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Mary Malmros
 
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Default Kayak-canoe ramp designs


Sounds like a great thing! I have to say, it's unusual to see parks
folks actively designing to accomodate self-powered craft.

The ramp angle is a factor. It doesn't have to be terribly steep
for a tired beginner to tip over backwards trying to carry their
boat up after a lesson ;-) A mild angle is a good thing.

Another thing you may want to consider is to post no swimming signs,
and if there's a swimming beach nearby, note on signage there that
the area near the ramp is off-limits. We used to hold kayak rolling
sessions near a ramp such as you describe, in a pond that also had a
popular swimming beach. We thought that we were being good cits by
confining our activities to the boat ramp, but over and over again,
we would have to contend with swimmers who insisted on swimming near
the boat ramp. Swimmers tend to assume that boaters always see
them, know where they are, and can avoid them -- a very bad
assumption, particularly when the swimmer is periodically submerging
and the kayak is rolling. We would avoid them as best we could, but
polite suggestions that the ramp wasn't a safe place to swim were
generally greeted with curses and you-people rants. We never said
anything to the rangers. Despite the fact that it was obviously a
boat ramp, they took a very dim attitude towards the presence of
boats on THEIR pond -- non-motorized ones, that is; motorized ones
were just fine -- and if we'd said anything, they would have given
us the boot.

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Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield,
Other days you're the bug.