Yukihiro Sawamura day 1 of the Bassmaster Kentucky Lake Open bass tournament 2025.

Kentucky Lake has been the site of several outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats during bass tournaments. Among them were Kevin Vires in 2006, David “Scottie” Young in 2007, and the 2013 fatality of Timothy Clippard.

Yukihiro Sawamura’s 2025 Vexus bass boat powered buy a 250 horsepower Mercury Four-stroke outboard motor. Bassmaster image.

On day 2 (March 7, 2025) of the tournament Yukihiro’s 250 horsepower Mercury Marine Four-stroke outboard motor broke free from his Vexus boat. The gearcase broke off the bottom of the drive when it struck something. The powerhead slammed onto the rear deck. The Leash did its job and kept the large outboard motor from fully entering the boat. See photos below that were posted by Precision Sonar. They market The Leash, a tether to prevent outboard motors from entering boats. Precision Sonar’s factory is located near Kentucky Lake. They were able to respond to Kentucky Lake before Yukihiro’s boat was brought back in.

Yukihiro’s Own Words

Yukihiro Sawamura posted about the accident in Japanese. I used Google Translate to convert his post to English which is below.

Yukihiro Sawamura Bassmaster Open Round 2
Kentucky Lake Day 2

An incident that happened as we left the first spot after starting!!

I think I probably hit a rock and the game ended at that point.

It was a shocking accident that could have easily become a catastrophe.

Immediately after the hit, the boat spun 180 degrees, but it rotated smoothly and stopped, so fortunately, the boat and I were safe except for the engine. As the boat was traveling at 70 mph when it was hit, not only was the lower case taken off, but the engine was also blown away.

No doubt this was due to the leash cord that Texas Boat World had set up just in case the engine mount broke and the Kevlar cord was used to prevent it from flying off towards the passengers.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Texas Boat World & SDG Marine for their support, which allowed me to report to Bassmaster and all other parties involved, and most importantly, for the perfect rescue and return to land safely.

And to all of you who have supported us, we would like to deeply apologize for ending Round 2 in this way.