a boat that will play in the waves, surf, do eddy turns in tidal rivers, meander up marsh creeks without a struggle, or if you like kayaks that don't make you nervous, then you, rather than your boat, must take some responsibility for going straight.
My favorite reason is the conversations I have with guys in Nordkapps as I paddle along side them in my rudderless, rockered, rubber boat. "Hey," they say, "that boat tracks pretty good, doesn't it." I get to smile and say, "Yeah, it sure does."
Clark Bowlen is a white water and sea paddler from Connecticut.