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. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// You are correct in your observation, but even in a slow moving sailboat we kayakers are all but invisible. I won't even start the discussioin of how much more there is to be aware of while captain of a 30'+ boat, but a kayak needs to rise above a lot of distraction to be noticed, even at a sailing speed of 5 knots. 25 years ago when I was sailing, I never saw a kayak. Now, I see them when paddling, fairly easy being on the same level, and while in my mothership, a much harder proposition. Two weeks ago, anchored off China Camp's south end, we watched two kayakers near Rat Rock apparently doing rescue drills.(even with the 8x50 binoculars, there seemed to be no distress) We noticed them because of one yellow pfd. The rest of the kit, boats and paddles included, were invisible against the chop when we first noticed them, and improved only slightly with the tide change and calm water. We were about half mile away. Going down to Richardson Bay, where I store my own kayaks and is home to Sea-Trek, kayak outfitters, I expect to see kayaks and pay special attention from Angel Island to Schoonmaker Point. What is easiest to see is paddles with reflector stripes. Big, bold stripes. Next is yellow. Nothing else really cuts through the clutter of reflections on calm water, or can be seen at all above the local sea conditions on the greater SF Bay. Having just bought a waterproof camera for my kayking sojourns, I have ambitions of taking photographs of how kayakers look from my bridge, and making a photo essay so we paddlers have a better understanding of just how invisible we are. Even if we just happen to have right of way according to COLREGS its of little use. Even small craft, 30' and less, occasionally get run over by the commercial ships w/o being seen, or even felt at time of impact. One other thing working against us is colorblindness, As a road cyclist, I was surprised to find that the bright, expensive colors are not visible to the color blind, and the one color that is, blue, is not so good for us who have decent color vision when in the forest. www.dartmouth.edu/~sullivan/bike/colorbv.html Remove frame So, yellow aside, to improve my own visibility, it will be reflective tape on paddles and PFD for my own safety. Mike San Rafael, CA *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Jan 28 2009 - 05:09:29 PST
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