In March 2012 Yamaha announced a new stainless steel propeller guard for outboards on flood rescue boats in the UK and made several statements about how great it was, how well it performed, and even how prop guards were necessary when people were in the water near the boat. About October we became aware of Yamaha’s new propeller guard. In mid October we began posting
Most college students in engineering and design take one or more design project classes, often a Senior Capstone Design Projects Class, in which they work individually or as teams to develop solutions to problems. We are trying to tap this resource and encourage students to consider selecting design projects related to propeller safety. More student design projects would help grow the body of knowledge available
Thanks to the many marine firms contributing to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Evinrude Announces Assistance for Victims of Hurricane Harvey STURTEVANT, Wis., August 30, 2017 – BRP, a world leader in powersports, announced today the company will be assisting those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Evinrude has deployed equipment and resource support to the affected areas. In addition, Evinrude will match donations made by company employees
In a 31 August 2017 press release, Mercury Marine announced they were donating ten inflatable boats and thirty 6 horsepower outboards to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. They noted they also donated a 40 horsepower outboard motor to Boots on the Ground, a non-profit veterans organization assisting veterans and qualified civilians in providing assistance on the ground in disasters. A big thanks to Mercury for their
An 18 July 2017 Centerport Yacht Club propeller accident claimed the life of 12 year-old Ryan Weiss. Three boys learning how to sail were with a sailboat that had been capsized on purpose as a training exercise. One of the boys, Ryan Weiss, was picked up by a RIB piloted by an 18 year old sailing instructor. As the RIB accelerated to bring Ryan to
NBC Channel 4, Washington D.C., aired a series of stories on boat design defects on 16 August 2017. The series focuses on: Two families: (1) family of Ryan Batchelder, 7 year old boy killed by a boat propeller in Georgia in 2014, and (2) family of Niki Bell, struck by a boat propeller in California in 2006 at age 22. The two accidents, both individuals
The boating industry has been plagued with certain boat propeller safety hazards / issues for decades, some for over a century. While progress have been made on many fronts, some problems remain perpetual / eternal. Some solutions that have been applied have failed, others have wilted on the shelves for a variety of reasons. Some Perpetual Boating Safety /Propeller Accident Scenarios As a result of
Engineering Tools Provide Solutions to Long Standing Boat Propeller Safety Issues The boating industry repeatedly just sticks it head in the sand regarding long standing propeller safety issues. We suggest its time to go back to the drawing board on Perpetual boat propeller accident scenarios, like the Perpetual Propeller Accident Scenarios identified in a related post. Effective, practical, economical solutions need to be identified, tested,
The Leash, a tether for large outboard motors, entered the market in early 2016. They especially focus on preventing bass boat outboard motors from entering the boat after striking a floating, submerged, or fixed object. Their patent application was filed 22 December 2015 and published 18 months later on 22 June 2017 by the U.S. Patent Office as Publication Number US2017/0174303 A1. Roy John Grohler
In December 2013 we published a report, Approaches to Prevent Outboard Motors From Flipping Into Boats After Striking Floating or Submerged Objects in which we identified several ways to prevent outboard motors from breaking off and flipping into boats after striking submerged objects. One of those was was active trim control (see pages 33-34 of our report) by using a magnetic fluid in the trim
We have previously written extensively on log strike testing, the variables involved, and more specifically on trying to prevent outboard motors from breaking off and entering boats after striking floating or submerged objects. This installment focuses purely on durability testing of prototype outboards. It does NOT address the issue of outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats, the need to make sure production outboards
Three boys in a sailing class at Centerport Yacht Club on the north side of Long Island, New York were out sailing in Northport Harbor Tuesday afternoon 18 July, 2017. Their boat was capsized on purpose as part of a man overboard exercise. Two of the boys stayed with the sailboat. The third boy was picked up by an 18 year old sailing instructor on