: so i put a 15lb dumbell as far forward in my bow as i could get it
: and it eliminated all lee cocking and increased stability.

: Question is..anyone have a good guesstimate of how far forward i need to move
: my seat to simulate a 15 lb increase at the bow tip(15" back from bow
: tip.)

: and is there a good physical method to determine said..

: i'm thinking put the boat on a see saw..get in...slide forward til the bow
: gets 15 lbs heavier.

Any of the following will reduce leecocking:

Lower front deck to catch less lateral wind
Lower front keel to pin the front keel into the water
Raise rear deck to catch more lateral wind
Raise aft keel to let the aft keel slip sideways easier

Moving the paddler forward does all four. Adding ballast at the bow does the first two.

I would remove your front 15 pound ballast, move the seat (and paddler) as far forward as possible without modifying the cockpit coaming, add a 1/2-inch rub strip on the bow and on the front 3 feet of keel, and sand off any existing rub strip at the stern. If your kayak then weathercocks move the seat back a little and/or sand off some front rub strip. If it still leecocks thicken the front rub strip or start modifing the coaming to move the seat more.

A deployable skeg is really meant for a kayak that is designed to weathercock. Lowering the skeg in degrees reduces weathercocking then lowering more will cause leecocking. So when paddling into the wind you trim skeg up to weathercock, paddling crosswind you trim the skeg partially down to make the kayak near wind neutral, and paddling downwind you trim the skeg way down to make the kayak leecock. You may never need to deploy skeg in your kayak, maybe just in following seas or while surfing.