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Archive for The Leash

A New Leash on Life: a tether for outboard motors

The Leash, a tether to prevent outboard motors from flipping into boats, is featured in a four page article in the November / December 2024 issue of Bassmaster, the self proclaimed “Worldwide Authority on Bass Fishing”. Increased speeds of modern bass boats, the popularity of tournament fishing, along with heavier outboard motors, and ever present […]

The Leash saves Wes Logan from outboard motor

Wes Logan, a professional bass angler for Yamaha, fished in the 2024 Lake Champlain Bassmaster Elite tournament. On the morning of Day 2 (August 9, 2024) he caught 4 fish. He was on the move with his Skeeter bass boat out in the middle of Lake Champlain. His outboard motor struck what was thought to […]

The Leash Saves a Family From Outboard Motor

Sam M. and his pregnant wife were participating in a small bass tournament in Indiana in May 2024. They were in a Phoenix bass boat powered by a 200 horsepower Mercury Marine Pro XS outboard motor. While running down the lake, they struck a dredge pipe that was not there two days earlier during practice […]

The Leash at the 2024 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake

We saw The Leash on several boats at the 2024 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake in Grove Oklahoma in March 2024. The photos below show The Leash in action at the Bassmaster Classic. Jamie Hartman Jamie Hartman was running The Leash on a Nitro Z21XL Pro powered by a Mercury outboard. He pulled out early […]

The Leash Saves Bass Angler From Outboard Motor

A bass angler was fishing on Santee Cooper Lake in South Carolina. His Mercury Pro XS outboard motor struck a floating log at about 55 miles per hour. The outboard motor broke off at the swivel bracket during the October 2023 accident. Several large Mercury outboard motor swivel brackets have failed, allowing the outboard to […]

Preventing Outboards Flipping in Boats: Supplement 1

We previously published, Approaches to Prevent Outboard Motors From Flipping Into Boats After Striking Floating or Submerged Objects, and twice updated this extensive list of approaches. Our last update was published in 2018. This time we published a separate 2020 supplement to the 2018 third edition of the report. Many new methods have come on […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mercury patented outboard motor tether in 1969

With all the chatter about The Leash we thought we would point out the first commercially available outboard tether for larger outboards was invented and sold by Mercury Marine. Mercury’s efforts preceded The Leash by nearly 50 years. This post is best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. This post in no way belittles […]