Boating Etiquette When Encountering Kayakers

[MickinMO]

Was on Taneycomo the last few days and the kayak flotilla was impressive. In the past, I would always try to give a kayak or canoe a lot of room and watch my wake. However, there are so many kayaks now and many going right down the middle it's dang near impossible to do this and get anywhere at times. We met one head on in a green kayak, the guy had a tan shirt on,  and a tan life vest. He was floating in the current and wasn't moving his paddles. So, it was hard for me to even see him before I was closer than I cared to be. He was cruising right down the middle near Monkey Island on Friday with a lot of boat traffic present. He looked at me like I was the problem. I pointed at my eyes and hopefully he understood he was really hard to see. He also certainly wasn't moving right to allow passage for me on his left. If he was, I would have seen the movement from his paddles 

These guys have more guts than me because I would at least have some bright colors on for better visibility much like riding a motorcycle. 

 

 

 

[MoCarp]

 

[fishinwrench]

Well, hate to say it BUT it isn't always ok to just run flat out.

Lots of things can be floating in the water that you don't want to hit.  And hardly any of them are gonna be displaying brightly colored banners for your convenience.

I almost mowed down a kayaker one late evening on my way back in, and I stopped and raised all kinds of hell with him.   Then after I calmed down and thought about it I waited for him to make his way back to the ramp and apologized profusely.   It wasn't HIS fault, it was MINE for just assuming that anything in the water was going to be easy for me to see.   Me of all people should have known better.  It could have just as easily been a 60' sycamore tree, or a piece of a boat dock that was adrift. 

I think everyone in boats capable of higher speeds needs to realize that just because the boat can travel at 60+mph doesn't mean it's ok to do it all the time.

[Gavin]

Paddle craft & motor boats rarely work well together. Both groups have to be extra careful. Don’t block the channel if you here a boat coming.

[dan hufferd]

I am a new to the kayak world, but when I was fishing at Eaglerock I about ran over a kayaker who was crossing the lake. I was not on plane or going fast. I have a deep V . To be honest the nose is higher than any kayak. 

If I do any more lake fishing  I will have a flag on my yak, don't know what else to do to make it more visible.  

As a fellow yaker I was sorry but hey I am doing my best.

[dan hufferd]

20 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Well, hate to say it BUT it isn't always ok to just run flat out.

Lots of things can be floating in the water that you don't want to hit.  And hardly any of them are gonna be displaying brightly colored banners for your convenience.

I almost mowed down a kayaker one late evening on my way back in, and I stopped and raised all kinds of hell with him.   Then after I calmed down and thought about it I waited for him to make his way back to the ramp and apologized profusely.   It wasn't HIS fault, it was MINE for just assuming that anything in the water was going to be easy for me to see.   Me of all people should have known better.  It could have just as easily been a 60' sycamore tree, or a piece of a boat dock that was adrift. 

I think everyone in boats capable of higher speeds needs to realize that just because the boat can travel at 60+mph doesn't mean it's ok to do it all the time.

The guy n the video had a flag, I guess they don't help??

[fishinwrench]

29 minutes ago, dan hufferd said:

The guy n the video had a flag, I guess they don't help??

The guy that I almost killed had bright orange paddle blades, but it was late evening with a tall bluff bank on my left, and I was running between 48-50 mph.  

I didn't notice him until he was about 30-40 feet in front of me.  I probably wouldn't have seen a little triangle on a stick either.

[Flysmallie]

Unfortunately if you hit one you are always going to be in the wrong. You just have to really pay attention when running any body of water, 

This is coming from the guy that has hit the 60’ sycamore. And I also almost ran over a full-size boat full of people one day that I couldn’t see because of the sun. I circled back to apologize and take my asschewing. They were surprised by that but not so much that they didn’t let me have it. 

[tjm]

Do Mo boating regs address paddle craft in the hierarchy of who gives way and who stands on?

[MickinMO]

16 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

The guy that I almost killed had bright orange paddle blades, but it was late evening with a tall bluff bank on my left, and I was running between 48-50 mph.  

I didn't notice him until he was about 40 feet in front of me.  I probably wouldn't have seen a little triangle on a stick either.

I believe technically small craft must give way to larger craft. Not only part of the boating rules, but also self preservation on their part. I usually run about 20mph on Taneycomo when planed out. My boat can't even do 30mph at top end of rpm range. I just think that kayakers doing their best to blend in with water and surrounding vegetation shouldn't be floating right down the middle of Taneycomo or at least don't act offended if you think someone is too close.