James:
Do some googling about 'primary stability' and 'secondary stability'.
Primary refers to a boats desire to sit flat on the water....the shape
of the hull (flat) and the width (wide) make for increased primary
stability. Lake canoes tend to have flat bottoms and high primary,
however river canoes tend to have low primary because they need to lean
in order to carve turns.

Secondary stability refers to a boats desire to resist turning over
when the primary is overcome. Kayaks have low secondary, because
kayakers like to really LEAN their boats, and can roll back up if they
flip. Canoes tend to have fairly high secondary as an artifact of their
design, and they get stable as they lean when the uphill side gets
raised out of the water. They really only go over so much, but to a
novice, that initial tippiness is often confused with being about to go
over. A lot of novices say 'the boat tipped over' when in reality, they
felt the inital Primary stability tippiness, and they just fell over
onto the rail and turned the boat over on themselves.

Long boats, like your Lincoln, are a bit wider than short boats like
your OT, which gives them a bit more primary stability. If they made
the OT wider, then it would be less 'needle shaped' and very hard to
steer. So in short boats, you either get a lightweight, narrow boat
that feels tippy, or a wider, stable boat that you cannot steer easily.
That compromise is somewhat unavoidable, and its the reason that most
canoe makers stop at around 14 or 15 feet. OT tried to shortcut that
with the Pack Canoe, but as you discovered, it doesn't go very
straight, and it was never a hot seller.

The alternative is to get a medium long boat that is wide enough to be
stable, but short enough to be lightweight. A 16- or 16.5-foot boat
would do this. You could make it even lighter with specialized
materials....Kevlar weighs about as much as cardboard, so a 16-foot
Kevlar Mad River Explorer, while costing several thousands, would be
stable, steer easily, and would not sink (if you put an airbag in it).
There are a lot of boats in this category.

That last thing about the airbag applies to all canoes, by the way.
Otherwise, they all sink.

--riverman