Sorry- I pushed post without adding my note!

Following up on William's comments-
If you all have fooled around solo in a canoe enough you will know that
weight placement is very important to steering, especially in wind
(less so in waves) . The relatively high sides of a canoe means that
the wind exerts a lot of side pressure on the canoe. If you sit in the
stern seat alone in a good wind, you will find that the bow swings
downwind really fast and it is is difficult to get the bow into the
wind. If you seat in the bow seat, the stern will oscillate but by
relatively gentle paddling, you can easily keep the bow into the wind.
If you are sitting in the bow seat facing the stern (which I always do)
you can easily change the dynamic by leaning forward on one knee (pad
recommended). In a really strong wind you might have to kneel on both
knees- this puts you in the middle of the canoe and you have good
control even in 20 knot winds.

A kayak has a much lower profile as has been pointed out but the weight
placement still holds true. Interesting notion of pulling v. pushing.
What we are really doing is moving the boat past the paddle and in
Outrigger paddling we try to stay away from a long stroke (that is
"pushing" the paddle toward the stern past the vertical or past the
hip.

Good stuff! Keep trying stuff out!

paddle hard!
Wm Watt wrote:
Be careful about transfering one's experince paddling a kayak with a
double bladed paddle to paddling a canoe with a double bladed paddle.
The canoe is not only wider and higher but there is no leg bracing.
Even if you use a longer paddle you can't put it vertically into the
water as you can in a kayak or as you can in a canoe using a single
baded paddle and by sitting over to one side. I've tried both and you
don't get the leverage in a canoe with a kayak paddle to steer very
well. There's more power going straight ahead from having the two
blades more continuously in the water, and working harder, than one
blade but that's about all you get from the kayak paddle in the canoe.
Unless you are in extreme conditions the kayak paddle would be okay. In
wind or waves I'd move more forward so the kayak paddle is pulling the
canoe instead of pushing it. You can steer better that way. The action
becomes more like a swimmer than a paddler. I used to swim a lot and
find that pretty comfortable.