PropellerSafety.com

Archive for history

Our 501st post

Thought we would take a moment to recognize this is our 501st post since we converted our site to a blog format back on 20 June 2011. Number 500 was published yesterday. Today is 11 July 2020. Over that same time we have had well over half a million visits. While 500 posts is a […]

Farewell to Charlie Strang

Mercury Marine released a statement saying “Mercury Marine mourns loss of Charlie Strang” on 13 March 2018. In that statement, Mercury notes Charles “Charlie” Strang served as Carl Kiekhaefer’s top engineer for 13 years at Mercury Marine. He later served as Director of Outboard Marine Engineering (OMC) and later CEO and Chairman of the Board. […]

Mercury Marine returns to Lake X

At the Miami Boat Show, Mercury Marine announced they are returning to Lake X where many of their products were tested in secrecy years ago. Mercury’s press release states:

ABYC Consolidated Boat Warnings: History of their development

This post is the second of a three part series on the new American Boat & Yacht Council consolidated warnings for recreational boats. We announced the new labels in May 2015 in part 1, our post titled, ABYC Releases Consolidated Boat Warning Labels. History of Development Note – much of our story of the development […]

Boni Buehler – 1953 Boat Propeller Accident

We have been covering boat propeller accidents for a long time and one accident stands out above all the rest in the level of attention it received across the United States. Sixty years ago this August (2013), Boni Ann Buehler was a beautiful young woman living a life with the beautiful people, the rich and […]

UK History of the Boat Kill Cord & Propeller Safety Movement

Nicholas Milligan’s family’s propeller accident at Padstow Harbor generated a tremendous amount of interest in boat propeller safety issues and particularly in the use of kill cords. To place the Milligan accident and the current level of interest in a proper and historical perspective, we wrote a History of Propeller Safety issues in the United […]

History of Boat Propeller Safety Issues & the Propeller Safety Movement

We have long considered trying to create a timeline of recreational boat propeller safety issues, accidents, legal cases, and the propeller safety movement. As a preparatory effort to any future efforts at documenting the history of propeller safety, we created, “A History of Recreational Boat Propeller Safety Issues and the Propeller Safety Movement” We recognize […]

History of Lanyard Kill Switches for Recreational Boats: Inventions, Regulations, Accidents, and Trials

Although the U.S. Coast Guard is still considering regulations that would require boat builders to install kill switches (emergency engine cut-off switches) in all new recreational boats below a certain length and separately considering making their use mandatory, they have been on the market for over 30 years. The basic problem of unmanned boats going […]

Propeller Safety History Repeats Itself, Repeats Itself ….

While reviewing the U.S. Coast Guard’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on boat engine cut-off switches (lanyard kill switches), USCG-2009-0206, we noticed USCG included a 2008 review of their BARD (Boating Accident Report Database) in which USCG identified boat propeller accident injuries and fatalities from 2002 through 2006 that could have been prevented if the […]