On 18-Jun-2004, Wright wrote:

Given two identical
touring kayaks and two people of equal abilities, if one weighs 125 lbs and
the other weighs 190 lbs what would be the differences, if any, on stability
and performance?

If you made it through the nonsense that followed, Brian's answer is correct.
Low-placed weight increases stability, high-placed weight decreases it. Hence
women and shorter men tend to see more stability than tall, big people. Adding
weight (gear) up to a reasonable load limit tends to increase stability.

If you pick up a copy of Sea Kayaker magazine, you'll find that they include
a graph of stability (righting moment vs angle of heel) with every review of
kayaks. I recently posted about this and can add that they plot four curves.
There are curves for light and heavy paddlers both with and without gear.
A light paddler with gear always shows the greatest stability, while the
heavy paddler without gear always shows the least stability.

Mike