Doug Lloyd wrote: > It is much easier in Canada, as Uliei (spelling, sorry) pointed out. We > don't have to wear them, just have them available. We don't _have_ to wear them in the States either. While the US Coast Guard goes through great pains in its annual reports to stress that it is smart to wear one all the time, there is no regulation that says you have to. A case in point. A few years two kayakers were paddling off the Upper West Side of Manhattan on the Hudson. A USCG small patrol boat pulled over to them and one of the Coasties insisted that one fellow actually put on his PFD. About a month later one of the fellows (the one with the PFD already on) and I were visiting the Coast Guard Station on some other matter and related the incident to the lieutenant in charge of enforcement. He went almost ballistic wanting us to give him the date, time and place so that he could reprimand that crew! He apologized to us for their action even though we weren't the affected party. They had exceeded their authority, i.e. the reg says only you need to have your PFD handy, nothing more. We didn't recall the precise time and even if we had we didn't feel like getting some young Coasties in trouble. The lieutenant said he would post a notice about the incident in a general way as a general reminder to the crews on what the regs actually require. In the dead of winter, we have had some of kayakers pulled over by USCG crews asking if they were wearing wet suits. I suppose if the kayakers hadn't been cold-water clothed in some fashion, the crew could force them to leave the water because the paddler was "operating a boat in an unsafe manner" a kind of blanket or umbrella authority covering lots of things. But wearing a PFD is such a specifically spelled out reg (i.e. you need one handy but are not required to have it on) that they could not force you off the water on that umbrella authority on account of not wearing one. In a similar vein on the cold-water theme, a few years ago, there was a mid-winter paddling trip put on for a morning TV news show. The fellows left from Governors Island (that lets you know how long ago this was; it closed in 1996) into real cold air temperatures (single digit) and high winds. The Coast Guard hovered nearby in a patrol boat. At one point, one of the paddlers capsized. He was immediately rescued by the other kayakers but the Coast Guard felt enough was enough and, citing the bad conditions, ordered them all off the water and to return to the put-in. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Sep 08 2000 - 16:24:55 PDT
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