ORIGINAL: Justaddwata
Curious which club this is John. I remember going to a race a few years ago in CT on a pond that was shared by Kayaks etc. At one point it looked like one of the Kayaks was trying to see how close to the course they could get. I was surprised they did not stop the race. One pit man told me ''when a boat gets close enough to the Kayak they usually back away''. Perhaps this is more common than thought. Another guy had a problem with me bringing up the subject and that the Kayak was still a long way off the course. I would say it was less than 50 yards from the far buoy. I would be nervous racing with such an obstacle.
Thing is - I was surprised to see any other personal craft using the same small pond as a sanctioned race.
I am a member of the Greater Hartford Model Boat Club. We use the Mansfield Hollow State Park reservoir which is not a small pond. Yes we have other boat traffic on the reservoir but we share it quite well. If a fishing boat comes near, we ask them to move away and there is typically no problem. The same goes for an occasional kayak. We will delay a race start if the area is not clear and will stop a race if someone approaches to close to the race course and doesn't heed our request to leave the area. I am typically the CD for our NAMBA District 11 races and the safety of full scale boats on the water and on shore spectators is paramount. This is a state managed facility and we do our best to keep it safe for everyone. An incident with a full size boat would likely cause us to loose this site. If you were at our site seeing the situation you mentioned, I am surprised. There may have been a stand-in CD at the time since I do split my time between boating and my model airplane activity. Typically comments from non club members can be taken with a grain of salt. If you witness a situation like you mentioned, the thing to do is talk to the CD.