What's to be done? Revisiting the Lake George case.

Excuse me while I take a moment to get serious here, but I've been having an email discussion with a friend who can be a bit of a gadfly & as gadflies sometimes do, he's gotten me thinking and I would just like to mull over some of those thoughts here.

I think that a lot of people who read this blog remember the case I'm talking about - there were a couple of weeks where it seemed like that was the only thing that was being discussed on Facebook & the boating blogs, but for anyone who missed it, here was the story (and I'm going to try to keep it very simple, I'll add my own opinions after the basic description):

A little over a year ago, there was a collision between a motorboat and a kayaker on Lake George. The kayaker died. The motorboat driver was initially charged with reckless operation, a misdemeanor, but after hearing much testimony, the grand jury chose to indict on a lesser charge of failing to yield the right of way (using the "rules of the road" as defined in NYS Navigation Law).

The case was sent to court on that basis and last April, the local kayak community was set electronically a-roar when the judge ruled that the motorboat driver was innocent of all charges because kayaks are not considered vessels under NYS navigation laws.

Of course the area papers were all over it very quickly - and giving about as much background information as I just did. For a kayaker who first became acquainted with the story at that time (as I did when a friend posted it on my Facebook wall), it was the easiest thing in the world to fill in those blank outlines with our worst fears and prejudices - some knucklehead yay-hoo at the wheel, defended by some shyster lawyer and some half-asleep judge who didn't care enough to see justice done...

Except that it really wasn't like that at all. The first blow to my instant ugly picture came because the first thing I tend to do when I see a story involving a certain interpretation of a set of rules is to go look at the rules. I'm no lawyer but back in the testing days, I did pretty well in tests of reading comprehension and I still trust myself to read things correctly as long as I take the time to sit down and read them carefully. NYS navigation law is a pretty long document but there's a nice clear table of contents & if you follow it it actually ends up being very easy to find the exact bit that -- yes -- completely excludes canoes and rowboats from the Navigation Rules! I couldn't believe what I was seeing because I went looking with the assumption that we are SO covered - but there it was, right on what would've been the first page if I'd been looking at a hard copy!

Article 1, § 2, line 6-(c) "Pleasure vessel" shall mean and include every vessel not within the classification of public vessel or residential vessel. However, the provisions of this chapter shall not apply to rowboats and canoes except as otherwise expressly provided.

With that in mind, I then headed on down to Article 4, § 41, Pilot rules, where sure enough, there was no express provision extending any role whatsoever to paddlers & rowers in the right-of-way hierarchy. There are other provisions which mean that the judge's decision certainly isn't the declaration of open season on us teenyboaters, but...yes, we just don't count in the NYS version of the rules of the road.

Bizarre, but true, and a real eye-opener - but I still didn't have any real picture of what had happened until I took that info into a discussion that was going on on another friend's wall and involved a number of real-world friends. It was in that discussion where I finally got a better picture of what might had happened - someone who actually lived in the Lake George area basically came in & started talking about not the yay-hoo I think we were all picturing, but a responsible boater who was absolutely distraught after hitting a paddler on a windy, choppy day of the exact sort when most of us kayakers know we are very hard to see.

It was at that point that I went & found earlier versions of the story that were reported in a much less sensationalist style - like this one in the Albany Times-Union, which described a perfect setup for an accident, a terrible one but an accident - novice kayakers, carrying but not wearing lifejackets, paddling out onto a placid-seeming lake & then being caught out too far as the weather suddenly turned nasty on them. Detail that really got me - as soon as he realized he'd actually hit a paddler, the motorboat driver (who had 55 years of experience & a perfectly clean record) jumped overboard to help look for the victim, and stayed in so long that he himself had to be treated for hypothermia.

That is not the act of a person who doesn't care, and I think it was when I was reading that that I decided that I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon and do a blog post about it. I just didn't see what I could say

So why on earth am I doing one now?

Well - because my friend Chuck was asking what I was doing, and I got to wondering if there was anything that was worth doing, and I started thinking that if there was a silver lining in this tragic case, it was that this bizarre loophole has been brought to wide public attention.

And the last article I saw about the case was perhaps the one that was the most interesting, and that's the one I thought I might bring back to people's attention. The fascinating coda of the case?

"Both the prosecutor and defense lawyer in a case against a man whose motorboat killed a kayaker say the case demonstrates the need for changes in navigation law to protect paddlers."

Full article here.

I don't know if there's anything we paddlers and rowers can do to express support or urge action. I still think the 2 best navigation rules for paddlers are informal ones that will never appear in a law book - the Law of Gross Tonnage (the bigger boat is always gonna win in a contact situation) and the Law of Assumed Invisibility (do everything practical that you can to be seen, and then assume that nobody does anyways)-- but it does seem like with human-powered vessels being SO much more common now than they were when the Navigation Rules were written, this business of the pilot rules excluding them seems like something that should be revisited and (hopefully) revised.

