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Originally Posted by bilproject
You are correct when you say I am lumping all kayaks together when they are out in open water. I do not know your equipment or ability but i do know that you are very hard to see in the open water even if my boat is going 25.
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Here’s what I posted just yesterday:
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Originally Posted by Evenstar
My 16-foot sea kayak’s upper hull is bright red, it’s lower hull is white, the blades of my paddle are bright orange, my drytop is bright orange, and my PFD is red. My friend’s kayak has a bright yellow upper hull. I really don’t know how anyone can not see us! Yet some high-speed boaters have not noticed us in time to stay out of our 150 foot zone.
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In good weather conditions I can spot most other kayaks as far as a mile away. The most visible part of a kayak are the blades of the paddles – because they are moving up and down. The blades of my paddle are bright orange. Since my friend has a dark paddle, she has attached white reflective tape to hers, which makes them very visible. It has been my experience that anyone who is paying attention and is traveling at a reasonable speed seems to be able to spot us pretty easily and does not seem to have any trouble keeping out of our 150 foot zone. Unless your eyesight is really poor, you would not have any trouble spotting us at 25mph. (When visibility is low, due to the weather, we try to stay near the shore.)
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A speed limit will not make you safe. It will make me in my power boat safer as overtaking speeds of visible boats will be reduced. The reduction in speed ratio between a power boat going 65 or 45 and a kayak going 4mph will have little or no impact as you are to small on open water to see from any great distance.
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Speed has a major impact – here’s why: A boat going 45mph covers 66 feet every second. At 70mph it covers 102.7 feet per second. If a boat is 300 feet away from me and heading directly at me, it takes the 45mph boat 4.6 seconds to reach me. At 70 mph, the boat will reach me in just 2.8 seconds. At a speed of 45 mph, the operator will have nearly twice the amount of time to see and avoid me - and I have nearly twice as much time to try to paddle out of the way.
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Remember that when you post a speed limit, you are lumping all boaters together with Capt. Bonehead.
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We need a speed limit for several reasons. Boats on the lake have been steadily increasing is size and speed - and even PWC are getting faster every year. In my opinion, a 45/25 speed limit is too fast – I would rather see a 40/15 limit, but 45/25 will be safer than what we have now, and seems like a fair compromise.