PropellerSafety.com

Archive for January 2012

Call for Student Propeller Safety Project Sponsors

We have seen some great student propeller safety research projects through the years. In an effort to encourage more college students to consider propeller safety projects for Senior Design Projects, Project Classes, Senior Thesis, Capstone Projects, and Thesis, we created a post to attract them, Research Projects for Senior Design Classes, Masters Thesis Projects, & […]

Propeller Guard CFD: Oliver Lee Thesis

Propeller Guard Design: An Investigation Using CFD. Oliver Lee. University of Sydney (Australia). November 2011. We are thrilled to welcome this Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of propeller guards into the library of academic research studies on propeller guards by college students around the world. We also proud to have been a small part of […]

Cushioned Propeller Guard – Senior Design Project

Marine drive companies have long employed damping / cushioning technologies to protect marine drives, most typically trim cylinder log strike systems that allow the drive to swing back, up, and over underwater obstacles. Recent years have brought several through hull drives to the market, most prominently Volvo Penta’s IPS, and Brunswick’s / Cummins Mercruiser Diesel […]

USCG BARD as a Tool for Boating Safety Continuous Improvement

The U.S. Coast Guard BARD (Boating Accident Report Database) is a vehicle for driving continuous improvement in boating safety, however, it is not being widely used. We suggest all boat builders closely monitor their boats in all kinds BARD reported accidents, develop and test solutions where needed, and use those solutions to continuously improve the […]

Deondra Scott v. Allen, Orzolek, and Chaparral Boats

Deondra Scott was swimming behind a rented boat at North Carolina’s annual Lake Norman Lake Bash on June 25, 2011. A novice operator backed over her, then went forward over her striking her twice with the Chaparral boat’s propeller. Scott filed suit against the boat operator (Dennis Allen), the boat rental operation (David Orzolek), and […]

Estate of David Paul McFarlin and Jamie Laass vs. Brunswick Corporation (Mercury Marine and Lund Company) and Others

A young boy, David Paul McFarlin, was killed in a May 31, 2010 Storm Lake Iowa boating accident. A Labor Day boat outing on Storm Lake became a tragedy when their 175 horsepower Mercury Marine outboard motor struck a submerged dredge pipe on Storm Lake, the Mercury outboard flipped backwards into the boat, and David […]

Propeller Accidents Similar to the McGarrigle Accident: Mercury Said There Were None – Our Findings Indicate Otherwise

In McGarrigle v. Mercury Marine Mercury claims McGarrigle’s accident is the first one of its kind involving one of the over 750,000 tiller outboards (portable outboards) they built from 1986 to July 2007. We suspect there were several more. This post documents our quick search for others. Our Mercury Marine Tells Court the McGarrigil Accident […]