Boat vs kayak - safety

I had a conversation with the husband of gal I work with. He boats out of Moss quite regularly for salmon. On his last outing there was apparently a group of kayakers on a tour that was virtually impossible to see until he was right on top of them. There was a 6ft swell. When the kayak was in the trough he couldn't see them.  He recomended that we fly some type of flag but not a diver down flag because of the space restrictions. He said that the rods sticking up aren't going to help until its almost too late. Another bit of advice he had was to ocassionally radio out our location on the general channel so boats are aware that we are in the area.

I doubt that we need to concern ourselves with this in lower boat traffic areas, but might be a good practice for places like SC harbor, Moss....etc

-Brian G

I heard that from Doug - of HMB Kayak Company. He does kayak tours out of the HMB Harbor every week (when the weather is favorable) and he's had the same request from all the other private & commercial boats in the area. I carry a bicycle flag and stow it inside my P15 just in case the swell picks up and I'm near any kind of boat traffic. It's bright orange = $5.00 available at Sports Authority or most bike shops. (the nice thing about these bicycle flags is that it stands nearly 6 feet high and sways with the wind and swell - it almost looks like someone is waving it 

But then again, I've seen boats fly out of the Harbor going mach1 into high seas.....there could be floating debri out there and if one is careless enough behind the wheel, it could mean disaster for the boater as well.

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... but not a diver down flag because of the space restrictions.

Hey Brian, what does that mean?  Sorry man, I'm still a newb.

 Angel its the red flag with a white diagonal bar. It means there is a diver in the water, mandatory in some places if diving.

I say we get red ncka logo flags printed up. with the exception of some of the hobies, we're not out there ridin' cycles

Thanks fishshim but I know what the diver flag is...I'm wondering about the "space restrictions" part of the sentence.

I have not found a place to print cheap durable flags. If someone knows of a place please let me know.

I say we get red ncka logo flags printed up. with the exception of some of the hobies, we're not out there ridin' cycles

 

Most boats will give at least a 100 ft safety area of a diver down flag. Maybe Fuzz or one of the other divers can help elaborate on this. I think it might be a safety courtesey more than a law.

-Brian G

California doesn't require dive flags, I guess because there are few enough divers and boats that there haven't been enough incidents to warrant such a law.  Some other states, like florida, are pretty anal about it and bust tourists for snorkeling without a flag, ect... 

Flying a dive flag would probably allow you to sue someone if they did hit you though...  Dive flags may have a minimum size, such as 2'x2', which was refered to by the space requirements.  There are two dive flags that I know of, the typical red one with the white slash, and a blue one.  In states that require dive flags, it's illegal to fly one when divers aren't in the water, so it would be inappropriate on a kayak.

I say we get red ncka logo flags printed up. with the exception of some of the hobies, we're not out there ridin' cycles

 

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