Anyone have any thoughts, or any more recent information? I'd be genuinely interested in reading it - mid-April seems so long ago and once the initial flurry of shock at the ruling was over, it seems like the whole thing faded fast.

It would be a shame if the loss of public interest meant that the opportunity that was opened up by the case ended up closing without anything happening - I'm hoping that things are still moving in the right direction even without the attention of the social network (sometimes they do).

If a weird rule falls in the forest, and nobody blogs about it, does it make a noise?

Lunch hour note, following day: Well, there have been some very good thoughts & suggestions in the comments - totally worth a read. I have already somewhat acted on Buck's suggestion that paddlers who would like to be included in the pilot rules (even if it's at the bottom of the right-of-way hierarchy, as we might well end up being) should contact their assemblymen & senators - I will do that too, but first, I sent a comment to the office of the Saratoga County D.A., who is the one who was saying that he was considering lobbying to have the law changed. That seemed like a good place to start. My comment was pretty short - I just asked if he was still pursuing that & that as a NYS kayaker, I support revising the rules. If I hear anything back about where that is, I'll post it here. If anyone else wants to do the same, click here to go to D.A. Murphy's comment form. It only takes a moment. Thanks!

List #2 - 10 Things I Won't Leave My Urban Dock Without Having In My Sea Kayak,

Even Though the Coast Guard Doesn't Say I Have To Have Them!

Part 2 of my participation in Tillerman's Group Writing Project, "Lists".

Actually this was the list I'd first set out to do on Tuesday night, but then I decided that maybe before I talked about the things I always have even though they aren't required, it would make sense to talk about the things that ARE required, particularly since there just aren't that many of those.

Tonight it's on to 10 of the non-required things that I always always always have along.

Really, they all just make sense & almost all of them are going to be items that most conscientious kayakers (maybe even conscientious boaters in general) carry, so there won't be a lot of explanation (sorry, Tillerman, this isn't going to be nearly as interesting as you might have thought it was).

You'll notice a little overlap with Tuesdays post, because some of these items are items that aren't required ARE recommended on your VSC. Actually, when I first mentioned this idea to Tillerman, the list name was "Ten Things I Won't Leave My Urban Dock Without, Even Though The Coast Guard Doesn't Care" - but looking over the Vessel Safety Check checklist, I realized that that wasn't quite the case. I think there's a difference between "not caring" and "not requiring". As I mentioned on Tuesday, the Coast Guard isn't out there to play nanny - they require the most key items; everything else, they leave to your discretion. Personally, I appreciate that.

BTW, this isn't everything I always carry - just the first 10 that spring to mind.

So without further ado,
here's list number two!
Whoop toodle de do!

1. A VHF. First & foremost, it's a lifeline. I hope to god I never have to use in to call for help - kayakers are a self-reliant lot & for one of us to hit that red key, things would have to be pretty awful - but if I do, I have it. Less dramatically, but still very nice - in more trafficked areas, it saves you the stress of guessing who's going where when. Recommended, not required, but it's always charged & with me.

2. Extra lights, on deck & lit before twilight. CG regs are one white light, ready to show in time to avert a collision. If you were trying to do that on the NYC waterways, you'd give yourself an ulcer keeping an eye on all the boats around you & trying to figure out when it was time to show the light (not to mention that to show the light, you have to stop paddling). I carry a split red-green light for my bow (that's nice where there are lots of headlights & streetlights & stuff, people see that & they know you are a boat, not a reflection), a headlamp that I wear facing backwards, and a 360-degree white stern light that sticks on my back deck with a suction cup. Might be overkill some places, in NYC it just makes sense to totally over-light.

3. A tow rope. Not even mentioned for the VSC but it's a nice long piece of strong line (mine's Spectra, oooh lar lar) neatly stored close at hand & what boater in the world doesn't understand how handy that can be? Sometimes I even tow things with it.

4. A spare paddle. Paddles break, and although you could theoretically get yourself home paddling canoe-style, it's a heck of a lot easier to just pull out the extra paddle.

5. A space blanket. It lives in the first-aid kit bag (actually another recommended, not required item I always have along). In ten years I've only broken mine out once but that one time - boy, was I happy to have it! I usually have some extra outer layers along - but that day, it was one of those gruesome, humid NYC scorchers, the paddling plan wasn't particularly ambitious & a windbreaker just slipped my mind. We ended going ashore on Canarsie Pol to wait out a thunderstorm we'd been silly enough to get caught while chasing fish. One of us had a jacket which he put on. The other two of us got drenched. Felt fabulous at first but then we started to actually get chilly, at which point it hit me that of course I had my space blanket, which turned out to be big enough to share. Made the wait much less miserable & I was very glad I had it.

