I think that Evenstar hit the nail on the head in her second post when she said "and the fact that the operators of those boats may not see us".
But, IMHO, the danger is caused more by Captain Bonehead not paying rnough attention to what's around him, or having had one too many "brewskis", or just plain running too fast for the visibility than by running above 45 mph. Sadly, I've seen Captain B at the helm of everything from PWCs to bowriders to cruisers.
There is nothing magical about 45 mph that makes it an intrinsically safe speed; many times and places it's much too fast for the visibility or the crowded conditions, while other times and places it's quite possible to go faster in perfect safety (so long as the operator is keeping a sharp watch).
Certainly 45 mph is not slow enough to make a collision safe. God forbid that it should ever happen, but if a canoe or a kayak gets run over because Captain Bonehead isn't watching where he's going, the results aren't going to be much different whether it happens at 25 mph, 45 mph, or 75 mph.
I'm not without sympathy for the folks that are intimidated by having a boat bearing down on them at high speed. Been there, done that in my younger days racing small sailboats, and I "gay-ron-tee" that having a boat bearing down on you at 45 is still going to produce a very high "pucker factor".
Heck, even in my 29 ft. cruiser I've had the "pucker factor" kick in wondering "does that idiot see me", especially at night. But, short of making the entire lake headway speed at all times, I don't think that we can make it completely safe to share the lake with Captain B when he's not paying attention. Certainly, a 45 mph speed limit will not do the trick, and 25 mph is way, way too fast on a dark, cloudy night.
Besides, as became apparent during the last go around, the root of this whole speed limit effort is really about driving performance boats off the lake!
Silver Duck
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