Flying past a kayak, or other small craft, full out and within 50 feet, is like passing a cyclist in your vehicle without giving them some space, or like driving down the road with two wheels and a headlight over the center line. The other people cannot know what you are going to do, and they do not have the time/ability to get out of your way. They have no control over your vehicle.
Something I'll never forget happened to me when I was just 18 years old. It was in the early 80's and I had a pretty big car, Mercury Montego. I was driving down a small two lane road, speed limit of 40, and came upon a kid who popped out from a neighborhood side street and started riding his bike on the shoulder. The rest of this story happened in about 5 seconds time. I started to go around him but we were right at a blind curve, so I saw that I couldn't get in the other lane. Even at 18, I decided I should slow down and just take it easy until we got around the curve. So, my foot was on the brake and I was down to about 15 mph... when the kid's tire bumped the asphalt and he lost control. He wrecked and fell into the road, head and shoulders. I stopped and all was well. If I had not decided to lower the risk in that situation, I would have ran over that boy. Back then, I probably would not have been in a lot legal trouble, but my life would have been wrecked if I had killed or seriously hurt him. There is no place that has to be got to so quickly as to risk a life.
Accidents happen, but there is no reason to make them more likely to happen.
(just food for thought)
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