Here's an example of a 13 foot open kayak. Essentially, a canoe. OK for going down a calm river in summer. Only an idiot would take one out into deep water far from shore.
Posted on 09/03/2018 6:10:14 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
The family from Loyal, Wisconsin, set out from Madeline Island in an open-top tandem kayak Thursday for a 4-mile (6-kilometer) paddle across open water to Michigan Island. But their 13½-foot (4-meter) kayak capsized after the wind picked up. Eric Fryman, 39, and his three children, Kyra, 9, Annaliese, 5, and Jansen, 3, were found dead in the frigid water. Only his wife, the children’s mother, Cari Mews-Fryman, 29, survived. All of them wore life jackets. Coast Guard officials said hypothermia was probably a major factor in the deaths, especially of the children.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
My daughter and son in law were reciently there and even went out at night, beautiful photos.
I'm now extra happy they went with a local guide, the first night was no go, too windy. Grandma stayed with the grandkids.
5 people in a 13 1/2 foot boat?
And the boat is a kayak, which normally has small holes for a person to sit in. How did they all fit in?
Sounds like an ill-considered voyage. RIP.
A couple years ago, my daughter called and told me she and her roommate were planning a backpack trip to Manitou Island, near the tip of the Lower Peninsula.
I asked how they were getting to the island and she said they were going to take Grandma’s canoe.
“NO”
I told her that I’m a good canoer and there is no way I’d paddle none miles across open water without a chase boat.
Many two person kayaks are now open top. There’s enough room for one kid but not three
The only five-person kayak I could find was 25’
The article said it was a “Tandem” kayak. That would mean there were holes for the two adults, and they somehow stuffed the kids in with them.
Lake Superior is COLD. Current water temp at Manitou Island is 61 degrees.
Throw a couple of kids in the drink without a wetsuit and they’ve got maybe a couple of hours before they die from hypothermia.
Have they never heard the Edmund Fitzgerald song?
“The article said it was a “Tandem” kayak. That would mean there were holes for the two adults, and they somehow stuffed the kids in with them.”
The article says it was on open-to kayak. That means there were no holes.
What is the “safety plea” in the headline? Nothing more than a teaser designed to get us to read the article.
The government is not responsible for people who do foolish things and put themselves in danger. Your family is very important to you. Don’t risk losing it by going out on a stupid kayak just because it has a funny name and will sound good in a facebook posting.
Here's an example of a 13 foot open kayak. Essentially, a canoe. OK for going down a calm river in summer. Only an idiot would take one out into deep water far from shore.
You are more right than I am.
It said “tandem open-top kayak”, whatever that is. It sounds like a small pointy canoe with very little freeboard.
An open top would make it very vulnerable to taking on water and swamping. Five people would make it too crowded to bail.
My wife and I once took two toddlers in a 14 canoe on a small pond, no waves, glass smooth water, and I thought the canoe was overloaded. With rough water, there is no way that would have worked.
What a shame people continue to be foolish at the tragic expense of children in their care.
I cringe when I see row upon row of these plastic toy boatlets lined up at stores everywhere it seems. I se no flotation in them. They are inherently unstable as well. Just silly dangerous toys.
AP probably doesn’t have much knowledge. ‘Open top’ almost always means ‘sit on top’, and that’s how they are sold. Sit-on-tops are for calm water and casual use.
Looks like there were storms predicted around the area at the time too.
Those kids were not old enough for kayaking.
Never knew that, thanks.
“Superior, they said, never gives up her dead.”
I would never go in one. They do like toys & it seems that in an emergency you could get stuck & not be able to get out.
I’ll take a larger stable boat with a motor. What an absolute tragedy for this family.
I used to live in a town with heavy and frequent railroad traffic; freight and passenger. The annual fatality count was amazingly high, even with all of the safety equipment and flashing lights the government could think up. Same idea; some things you just don't mess with, RIP.
The only way society can redistribute intelligence is to dumb down the bright. You can’t honor people for their superior knowledge. You can’t do anything to restrict the opportunity of the imbecilic.
These open kayaks are very unstable, but they are also unsinkable, and trivial to right. I imagine the waves kicked up under a light breeze, as happens on lakes. The family was probably dumped and recovered several times before they became cold and exhausted. The one that survived — the mother — did so because she was the fattest.
If society doesn’t provide boundaries for the stupid, this sort of thing will happen.
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