NYCkayaker HPBG reports saved for posterity thanks to Bruce Taterka

[ralph diaz]

Thanks for the information.  I had forgotten that Bruce had the memos on his
website.

An aside regarding the lighting system.  The third paragraph mentioned the
idea of having a special flashing light for human powered boats.  This was
really a wolf in sheep's clothing.  It had been proposed by harbor interests
that wanted us off the water.  Their point was something like "Gee, we
really want to help you.  Let's see if we can find some strobe that would be
distinct from others.  Then we can work legislation through channels to make
them official.  Meantime while we conduct studies, frame regulations and get
them past, you will have to stay off the waters at night,  OK?"  The process
would have dragged on for years, perhaps forever.

Another idea being cooked up by those same interests was to set up special
areas in which kayakers/rowers could paddle.  For example, we could operate
only in a corridor a narrow distance from the pier heads.  Also, paddlers
would not be allowed to cross the river except at some specific locations,
spaced quite a distance apart.  If we had agreed to any of this it would
have been death by slow strangulation.  Forgotten was that we, like other
boaters, had absolute freedom of the seas, period.  Except of course for
security zones, something that did not happen until later after 9/11.

Be wary of any one offering to cut a special deal for you.

ralph diaz


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <bonnie13 at earthlink.net>
To: "nykayak" <nyckayaker at rockandwater.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:31 PM
Subject: NYCkayaker HPBG reports saved for posterity thanks to Bruce Taterka


> Somebody checked my blog this morning looking for info on Ralph Diaz
lighting survey - I do have a link on a description I did of a funny problem
I had with my Tektite Navlite (turns out that the LED's are so efficient
that the batteries actual start DENTING from repeated contacts long before
they run out! - but looking at the log I don't think Google put 'em on the
right post to find it.
>
> Bruce Taterka posted both of the reports that the Human-Powered Boating
Group did on his Delaware & Hudson Canoe & Kayak Club.
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~taterka/LightMemo.html
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~taterka/FerryMemo.html