6. A compass. I have one that's supposed to mount on the deck that I've never gotten around to mounting. In the multi-year interim, I have a little Silva orienteering compass that lives in my PFD. The NYC area isn't as notorious for fog as, say, Maine, but every once in a while you can get a proper pea-souper.

7. Food & drink. At the very least, no matter how short the paddle, there's always at least an energy bar in my PFD. Smart motorboaters always make sure they have more fuel than they need to get where they're going, right? Food is kayak fuel. And cookies are good for morale. On the drink side - as much water as I think I'll need & then an extra bottle or two so I won't run out & have some to share if somebody else doesn't. I'm not saying I'm always smart enough to remember to drink enough of it - but I don't leave the dock without it. In the winter I add at least one thermos of something hot & sweet (the sugar's good for energy); preferably hot cider, the unfiltered kind, with a cinnamon stick in it. If I forgot to buy cider, then it's hot tea with honey, or cocoa (none of yer watery Swiss Miss crap, either, I make my cocoa with milk and Ghirardelli Chocolate Hazelnut Cocoa). Again, I try to bring enough to share - in this case, it's not just about morale - hot sweet drinks help the body handle cold.

8. A small repair kit. OK, for shorter paddles sometimes that consists of duct tape & a knife. But with that & a couple other items that I usually have, if I happened to hole my boat on a submerged piling or something, I'd be able to patch things up enough to get myself back to the club.

9. A pump. I may not have it out on deck if I'm paddling with a group of friends, but it's always in one of the hatches.

10. Last but not least - and maybe the most specifically urban of all the non-CG-required things I carry - money. Actually, it's my whole purse now that I've gone to Sebago, where there are a lot more people coming & going, gates & doors left open - I've never had anything stolen at Sebago, knock wood, but my purse is only one non-paddling item I take to the club that would both really tempt a person to swipe it & it would wreck a nice day if they did. So I just take the whole thing with me. It's also actually quite a good way to keep my keys close at hand & easy to find on land (you need them for the padlocks on the clubhouse & the containers) but securely stashed, zipped in & very unlikely to go in the water when I move to the dock. In Manhattan, the situation was a little more secure & the locks were combination, so the main thing was cash. I always carried a twenty in a lifejacket pocket & I would joke about it being my urban emergency kit. It wasn't really a joke, though, the idea was that if I got in real trouble, I'd take out somewhere & use the cash to get home. I only ended up having to do that once, with a friend on a trip that went quite badly wrong. Complicated story, Murphy's law was in full & frightening effect that day. I have never in all my life been quite so happy to throw in the towel as I was that day. What a relief it was to get my totally wiped-out friend/client off the water at the South Street Seaport. We got permission to leave the boats until we could retrieve them, we packed up our stuff, grabbed our paddles, I pulled out the "urban emergency kit" and pretty soon we were back at Manhattan Kayak. Good end to a bad day.

And that's it for the list, too! There's definitely more stuff I carry - but it's past my bedtime & I actually think that this list of 10 does cover the stuff I really do always have along, even on the shortest paddle.

At least in my sea kayak.

Due to the complete absence of hatches, surfski's a different matter entirely!

Another Murphy's Law Corollary? - and Welcoming Neighbors!

Remember that post I did a little while ago about corollaries to Murphy's Law?

There were actually some good ones offered.

Got hit by another one today. Not quite sure what the wording is, but here's how it played out:

My home computer is an 8-year old Dell. It was still working fine as far as basic functions, but for various reasons, I've been meaning to finally get a new one.

I bought one last night.

It comes home on Monday.

Guess what happened when I turned on the old one this morning?

No prizes for this one!

Signing off from Kinko's in Columbus Circle (where there are bleachers ready for Thursday's big parade)

Bonnie

oh, almost forgot - went to a really nice party out on the Rockaway Peninsula today - had to go meet the new neighbors!

That's going to be fun!

Late night update...had one idea about something that might work. It did. Yay!

Signing off from Brooklyn!

Here's Columbus Circle and the bleachers for the big day:

A Corollary to Murphy's Law.

OK, so there have got to be a lot but I'd like to offer up corollary number, oh, probably eighty-six or so, inspired by a pretty rough first couple of days back in the office. Vacation? Was I on vacation?

Anyways, here ya go, pearl o' whiz-dumb from Not-So-Happy Bonnie...

Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.

Corollary 86: The more important it is that everything go right, the greater the probability is that it won't.

Any other good corollaries out there?