Propeller Safety Blog

Pontoon Boat propeller warning from Aiden Mckitrick’s mother

Posted by Gary

· Friday, March 3rd, 2017 at 11:04 AM

· 2 Comments

Aiden Mckitrick and his mom
clipped from WFAA video

Back on May 5, 2016, three year old Aiden McKitrick fell from the front of a pontoon boat and was entrapped on the propeller.
We posted coverage of his accident at that time.

Now (early March 2017) about ten months after Aiden’s accident on Lake Ray Hubbard in Texas, his mother is speaking out with a warning to parents.

WFAA (ABC channel 8 of Dallas, Texas), carried her story in a 2 March 2017 newscast. The news story is accompanied by an emotional video in which she tries to alert others of how her son was nearly killed by pontoon boat propeller.

Aiden’s mother, Kelly Mckitrick, is a nurse and his father is a firefighter. His father helped extract him from the propeller, and his mother has played the role that only a mother can in his recovery.

His mom says, “When they raised the propeller up that’s when my husband saw his intestines hanging out and his leg was mangled.” Read More →

2 Comments

Categories : Preventing Propeller Accidents

Tags : Mckitrick, pontoon boat, Propeller Accident

NBSAC 95 on outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats

Posted by Gary

· Friday, February 24th, 2017 at 01:04 PM

· No Comments

The U.S. Coast Guard National Boating Safety Advisory Council met for its regularly scheduled NBSAC 95 meeting April 21-23, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia.

Minutes of that meeting were posted in October 2016.

We have spent considerable effort in recent years encouraging NBSAC to:

Recognize outboard motors are breaking off and entering boats with their propellers still running after striking floating or submerged objects, and that this accident scenario is often associated with bass boats.
Increase awareness level of this accident scenario

As we recently closely read the April 2016 NBSAC meeting minutes we noticed they did mention this accident scenario, but they described it in a manner we have never seen or heard before.
We find that quite odd, since several members of the committee and other industry representatives present were well associated with the problem.

NBSAC 95 minutes composite

The image above is a composite of pages 1,7, and 8 of the minutes. Read More →

No Comments

Categories : Outboard Flipped Into Boat

Tags : bass boats, flipped, NBSAC, USCG

Design Chart for Preventing Outboard Motors From Entering Boats updated

Posted by Gary

· Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 at 01:58 PM

· 1 Comment

Back in July 2016, we posted a chart for use in designing and testing outboard motors in a way to prevent them from breaking off and entering boats when striking submerged objects.

Today we are posting an updated / enhanced version of that chart. The new chart specifically identifies three more potential design / testing paths to achieve the objective.

Flip In Design Chart

1 Comment

Categories : Outboard Flipped Into Boat

Tags : bass tournament, design, flipped

Open Letter to Fell Marine / Mob + wireless lanyard / kill switch

Posted by Gary

· Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 at 06:09 PM

· No Comments

To: Fell Marine
From: PropellerSafety.com
15 February 2017

We were thrilled to see your entry into the wireless lanyard / kill switch market in the United States.
We recently posted coverage of your MOB+ device after which I dropped you an email asking you contact us after the Miami International Boat Show in response to a few questions we had. My email quickly received an automatic response and yeterday we were contacted by a gentleman in Norway who included a couple others in the email conversation, including a gentleman in the U.S. The email was very informative and inviting to learn more about your product.

MOB+ image from Fell Marine web site

We will visit with you after the boat show about our questions specific to MOB+, but thought of several more general topics related to kill switches we would like to share with you that might be of interest to others as well. So I posted this portion of my conversation with you here as an open letter on the topic.

Much of the content of this email will come from some of our previous posts on these topics. Read More →

No Comments

Categories : Our Thoughts on Propeller Safety Topics

Tags : circle of death, kill switch, lanyard, wireless lanyard

USCG to Issue Debris Warning for San Francisco Bay 15 February 2017

Posted by Gary

· Wednesday, February 15th, 2017 at 06:51 AM

· No Comments

We have been following the rising waters in California which the industry was first touting for the additional sales it would generate as many lakes had been down a while depressing marine sales there.

Now as waters continue to rise, California faced/faces continuing issues at the Lake Oroville Lake spillway evacuation, and now the United States Coast Guard is said to be planing to issue a debris warning for San Francisco Bay today.

ABC News 7 of San Francisco released a video when they learned of the debris warning planning to be issued Wednesday 15 February. They note much debris is still floating down into the bay from the Sacramento Delta.

We cover the hazards of marine drives striking floating debris on PropellerSafety.com including the possibility of outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats while still under power when striking floating debris at speed.

We suspect high waters will increase debris in many California waters, especially impacting bass tournament fishing. We encourage everybody to be extra safe out there and lookout for debris.

We will post the debris warning when it is released.

Meanwhile, Pressure-Drop, a sailing forum, has some great satellite, aerial, and on water photos of the status of the region. The also have a nice discussion of flow rates at the bridges and how and why they differ at the surface near bridges.

No Comments

Categories : Outboard Flipped Into Boat

Tags : debris, flipped

MOB + Wireless Cut-Off Switch from Fell Marine

Posted by Gary

· Wednesday, February 8th, 2017 at 08:25 PM

· No Comments

Fell Marine will be showing MOB+, their wireless kill switch at the Miami International Boat Show this week per their 8 February 2017 press release. They will be in the Fugawi Software booth and have two center console boats on the water in Mag Bay Yachts slips.

MOB+ image from Fell Marine web site

MOB is a popular nautical abbreviation for Man OverBoard.

Fell Marine has partnered with Mag Bay Yachts of Adelanto to install MOB+ on all their future boats.

