Talking to power boaters, I have often been admonished that what I do is dangerous as kayaks are hard to see and we may be run down by someone sometime. I have always felt that if a powerboater can not see a kayaker in time to avoid them, the powerboater is operating unsafely. There are many things floating around that are much more dangerous to a powerboater than a kayak that are also much harder to see - such as large partially submerged logs. If they can't see a kayak, they are in significant danger of hitting a log which would likely sink them. I go by the "tonnage rule" - if it out weighs me, I try to avoid getting in its way and am particularly careful in low visibility conditions, but a boat bombing around at 30 knots in the fog is the one operating dangerously, not me going 3 or 4. As you say, lot of good this fact would do me as a lobster boat cruises over me without ever noticing the speed bump. On Jan 27, 2009, at 9:31 PM, Dave Kruger wrote: > > That said, almost every single accident or near-accident involving > kayaks and power boaters I know of has involved blatant disregard > (or ignorance -- the difference can be noted on your grave stone, I > suppose) of the rules by the power boater. So, what "good" does it > do you to know the rules if the prime cause of a threat to you is > somebody else's ignorance or incompetence? Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 54 South Rd Groton, CT 06340 USA Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847 http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ *************************************************************************** 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 Jan 27 2009 - 19:07:56 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:31 PDT