Craig Jungers wrote: > You might want to rethink this. First of all, I am not a lawyer. However, I > was a merchant marine officer. A white all-around light is legally displayed > by an anchored vessel and if you show this light on a moving kayak and there > is an incident, the other person will have grounds for shifting his > liability to you. [...] > > Kayaks are vessels and subject to the Rules of the Road. You can choose to > mount traditional running (navigational) lights Ok, just to be annoying... How do you tell the difference between an all-around white light and a legal stern-facing white light when the vessel is moving away from you at slow speed? How do you tell a hand-held flashlight shining at you from an all-around light? How do you tell an anchored vessel rotating on its anchor rode from a slow moving vessel? How do you tell a forward-facing white mast light on a power vessel from an all-around white light if the vessel is hull down (red/green lights not visible)? Remember that the legal stern-facing light has a arc of visibility of 135 degrees. A legal forward-facing white light has an arc of 225 degrees. That makes it possible to see white light for 135+225 = 360 degrees. Obviously, a sufficiently long observation will tell you what you need to know, but if it's something that you have to deal with relatively quickly to avoid an incident, you don't have that time. One thing that is problematic is the regs on paddle and oar powered vessels WRT rules of the road (whether for lighting or right of way) is that there are ambiguities. The texts use fuzzy terms like "may" rather than specific ones like "must". They are notable for what they leave out rather than what they include. All-round white lights are sold for marine use on non-anchored small vessels. The C-Light has been a standard light for small craft for decades. The key, of course, is for the operator of a vessel to be diligent and cautious. Make no assumptions. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 31 2007 - 11:31:56 PDT
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