John/Charleston wrote in
:

I was out today with a friend who is new to paddling and I saw her
have a problem I've only seen a few times before and can't explain.
She was paddling a poly Prijon Seayak and could not get it to track
straight to save her life. The rudder was up (control line was
broken) but since there was not much wind I figured it wouldn't matter
much. We were paddling with the tide the whole way and it was pretty
strong at times.
It got so bad that at times she was paddling entirely on the right
side of her boat and still turning to the right! I watched her
stroke thinking maybe she was dragging the paddle at the end and
creating a rudder effect like with a J stroke but I didn't see that
happening. Her stroke isn't perfect, but I didnt' see anything that
would create the situation she was experiencing with great
frustration. Finally we found a sandy bank and switched boats with
her in my old Perception Sea Lion and me in the Seayak and it didn't
help. She still couldn't get the boat to track straight. I found
the Seayak a bit more skittish on the water (the wind picked up at
times) but didn't have any problem paddling it straight.

Now I've seen this happen with at least one person before (in
different boats) and we never could figure out what was causing it.
We tried changing the paddler's balance, paddle grip, and other
variables without success.

I keep thinking it must have to do with the strong tidal current that
we were paddling with but I'm not sure I can figure out why it would
be and why I wouldn't have been similarly affected. At one point
when she was in the Sea Lion I had her turn the boat around and paddle
against the current and she said it was "better".

My guess is that the current/wind was having more of an effect than you
thought it might.

However, the biggest problem that I have seen when people have trouble
keeping their kayak going straight is directly related to their paddle
stroke. Just out of curiosity, was this person left handed and using a
feathered paddle? Typically, if someone is having trouble with the boat
always going left (or right) it's because the angle of the paddle blade is
not the same on both sides. It occurs most frequently with right handed
paddlers and a failure to orient the left paddle blade such that the top of
the blade is tilted slightly back. If they're holding the paddle correctly
the blade on the control hand side will enter the water such that the top
edge of the blade is tilted slightly toward the paddler. If they're not
dropping their control hand elbow and bringing their control hand toward
their should when placing the non-control hand blade in the water, the top
edge will be tilted slightly forward and they'll end up scooping water
instead of getting the same amount of power on the non-control hand side.

A trick I use with beginners is to have the pause for just a second before
putting the paddle blade in on each side and glance at the orientation of
the blade to make sure that the angle is the same on both sides.