Fell Marine is a subsidiary of a Norwegian firm, Fell Group AS.

Fell Marine’s MOB+ literature repeatedly touts its electronics do not interfere with existing systems on your boat or other wireless systems.

They say their product brings style, design, and comfort to this market, and their system can be restarted by those remaining on board just 6 seconds after someone has been ejected. Read More →

No Comments

Categories : New Products

Tags : Fell Marine, lanyard, MOB+, Propeller Safety, wireless lanyard

Worst Boat Propeller Warning Ever: nausea category

Posted by Gary

· Wednesday, February 8th, 2017 at 04:48 PM

· No Comments

Over the years we have seen many boat propeller warnings that were not as effective as they should have been for all kinds of reasons. Over the last 40 plus years I have looked at thousands of warnings on many kinds of equipment and none of them have ever made me sick.

All that changed Friday 3 February 2017 when we walked the Tulsa Boat Show and my eyes encountered the warning below.

Super Air Nautique GS aft facing seat warning – closeup port seat

Just attempting to read the warning while the boat was sitting on the trailer made me nauseous. I called Lora over to try to read it, she looked at it and turned toward me with a very perplexed look on her face. Read More →

No Comments

Categories : Preventing Propeller Accidents

Tags : Propeller Safety, Warnings

Virginia Tech drone impact tests: dejavu boat propeller guard tests

Posted by Gary

· Saturday, January 21st, 2017 at 08:34 PM

· No Comments

Virginia Tech researchers have been studying ways to make drones safer, including simulating drones crashing into humans. Drones share air space with humans, just like boats share water space with humans.

Drone impact testing

Virginia Tech released the video above on YouTube 6 January 2017.

While recreational drones crashing into humans is relatively recent event, boats have been doing it since the days of Noah. Boats, outboard motors, propellers, and propeller guards have been impact tested against a range of objects to simulate human impacts, including anthropometric dummies and cadavers. Read More →

No Comments

Categories : Testing Propeller Guards

Tags : drones, impact testing, Mercury Marine, propeller guard, research, testing

State of Maryland files against boat rental operation in propeller fatality

Posted by Gary

· Saturday, January 21st, 2017 at 04:40 PM

· No Comments

Kaden Frederick
cropped from Daily Mail image

9 year-old Kaden Frederick was on the bow of a rented pontoon boat Wednesday afternoon August 17, 2016 near Ocean City, Maryland. The pontoon boat was running about half speed as he dangled his legs over the bow. Three others sat on the bow beside him. We previously covered the accident.

Kaden fell over the boat and was struck by the propeller. Veteran police officials described his injuries as horrific. Kaden later died from his injuries. In response to this accident, a Maryland regulation has since been proposed to specifically ban bow riding / bowriding.

Under the Bridge Watersports rented the pontoon boat out that was involved in the accident. Tyler Barnes owns OC Watersports which operates Under the Bridge Watersports.

Maryland Natural Resources Police have filed several charges against Tyler Barnes and OC Watersports including renting a boat out without the proper equipment, renting a boat without a plate showing the boat’s maximum capacity, failing to keep records for law enforcement agencies, and negligent operation of a vessel.

As to proper equipment they were short two life jackets to have enough for everyone on board, however the boat had a capacity of 15 but there were 17 on board. The negligent operation count has to do with allowing an overloaded boat to leave their dock.

If they were fined the maximum amount on all counts, the fine would be less than $700 per The Dispatch (Ocean City).

A hearing is set for 17 February 2017.

UPDATE

On 20 January 2017 the boat operator was charged in New Jersey’s Worcester County District Court with negligent operation of a boat. The operator has acknowledged he knew 4 people were bow riding in front of the front fence of the pontoon boat. News reports indicate the maximum penalty for such a charge is $500.

No Comments

Categories : Legal Shorts

Tags : bow riding, pontoon boat, Propeller Accident, rental boat

Ejected from bass boat: kill switch saves them on VIDEO

Posted by Gary

· Wednesday, January 18th, 2017 at 10:41 AM

· No Comments

Hunter Bland and Conner Young are members of the University of Florida Bass Fishing Team. Saturday January 14, 2017 Bland and Conner were fishing in the FLW bass tournament on Lake Seminole along Georgia’s border with Florida. It looks like the accident may have occurred shortly after blastoff as they are following a wake and several boats run by them to their left. Bland and Young are running about 57 mph, the boat’s hydraulic steering is thought to have malfunctioned, the large outboard motor fliped all the way to the side and the boat swerved hard right. They were both ejected.

The accident was captured by an onboard GoPro camera providing the first ever bass boat ejection video we are aware of. The video is remarkably stable, in high resolution, and even provides a slow motion view. Fittingly, it opens with a scripture.

Ejected from bass boat

No Comments

Categories : Propeller Accident Report

Tags : bass boat, bass tournament, circle of death, ejected, kill switch

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PropellerSafety.com

Pontoon Boat propeller warning from Aiden Mckitrick’s mother

NBSAC 95 on outboard motors breaking off and flipping into boats

Design Chart for Preventing Outboard Motors From Entering Boats updated

Open Letter to Fell Marine / Mob + wireless lanyard / kill switch

USCG to Issue Debris Warning for San Francisco Bay 15 February 2017

MOB + Wireless Cut-Off Switch from Fell Marine

Worst Boat Propeller Warning Ever: nausea category

Virginia Tech drone impact tests: dejavu boat propeller guard tests

Drone impact testing

State of Maryland files against boat rental operation in propeller fatality

Ejected from bass boat: kill switch saves them on VIDEO

Ejected from bass boat

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