I often paddle at a lake full of power boaters that are looking at the kids on the float, not where they are going. Not much you can do about that but I do wear a florescent orange t-shirt if they do look up.
I so agree with the the problems with wake boats. Tearing up the lake and putting paddlers at risk. At the 7 mile long reservoir I paddle they all seem to all stay within two miles of the launch! And with the extreme angle of attack they can’t see anything in front of them (if they are even looking). They are also carrying invasive plants in the tank that get transferred to every lake they go to. No wonder the people on these lakes are trying to get them banned!
And we though life was easier when all you had to worry about was wolf packs, bears, and hawks getting your chickens.
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Actually the Harbormaster in Bremen Maine did get the town authorities to pass a requirement for paddlers to have flags a few years ago. Which, in agreement with what Wolf said, are not really any use in bigger waters compared to the flash of sunlight from SOLAS tape on your paddle.
From a distance in waves or bigger swells, you will see the moving paddle flashes. But fairly few boaters of any ilk are going to see a dinky orange flag at a distance.
That rule may still be on the books but is a dead letter. Because the rules they passed included the Coast Guard stopping paddlers to enforce them, and only within the waters covered by that town’s Harbormaster. First the CG themseves do not require it, second this is a very irregular coastline so a given Harbor master’s turf may not be all that much and third the nearest CG presence is an iftheyneedit landing point on Burnt.
I have been stopped and looked over by the CG a couple of times in the decades in the kayak. They see a full out sea kayak, skirt, PFD, spare paddles and charts and seem to figure we/l have the fog horns and the lights. Which are always in the day hatch - they are correct.
But that was only when a CG boat had other reasons to be in this bay anyway. They are not staffed to send a boat to enforce silly rules in one towns skinny waters.
Everyday I get up and pray to y’a
And he increases the number of jet skis
By sixty-fa
Everybody’s got speedboats through their brains
Last night there were skinheads on my lawn
Take the skinheads boating
Take them boating
Take the skinheads boating
Take them boating
Some people’s kayaks
got gray things
(Got gray things)
(In gray lanes)
Some people say that kayaks
have plugged drains
(Have plugged drains)
(Have plugged drains)
There’s not a line that goes here
that rhymes with anything
(Anything)
(Anything)
Had a dream last night
But I forget what it was
(What it was)
(What it was)
Take the skinheads boating
Take them boating
Take the skinheads boating
Take them boating
With apologies to the deaf maestro who camps in vans:
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I tried. They said it’s too much like work. So they took me out on the jet ski, a cigar boat, and a wave boat - it was fun. What a blast! All the kayakers were pumping their first and shouting to me. I declined a second invitation. Too noisey and didn’t accomplish anything.
Powerboaters just wanna have fun
but
can get no satisfaction.
Fortunately all power boaters are not ignorant.
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I almost got ran over last year, in my 18.5 foot, bright orange and yellow kayak, with a bright orange pfd, after blaring my butane horn to exhaustion. I hat to say it, but I’ve moved up to keeping my flare gun on my pfd.
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I guess I’m fortunate. In Ohio, those “darn government regulations” have put several lakes within an hour of me that are electric only or have a 10 HP limit. Some are 10-12 miles long, but they’re damned up creeks and therefore too narrow for a high speed boat to turn a circle.
And in Maine, even the ignorant boaters know enough to stay between the buoys, so a kayak is pretty safe staying close to the rocky coast. And I choose my channel crossings with care.
I’m thankful there are a lot of non-motorized or low traffic water to boat on near me. I did have one incident though. I went to a local rec paddle group with my Pungo on a lake well known for power boat traffic. The lake is about 3 miles long by a quarter mile wide so the boats just do circles. As I was coming in I was swamped by a boat’s wake. I won’t go there again.
This year my husband got a different kayak without a metal frame seat. It is a little fishing kayak so I drilled a hole into a 1ft length 1/2 inch pvc pipe and inserted the bike flag pole in. With some pipe insulating foam diy flag holders12 inch pipe fits in the rear rod holders snugly. I’m not a machinist so I eyeballed the angle needed to make the flags go somewhat near to vertical.
Tomorrow we are giving them a test run if it actually works I can post photos if you’d like?
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Photos always welcome.
