is Dune a safe color?

After yesterday, my wife and I wouldn't want a blue kayak.

On our return from a mini coastal vacation, we stopped at Doran Park which is on the North side of Bodega Bay. It was windy, but as usual the position of the park blocks wind most of the time.

We were just south of the major parking lot with the rest rooms and picnic tables. Our position was about 100 ft from the shore at an elevation of about 3-4 feet above sea level, and we were seated in 2' high beach chairs. That would be similiar to setting in a boat at about 4-6' above the water line.

The waves were mild at 2-3'. My wife has 20/20 vision and after my cataract operations I have 20/10 with the adapting/accomodating lenses. I have normal color vision, and my wife's color vision is in the exceptional range.

Shortly after we sat down, to the west, we saw a red coral colored yak come out of Campbell Harbor passage about 3500'-4000' away. It was visible from the bow and on the profile as it turned north into the bay. I could see paddle flashes from what appeared to be a kayak behind the red coral yak, and then a little blue when it (it actually was two blue kayaks) turning north following the red coral yak.

We both lost sight of the blue yak as the coral yak circled it and went back into the harbor. I kept seeing paddle flashes which my wife couldn't see.

We decided to walk towards the harbor mouth. We couln't see the blue yak until we were about 200-400 yards from it. Then, we could tell that it was two yaks.

We walked back to our seats and couldn't see the yaks again. We thought they might have returned into the harbor. About 20 minutes later, I saw two yaks, and it took my wife about another 5 minutes to see them. The yaks were eastbound in the low swells about 100 yards off shore. We never saw them until they were West about 200-300 yards, slowly going east.

They were very visible as they crossed in front of us heading east. At about 200 yards east of our point, we again lost sight of both blue yaks. I could see paddle flashes for another couple of minutes.

Then, we lost sight of them until they returned back to the West, and we saw them at about 200 yards East of us again. Just before they faded out of sight at about 200 yards west, a small craft boat was headed into the harbor vectoring towards them and the harbor at a high speed. The boat handler finally saw them and went to his left to avoid them. Both Yaks got whapped pretty good with the waves, they stabilized and headed again out of our sight into the harbor channel.

If the Yakkers were wearing PFDs, they were dark in color and didn't have a lot of red or yellow on the PFDs.

The link below can show a satellite picture of the area.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Bodega%20Bay&state=CA

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2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

I remember once watching a blue kayak head away from me, on calm water. The paddle had red blades. At the point where I was finding it harder to distinguish the kayak from the water, the moving red of the blades was still very visible.

I like blue, and I have a blue kayak myself, but I use it on inland waters. If I were taking it on the sea, I'd think about having something highly visible to deploy as a signal; an orange plastic survival bag is a useful thing to have along on any trip. Or one of these dedicated "rescue streamers":


But if I buy another kayak with the intention of using it on the sea, I'd probably go for red.

Mary

Your experience was similiar to ours except we got to watch the blue yaks emerge, appear close by and disappear again to repeat the whole process.

The rescue streamer is an excellent emergency tool.

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2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

May I suggest you take a photo of a dune, yellow or 'pink boat and then turn all the 3 photos to grayscale with out Photoshop dickabouts. The darker the grayscale turns out is the more heat it will absorb.
Quite an issue if you sail in tropical or sub tropical waters. Even here in North Pacific the interior of the hull can go ballistic on a very hot day and turn your hull into a possible slap heap.
As for safety a flagpole with a red flag combined with an ADC 'C-Strobe' if you are the nocturnal type should help you. In crowded waters like the Miami waterways, get an airhorn or (a really loud mouthed life partner who has a strong dislike for your Nav skills...

Other than that M8s it has to be more about aesthetics. Really your portable VHF couldn`t care less as to your hull color. Trust me they will find you if it is DSC capable.

Good luck
Trinomite.

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Always looking for ways to make good things 'Gooder'

Fishing offshore in Miami/Ft lauderdale we see a lot of boat traffic. I prefer my yellow Revo over my blue outback because it is visible much further away. Also you will be amazed at how fast neutral color kayaks disappear in rolling waves. I can be fishing with buddies that I know are close by and visually loose them for a few seconds or sometimes even minutes at a time due to the conditions. That being said I have had quite a few close calls with power boats ranging from offshore raceboats running at full throtle, to a skiff with a passenger on the bow obstructing the drivers view, to a sportfisher on auto pilot with all hands eating lunch on the rear deck. I do not like having a flag out because I often fish as many as three rods at once, but I do wear bright colors (which should also help in a rescue). I am going to look into that rescue streamer, hopefully it is compact enough to keep onboard.

http://www.rescuestreamer.com/

Various sizes; they roll up into a compact cylinder. I haven't used one, but found them on the internet and thought it looked like a good idea.

I don't think it would help much making you visible to other boats. It's really to assist helicopter rescue.

Mary

Having done airborn searchs - Dune would match closely with whitecaps, soooo,
if you will be in ocean alot, then....
Also, reflective tape in different colors are much better than hull color
We even taped our flight helmets because it was so much better to see a floating Basketball (Our Heads) in the ocean from a 1000 ft -10,000 ft altitudes

Finally - place reflective tape all over hull ie bottom, sides, ends, so as to reflect for boaters, helos and if the hull is capsized and floating partially
( stay with hull, easier to spot, and some flotation to help with hypothermia)