I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all, but I think I might be one of the few on this thread that both paddles and power boats regularly. I kayak when it's windy and rougher water, but more often paddle board as I prefer it. I also have an inboard and an inboard/outboard and I've been driving boats for 50 years.
Yesterday I was pulling a skier on a smaller lake. It was evening with the sun low, I was headed toward it, really could be blinding so I was using my mirror for a sun visor. I saw a few kayaks, quite a ways off but if I wasn't scanning/concentrating hard I could easily have missed them, or just not seen them until much closer. It made me think about this thread. That situation, IMO, was more dangerous for the kayakers, and more likely to cause a collision or capsizing if the boat driver was not attentive, than the around-docks scenario we are discussing here. It just isn't hard to spot a kayak or paddle board in a 30 ft. boat at idle speed, they aren't tiny little objects and they move slowly. At high speed with the sun in your eyes if you aren't paying attention you can pretty easily miss a small paddle craft and the closing speed means you better spot them soon or it could be a problem.
On the other end of it, from the paddler ..... as I mentioned above, we have paddled on a variety of large and small lakes, and I didn't mention it but also ocean inlets with heavy boat traffic and densely moored boats. I simply don't see a danger problem around docks, moorings, ramps. I've observed varying degrees of boating skill for sure, but can honestly say people have seen us, politely smiled and waved, paused their motion when needed (we try hard to not cause boats to alter course or speed and usually succeed).
Sorry someone got hurt, hope they are ok and it doesn't happen again. No restrictive action needed IMO.
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