[Evenstar]

Originally Posted by Cal

I've canoed and kayaked and sailed and for the life of me I cannot understand the need for a LITTLE boat in the middle of a BIG lake other than a person having an underlying self distructive wish. I don't care if it's a sea kayak , an ocean kayak , a pool kayak , or a fly to the moon kayak. It's still a LITTLE boat in a BIG lake. A real news flash huh? Some kayak owners are well experienced and carry all necesary safety items and watch the weather but get caught in the broads in a summer thunderstorm with 4' waves and get beat in the head with your own , overturned kayak enough times , tell me they're not in trouble. Yeah , yeah they know what they're doing , they're strong swimmers....sorry , not in my book and you'll read about them in the news paper and all of this without even mentioning fast power boats.
My own personal opinion (which means nothing) is 150' from shore is plenty for a small and slow boat. Big ones already have to stay outside of this or go slow. Gee , that law is already in effect. When I canoe , I do it in small bodies of water. Most of which you can get out and walk if you have to. Maybe I'm just chicken , overly cautious , or have common sense , I'm not smart enough to figure it out

Apparently you haven’t been paying attention to my posts. To you there’s no difference between a recreational kayak and a sea kayak – yet they are very different from each other in many ways.

I can easily paddle 20 miles in my 16 foot sea kayak in an afternoon – in a recreational kayak, you would be hard pressed to do 10 miles. And I’ve been out in 4 foot waves, without ever tipping over. That's because a sea kayak is designed to handle large waves.

Here’s a news flash for you: A sea kayak is made to be paddled on large bodies of water – it is not intended for small, shallow ponds. What do you think the “sea” part actually stands for? (And I do also paddled in large bays on the ocean.) For the past three years, I have paddle for hundreds of miles on large bodies of water each summer – without ever getting in trouble, or ever needing to be rescued.fficeffice" />>>
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I’m also a member of a varsity collegiate sailing team (currently 8^th in the nation) - and guess where we practice? On Mt Hope and ffice:smarttags" />lace w:st="on">Narragansett Baylace> - which are very large bodies of salt water. And these are little tiny 14 foot sailboats – and we go out in all sorts of nasty weather. And none of us are what I would call “self destructive” – we are just hard working trained athletes and registered members of the intercollegiate sailing association.

A paddler has the same right to use the entire lake as a powerboater. There's actually only about 2 square miles on Wini where you are ever more than a mile from some shore. It takes me only about 10 or 12 minutes to travel a mile, so it is not all that hard to get to safety if a storm moves in.