Lets bring in the Coast Guard!!!!!

[Evenstar]

Originally Posted by Wannabe

The lake should be for everyone, if they wish to be included. If certain people are scared of the lake or scared of certain boats, then some people just say "no one is making you stay here."

It's like if one person can't swim, the whole public lap pool should be 2 feet deep so that that one person can stand, when he wishes to take a dip? It's restricting everyone so that a certain group can feel 100% comfortable at all times. Sometimes it seems selfish to me.
You count on mother nature to make the large waves on large lakes and flat rivers? Then those windy white caps are the best kayaking weather? I never see anyone on the lake when mother nature makes the big waves though.

Ok, I’m going to try to explain this to you:

First of all I never said that gusty winds and whitecaps were the best conditions for kayaking - I said that Mother Nature provides all the excitement that we need. But I really have been out on large lakes on all sorts of conditions. I’ve been out in downpours – in 4 foot waves – in very gusty winds - in very cold water (I kayaked last season from mid April, into early November).

So I'm not asking to feel 100% comfortable on our lakes - I'm just asking for equality and that equality includes equal safety from other boaters. It's fairly easy to feel safe out on a large lake in a large powerboat, even with other boats speeding by. It's very different to be out there in a kayak, because you're much more vulnerable when you’re in a boat that is only 23 inches wide and sits just 10 inches out of the water. My 16 foot kayak only weighs 53 pounds. If I’m hit by a large speeding boat, my kayak will be completely destroyed, and I’ll be hurt really badly (at best).

Here are the facts:
1.) The faster you are going, the more distance you cover in the same time period.
2.) Under the same conditions, your reaction times remain exactly the same.
3.) So my chances of being hit by a powerboat increase proportionally as the speed of that boat increases.
4.) I am much more likely to be hit out on the main lake by a boat traveling at 90mph than I am by a boat going 45mpm.

If a powerboat is headed directly at me, and the operator doesn’t happen to notice me until he’s within 150 feet (because of waves, sun, spray, glare on the water, or glare off his windshield – whatever). If it takes the operator just one second to react – which boat will come to closest to hitting me – one that is traveling at 45mph or one that is traveling at 90mph? In that one second, the boat traveling at 45 mph will come 66 feet closer – the one traveling at 90mph will come 132 feet closer.

That’s the problem – it’s like taking a jet ski into a swimming pool and wondering why the swimmers aren’t willing to share the pool with you.