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Anyone see first hand or hear about a swimmer being hit (run over while in the water) by a windsurfer around 5:45 pm on Friday at Watermans in WA ?
Kev
No. But geez they are hard to see when coming into the shore late in the afternoon and looking into the sun.
And it is usually small kids in the water with little appreciation of the dangers of an oncoming windsurfer, or kiter.
If the reflection off the water is straight into your eyes it is almost impossible to see what's in the glare.
My advice to everyone is to be REALLY careful when close to the shore with the sun in your eyes.
A sliced and diced kid in the water will result in some very severe restricions being placed on winsurfing in some areas.
I know there was a kid who got hit by kite strings there a few weeks ago.
There is a warning sign ("warning windsurfers frequent this area") like at mettams. I thought that gave us the rights to do anything we want !
Well of course it does. Slice and dice all you like if there is a sign up.
I mean that's what the sign is for isn't it?
I'm talking about if there is NO sign.
i.e a "STRICTLY NO SLICING AND DICING" zone. 
All jokes aside, it was/is a serious question.
Besides any injuries sustained by the swimmer, what would be the possible legal ramifications of hitting a swimmer while sailing ?
Well hard to say Kev. If he was the only swimmer and it was seriously windy with obstructed vision due to waves / wind spray, and the swimmer entered the water 200m away and swam towards the windsurefers, then if the swimmer sued the windsurfer there would be a good defence that he did not reasonably expect a swimmer to be there.
If however there was 100 swimmers there on a nice day for swimming (ie not windy) and one lone windsurfer entered the water on his formula gear in the middle of them, and starts planing around thru the swimmers and even worse showing off / spraying them ....... (I'd call that "kite style") ....... then different story
not that am proud ofjavascript:insertsmilie('
')i scraped one 2yrs back i jumped into the water and lifted the kid out of the water lucky no dices..that really scared the crap out of me..now if there are a bunch of kids swimming i make sure of distance and no one's bobbing beneath
Still waiting for the full story from the sorce but it seems it was one swimmer, out past the break, setting sun, and a decent seabreeze.
2 or 3 other sailors out.
Sign at beach highlighting windsurfers frequent the area.
Not sure about any insurance held by sailor... unlikely
More info about incident...
Swimmer was floating around behind the break... not swimming laps or moving, making it very difficult to see him.
Older guy not a kid.
Setting sun, no clouds and serious glare.
Sign posted as Windsurfers Frequent area.
Two or three other sailors were out.. one of which provided ice to the initial sailor trying to help the guy.
Bit of a scene to passer by's about being hit and the resulting pain and immobility.
Potential legal action implied by swimmer.
Number plate of sailor taken but no name as a result of implied threat of legal action.
Kev
What about the old 4knots 400metres from the beach rule?
Thats stands firm for all watercraft.
Blokes got a right to bob about in the ocean without getting run over.
We need a technical solution - forward scanning passive sonar that will not only warn us about miscellaneous blokes bobbing about in the ocean and turtles but will also tell us when its too shallow for our fins. You know it makes sense.
Sailor was/is a regular
Any more info on the swimmers condition and potential legal action ?
