RE: [Paddlewise] Visability of kayakers

<We have a former SAR pilot on the list - how 'bout it Jack - any opinions?>

Well, gee, Dave, I'm kind of a lurker here, slow to rise to bait, as you know, but, well --- yes, I suppose I could muster an opinion or two.

Addressing several posts further down the list, I agree that paddles are a big factor.  My Euro padldes --- on the rare occasion that I use Euro over Greenland --- have really obnoxious flourescent yellow blades.  'Cause I spray painted them that way.  But they're bright!  Dan Winters did a highly unscientific study once down in Hampton Roads, and painted various paddle blades various flourescent colors --- yellow, orange, green, and pink, may have been others --- sent a bunch of them in several boats on a hazy morning, and had an observer try to pull the kayak out by the color of the paddle.  The paddle blades were always seen well before the kayak or the kayaker, and, as I recall, orange was the best.  But yellow was right up there, and the observability of each color was very close to one another --- and always beat out the yellow or orange hull or deck by a lot.  So I use flourescent yellow.

Seems like the BCU or some other Anglo-authority sites orange and yellow as the colors of preference --- and may or may have mandated those colors for some level of participation --- can't remember specifics, but I do remember the colors.  Which is why my Pintail is claret over dove grey.  Oh, well --- it's pretty.

Retroreflective tape is great --- if you're paddling at night and there is a light source close behind or in front of the observer of said tape.  Get about ten degrees away from a light source, and the stuff disappears.  But it's still, by far, the best thing to have on your boat and PFD at night.  (During the day, it has virtually no value whatsoever.)  There's an old Navy A-4 driver who owes his life to that stuff --- my first rescue in North Viet Nam --- 'cause he was also incredibly stupid, and had gotten rid of all his other survival gear.  But we got a visual on a glint from our belly search light from the token reflective tape design on his hardhat, and were able to save his stupid derriere.  

Personal observation, and I think this will show up on most of the "expert opinion" data, too: international orange is the most visible conventional color, per se, on any conventional color list.  But flourescent anything beats it.  And now 3M has a flourescent yellow material they sell for crossing signs (Maryland has adopted it) that is also retroreflective!  Cool stuff!

That enough, Dave?  Back to sleep.

Jack

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