[Evenstar]

Originally Posted by codeman671

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't this take place in Australia??? Last time I checked that was at least a few hour drive from Winnipesaukee... Can you find anything closer?

So this doesn’t count, just because it didn’t happen on Winni?

My point is that powerboats have indeed hit kayaks before . . . so we have valid reasons to be concerned for our safety on lakes that allow powerboats to travel at unlimited speeds, where many powerboats admit that they can’t often see kayaks very well.

Please note that this took place at 11:30pm !!! Do you think that the kayaker was acting dangerously being out at 11:30PM??

What I read was that the kayak had a warning light . . . which apparently met Maine’s regulations, since it was the powerboat that was cited for “operating illegally”, and not the paddler.

As far as being able to paddle a few strokes to avoid the collision . . . the top speed of paddling a kayak is about 6MPH, which is only 8.8 feet per second. In my case, at my top speed, it takes me nearly 2 seconds to just paddle the length of my kayak. So unless the guy had more than a few seconds warning, he could not have paddled out of the way of the oncoming boat.

There are many more fatal accidents each year involving paddlers than there are powerboaters.

This is completely untrue: Most fatal boating accidents involve powerboats (85% in 2005) – not paddlers.
According to the United States Coast Guard’s 2005 Boating Statistics:
In 2005 there were 78 fatalities among paddlers (49 canoes and 29 kayaks), And there were 501 fatalities among powerboaters (54 in Cabin Motorboats, 10 in Houseboats, 1 in a Jet Boat, 351 in Open Motorboats, 65 on Personal Watercraft, 20 in Pontoon Boats).