I recently talked to a Coastie about this topic. He said that there are differences in the visibility of certain colors, but as a general rule - FORGET IT. The real impact is the color of your PFD or your paddle blades. The kayak has too low a profile, but the PFD is higher on the water, and the paddle blades provide movement to key off of. Makes sense to me - I always see fellow kayakers by their paddle movement long before I spot their kayak. Rick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 04:44 PM 8/2/00 -0400, Rick Sylvia wrote: >I recently talked to a Coastie about this topic. He said that there are >differences in the visibility of certain colors, but as a general rule - >FORGET IT. The real impact is the color of your PFD or your paddle blades. >The kayak has too low a profile, but the PFD is higher on the water, and the >paddle blades provide movement to key off of. Makes sense to me - I always >see fellow kayakers by their paddle movement long before I spot their kayak. I think we're talking about two different visibility issues here. The first involves wearing a bright PFD and paddle blades so that you're visible to other boaters and they can avoid you. The other involves being visible by other boaters as well as aircraft so that you can be found. In the later case, a bright kayak would be an advantage as well. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
John Fereira said: <snip> <<I think we're talking about two different visibility issues here. The first involves wearing a bright PFD and paddle blades so that you're visible to other boaters and they can avoid you. The other involves being visible by other boaters as well as aircraft so that you can be found. In the later case, a bright kayak would be an advantage as well.>> Thank you John for pointing out two sides of the coin. I use a custom made yellow flag that rocks back and forth as one paddles, giving a visual clue to my presence on the water. Bright colored gear and boat help. As I paint my boat every few years, I've had a chance to play with various colors. I've found bright gloss yellow to be the most visible. (Paint stays much brighter than fading gelcoat). There are three yellows available from most kayak dealers: High Visibility Yellow, Canary Yellow, and Gold Yellow. These are not official names, but they give you an idea. The ubiquitous Gold Yellow shows up a lot on VCP and CD kayaks, and shows up nicely during the day. Canary Yellow is a good compromise, but one does not see it around much. Plastic yellow kayaks use this color. I chose the High Visibility Yellow, which is a light, bright yellow, and is readily visible at twilight - typical time for rescues - including my own incidents. I also like to have a strip of reflective tape that runs both sides of the kayak, so as to show the outline of the entire kayak and identify it as such. My wife took some shots of me in the late evening surf, using a flash at full. You can barely see the kayak itself, but the outline is clearly reflected and yields an amazing presence that draws the eyes to the reality of the vessel in the water. As far as flares, yeah, take some with you - the more the better, and the higher and the longer burning the better. But, on our Storm Island rescue, a hand held flare would have been nice for pinpoint location in rough seas. Paddlers seem to be under the false assumption the if you shoot of a flare, a rescue vessel will just race up to you at the exact spot where you fired from. And if you want to go on the cheap, one can substitute a large orange garden refuse bag, rather that a commercial one. They work well for a variety of uses during an emergency on land or in the water. They may make a good body bag, but I have not had the opportunity to test that peripheral use yet. BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 11:57 PM -0700 8/3/00, Doug Lloyd wrote: >[SNIP] >As far as flares, yeah, take some with you - the more the better, and >the higher and the longer burning the better. But, on our Storm Island >rescue, a hand held flare would have been nice for pinpoint location in >rough seas. Here is a tip for carrying emergency gear. I installed a knee-tube into my boat (PVC pipe simply siliconed in, with another smaller diameter tube next to it for a handhelp bilge pump). In addition to keeping my paddlefloat, and often a light paddle jacket, I have my "emergency canister". This is simple a Naglene bottle with some closed-cell foam siliconed around it to provide a snug fit in the tube. I have a cord running from the bottle to the front of the tube so it can be easily yanked out. I keep several flares, a smoke grenade, a signal mirror, some marine repair tape and a Cliff energy bar in the waterproof bottle. On a longer trip or crossing, I would also carry some of these items in my PFD, but this way, I always have this items in the boat and don't need to worry about remembering yet another thing from the ever growing list of junk to pack for trips. -Patrick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:16 PDT