One thin that bothers me about every group paddle I participated in is how there is a general lack of concern about keeping a closed group that deters power boats from cutting through the group. The problem seems to be universal with every group trip I’ve been with, but is more of an issue with people who preface their desire to try kayaking because “it looks like fun!” Now that I think about it, that’s probably why I have a resistance to saying kayaking is fun.
A word to new kayakers: it’s far safer to stay close together in an organized group, not only because assistance is close at hand, but because its easier to see a large group and power boaters are less inclined to take shortcuts through your gaggle, especially if the area is crowded with other boaters. It may even pay to form a small group with stray kayakers just in the interest of safety. Of course that depends on your skill in boat handling, so you don’t knock into each other unintentionally.
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A tight group also has a better chance of showing up on radar if it’s foggy.
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Well, it is back to the old drawing board. The idea did not work. Bike flags were too flimsy. I’ll keep at it this winter. There has to be a way to get a small flag to work!
@TakenForGranite, like I mentioned earlier - attach it to a black float the size of a mayonnaise jar and put put a tiny flag on it ao they look like crab pot floats. Spread them around your boat and camouflage your kayak to look like a partially submerged log. Think I’m joking? Enlarge the picture to see the rest of the floats. They’re everywere at the mouth of rivers. Numbers were down because it was Wednesday, so only commercial crab pots were out.and not the myriad of traps set by the run of the mill “ham & eggs” type local
amatuer crabbers.
The two in front are the big floats, and in the background you see the little black and maybe a few orange ones. I think maybe the commercial waterman got tired of people hitting them, so they camouflage them to foul boat propellers with the rope. Then after a few strikes and fouled props, boaters keep an eye out.
Remember the saying: slow is fast . . . Well small is big, big trouble, so avoid it. Don’t make yourself a target.
The last thing you want to do in a group is to be spread out where you are creating an obstacle course for other boats. It’s not good boating etiquette. There is also little reason, in most cases, to be in a narrow channel where other boats are restricted to due to water depth unless crossing. If crossing stay in a tight group and choose the shortest path to quickly exit the channel. A kayak or canoe only needs a few inches of water unlike most other boats. If a larger boat is restricted to a channel or by maneuverability a kayak or smaller boat becomes the “give way” vessel in most cases.
I have seen too many idiots plodding along in the middle of the narrow channel in Baltimore Harbor with a commercial freighter approaching either oblivious or believing by some twisted interpretation of the rules of navigation that they have right of way. I can guarantee that a freighter which can take a huge amount for time and distance to slow or turn is not going to run aground to avoid a kayak, nor should it have to.
Law of tonnage applies.
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Hi Jyak,
Those certainly are interesting. Sorry if I confused everyone with where I replied. I thought I was answering in a reply thread to Otterway who asked if anyone used a flag. I am pretty new to posting in these forums.
Last year we attached 4ft bike flags to metal bar seats with clamps and that worked okay. The idea being when paddling rivers or behind reeds/grasses/cattails etc, the on-shore duck/deer hunters don’t shoot at us. I’ve seen the ones you can buy and attach to your kayak but I don’t have the skills/tools or guts to modify the kayaks and the flags are too low in my opinion.
Our flags worked great last year but because hubby got a lighter kayak without a metal frame seat, I thought we could use the kayak’s built in rod holder holes - which didn’t work very well indeed - so it is back to the drawing board to try and make this work.
Laws of tonnage is a good law! Kayaks should be handled like watercraft, not toys. Just like bicycles.
@TakenForGranite, no you’re solid. I went out in my beother’s power boat and was just following up with pictures for a previous remark. A beer belly boater friend remarked that kayaks have no business in open water, because people driving power boats cant see the kayak (a 145 blue boat that sits 14 inches above the water with someone wearing a red PFD. In addition to the law of tonnage, there’s the law that if They hit you, it won’t foul the prop. It doesn’t matter how bright your flags, you’d probably be better attatching metal spikes around your deck. That’s the law of “Dat Yaks Gots Teef” vs. the law of “That Guy in the Skinny Boat Just Fired a Flare at Me!” What put a bee in his bonnet?
The flag during duck hunting season is an excellent idea. I recall it may have been mentioned or suggested earlier, but I can’t remember details
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