In my opinion, yes.
When you're starting out as a kayaker one of the hardest things to do is to just go in straight line. It takes practice to get the right/left strokes equal and symmetric, so the boat will naturally wander for a beginner. With a longer boat, especially one with some good longitudinal body lines, it will tend to 'coast' in a straight line a LOT easier than a short boat, especially a short rounded boat.
When I started out my first solo boat was the Caspia. It has a strong 'keel line' down the center of the hull, and also has longitudinal grooves in the hull. Add to that the strong chines (the angle between the side and the bottom of the hull) and it has a lot that makes it track easy. Then my mom bought a boat, and she went with a shorter 9' kayak - weak keel line, soft chines - and it drove her nuts trying to get it to go straight. I gave it a try, and even after having paddled for a year or so I found it didn't like to 'coast' straight. I quickly learned to keep a paddle blade in the water all the time to try to keep it going in a straight line.
Another thing to think about is what you're doing when you're rec boating. Lots of time you're just covering distance - putting miles down a mellow river, or paddling across a lake. What you want to do then is hold a line - not ping pong from bank to bank. Of course you will need to turn - but most of the time you can see your turns coming up, and easily make them. We're not talking about whitewater here, with slots to make and waves to punch - that's when you need to turn quick (and part of why ww boats are short).
Also, turning a longer boat isn't that big a deal. It's a skill you have to learn of course, but it's more of a 'gauge of force' thing in that there are a couple of basic strokes that you'll use to turn your boat, and how far/fast you want it to turn depends largely on how much pull you put on that turn stroke. Heck, I guided two people down class II lower Slippery Rock Creek in 13'+ touring kayaks, and they did remarkably well.
That's my take at least. Other paddlers feel free to add different viewpoints.
Steve Z
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