Bay Area Sea Kayakers
Posted by: Peter-CA
on Dec-05-12 1:34 PM (EST)
You didn't say what type of kayaking...
BASK had a conversation about this on their lists a few years back. And Roger Schumann came to a meeting and had some people try using a throw bag from sitting in their seats. Distance and accuracy is pretty low when sitting in a boat. And when you pull on the throw rope after throwing it to the other person, who is getting pulled to who? if the person you threw to is a swimmer, and you are in a boat, the pulling will cause the thrower to go to the swimmer, not the other way around.
This came from an incident that was written up in Sea Kayaker Magazine rescue/incident section where a guy was rock gardening off of Marin and trying to run one slot but got washed into another slot. A throw rope was used in the end to get him out. The throw rope thrower (TonyJ) had climbed out of his boat on to a rock and threw it from there.
The general agreement now seems to be for white water and maybe rock gardening (where you likely would get out of the boat to throw it), a throw rope works. For touring boats, a tow line is better.
That all said, I don't carry a throw rope.