Re: [Paddlewise] Safety Warning

Scott wrote:
<SNIP>
>>>>>>I look and see that his girl friend (wife?)
had capsized and obviously was having trouble exiting the boat! The
boyfriend
or husband or whatever was farther away then I was so I paddled like mad to
reach her, then I reached under water and ripped her sprayskirt free which
allowed her to exit.
   It turns out that with my endorsement of neoprene sprayskirts in the surf
the couple had decided to use the rubber skirts from their whitewater boats,
which had appreciably smaller cockpits, on their sea kayaks for this class.
Something neither one of them had ever tried before. I think all three of us
learned a thing or two in that class.<<<<<<<

Thanks for bringing that up Scott. It is not just wrong sized spraydecks
that are a problem here. Spraydecks made for plastic kayak coaming rims are
often way too hard to remove from a fiberglass coaming rim. Fiberglass
kayaks sprayskirts often won't stay on a plastic kayaks slippery rounded
coaming. It is hard to see how to remedy this problem since the spraydeck
designers are trying to solve the individual problems each kind of kayak has
but the solutions, biasing the remove ability in one direction or the other,
can make the spraydeck a hazard when used on the wrong kayak. Maybe
education about this potential hazard and a warning to everyone to try
taking off any spraydeck you put on (with your eyes closed and your hands
wet) might be in order. I've heard of several spraydeck removal incidents
over the years besides my own. Perhaps with these new incidents its time to
do a safety article for Sea Kayaker on this subject. I appreciate all the
tips. The "slide the spraydeck across the coaming to make a wrinkle to grab"
that Jed gave was a new one I hadn't heard of before. Thanks Jed I'll have
to give it a try.
Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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