Posted on 09/02/2019 11:17:42 AM PDT by bgill
A new law requires boat operators to wear an emergency engine cutoff switch or a kill switch lanyard starting Sept. 1, 2019.
So what should you know and how can this affect you?
State Game Warden Shane Lewis told ABC 7, kill switches are just as important as wearing a life jacket, and he's glad now they’re legally required. “I’m actually surprised the law hadn’t been into effect prior to this, it’s a very important law and its going to really improve the safety of boating on the water,” said Lewis. “Let’s say that you were ejected from a boat and you were not wearing that kill switch, your boat could then violently stay in motion depending on the speed that is already set in.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abc7amarillo.com ...
I have a 20’ Bryant with a lanyard. Even in a boat that small, I can’t imagine wearing the lanyard while docking in a tight marina. For sure, I’d end up killing the engine by mistake, just when I’d need it.
My pontoon boat came with one from the factory, about 10 years old, however My Jet Boat doesn’t have it and it will stop as soon as I fall out and my foot comes off the Gas Pedal.
Both my Boats are AZ (Colorado River) so I don’t care, but it will give the CA Sheriff Boats another reason to pull over CA boats and extract money for their pensions.
Um, no, the logic doesn’t work for that - if a boat engine stops on a lake, pretty much the boat stops and that’s about it. If an airplane engine stops, the plane crashes and people die.
On the other hand, given the number of idiots that get out of their cars, leave them running and have the car roll away because they’re idiots - well, maybe we should put that in cars too.
I clip it on as an anti-lawyer thing. If something happens, they can’t point to the unused kill switch an say “We no pay you!” Preventative maintenance and all dat rot!
I saw Kali together with kill switch and everything went south from there. I was expecting hi tech thuggees in boats. All that aside, it sounds like something a person would want to do.
I fell out of a boat while driving when I hit a “silent” wake just as I started a turn. It was the first ride of the season and the one time I wasn’t wearing the kill switch. The boat flipped completely upside down, throwing me into the water. No telling how far it would have gone if it hadn’t flipped. As it was, I surfaced just in time to see the prop stop spinning.
He was kidding.
Clip-on switches been in all my bass boats since the late 70’s early 80’s...
Essential piece of common sense... Nothing worse for your psyche than leaving your boat at 70-mph after unexpectedly hitting a towed-barge wake... Or flying out of a wind-protected creek into a main body of water and discover those thrilling 3-4 ft rollers...
My kayak has one, if I fall out it stops moving.
All you have to do is clip the line to something, it don’t have to be you. Clip it to the fishfinder.
Yep. Now they just need something to help overworked parents who forget to drop off their kids at day care or school. There has to be something. I was thinking a daily phone call to the persons boss who would walk to his employee and ask if they dropped the kids off. Lol.
I’ll probably have to get one. I have the lanyard but I get tangled up in it when fishing.
One night I was 11 miles offshore after dark trolling back in with a following wind and waves. I had the lanyard off to untangle one of the lures that was wrapped up in its line. Had my headlamp on, facing stern ward, focusing on untangling the lure. The boat was rocked by a wave from the stern. I fell back back into the console and my backside hit the throttle. Boat roared forward and I was pitched back over the transom. I knew immediately what was happening and dropped but I slid across the stern deck. Luckily this boat has a 2” lip at the back of the stern deck. I got the heel of my left hand against it and that’s what kept me from going in. My chest and head were past the stern. I was wearing my Type-V and PLB but still. Who wants to swim 11 miles then go retrieve their boat from the mangroves?
So yeah, a wireless cutoff is on this winter’s To Do list for my boat.
Meanwhile, no crash effort to implement desalinization plants to alleviate the state water shortage.
No efforts to build more power capabilities.
No efforts to mainline the homeless back into society.
No effort to get our deficit budgets under control.
No effort to put an end to the negative impacts of illegal aliens on our local, regional, state, and federal infrastructure.
The big problems in the state get no attention.
Instead they continually address minor issues and herald them as some of the most brilliant ideas since sliced bread.
Sadly some of our own people fall for it hook line and sinker.
Bingo!
1. If the boat keeps going after he is thrown out.
2. $5.99 at Walmart.
3. keep looking. All new boats less than26 feet will have them.
“Kill switches for boating is completely unnecessary”
Wrong.
You can unhook while at slow speeds.
No. The kill switch works with a lanyard attached to the Operator’s PFD and the ignition. The lanyard must be attached for the boat to start and run. It disconnects when the operator gets too far from the boat’s controls.
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