PropellerSafety.com

Archive for flipped – Page 2

Suzuki patents outboard tether in Japan in 1992

In January 2016 The Leash was released as a means of preventing bass boat outboard motors striking submerged objects from breaking off and flipping into boats. Previous to The Leash we saw examples of individuals and one state government agency creating their own tethers. We found the Coast Guard recommending home built tethers on bass […]

The Leash awarded 2nd U.S. Patent

The Leash was awarded U.S. Patent 10,435,128 “Outboard Motor Tether” on October 8, 2019. This new patent enhances their patent portfolio increasing their level of patent protection beyond their earlier patent, U.S. Patent 9,771,136. The Leash, a tether to prevent outboard motors from breaking off and flipping into boats, continues to be a popular accessory […]

Rex Chambers passed 15 June 2019

We are sorry to learn of the passing of Rex Chambers, well known professional bass fisherman. He spoke out about outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats after his May 2014 accident on Lake Wheeler in Alabama. In that accident, his 250 horsepower Mercury outboard came in on him and Danny Pettus. Both men […]

The Leash: Bassmaster Tournament: ACA outboard flipped into boat accident

American Christian Academy (ACA) of Tuscaloosa Alabama’s bass fishing team was fishing the 2019 Bassmaster Southern High School Open on Lake Guntersville (Alabama). Mike Wilkins tells the story on video above of how 295 boats took off that morning. Mike, his son Hunter Williams, and another high school angler, Jackson Elder, ran out about 45 […]

Log strike impact mapping / charting invention

Our Log strike impact mapping / charting invention disclosure below was posted on 2 March 2019. We will make no changes to the text below the line following this paragraph except to correct misspellings, punctuation, and to update html/computer codes and links. Any updates to the invention will be posted below the invention disclosure. Log […]

Mercury patents log strike monitoring system

Brunswick / Mercury Marine was issued U.S. Patent 10,214,271 Systems and Methods for Monitoring Underwater Impacts to Marine Propulsion Devices on 26 February 2019. Steven J. Gonring and Mark D. Curtis are listed as the inventors. The patent teaches detecting rate of trim (rate of tilt) to determine an impact occurred. If the drive is […]

Why outboards break off bass boats paper

In our continuing coverage of large outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats it is obvious that most incidents in recent years involve bass boats. Some reasons are obvious: bass boats run fast, bass anglers are in a hurry in bass tournaments, and bass hang out in shallow water. However this paper digs much […]

Barhanovich case settled

Mark Barhanovich was killed when his Suzuki outboard motor struck a dredge pipe alleged not to be properly marked on Sunday morning September 16, 2012 off Biloxi Mississippi near Deer Island. The Suzuki outboard broke off, flipped into his boat. Later that morning, Mr. Barhanovich, a widely known and respected local figure, died from his […]

Kickup bracket with jack plate patent application

David Vance Jr. filed a patent application for a jack plate integrated with a kickup bracket. The kickup portion of the assembly is chained to prevent over rotation of the outboard when a submerged object is struck. The patent application was published 22 November 2018. Mr. Vance, the inventor, says this design is for faster […]

Brunswick Patent Application prevents groundings

Brunswick Patent Application US 2018/0335788 A1 for “Systems and Methods for Raising and Lowering a Marine Device on a Marine Vessel” was published 22 November 2018. The patent application provides some automatic modes for monitoring drive trim, jack plate height, water depth, GPS location, heading, navigational map water depth, speed, throttle position, and other variables […]