Do you wear the kill switch lanyard?

[ski6jones]

Saw this on the interweb yesterday. The action begins at 0.33

 

I boat mostly on a small private lake and never felt the need for a kill switch. This video got me thinking.

 

[LZywicki1]

Never had a kill switch until our 2005. That clip to lock to switch in the closed position has never worked properly, opens the switch for no reason so it was jumped out.

[skibug]

What's a kill switch?

[keithh2oskier]

No I bypassed mine after my toddler kept fiddling with it a few times which caused embarrassment when I would go to pull a skier and the boat wouldn't start in front of my friends...

[eleeski]

Dum bass - fishermen.

[oldjeep]

No, it is in the glove compartment. Thankfully Malibu did away with the failure prone spring loaded switches a long time ago and just has a shielded toggle so there is no need to bypass, you just remove the lanyard and flip the switch back to on.

[Horton]

I don't get it. How the hell did they get thrown out of the boat? I don't see how the driver if a tournament-style ski boat can possibly get thrown out unless he's doing something horribly stupid. That video is humorous but I honestly don't see how it applies to 99% of the leadership of this website.

[mwetskier]

do i wear the kill switch lanyard? only at parties.

[MISkier]

@Horton, I think it was speed and the amount of hull in the water. It's sort of like when a hydroplane teeters from pontoon to pontoon and then a slight steering mistake or wake from another boat causes more hull to catch on one side. If you aren't on a line to withstand that sudden pressure or cannot react quickly enough with the wheel to prevent its directional thrust the boat essentially puts on the brakes on that side and darts off quickly in one direction. They're lucky they didn't flip it over.

[gregy]

Lucky guys. Didn't look like they had life vest on. Some of those bass boats can really move.

[ski6jones]

The article says it was a mechanical failure in the steering system, nut/bolt came out. In that case they were lucky to be wearing the kill lanyard.

I could see the driver of a tournament boat getting thrown out of the seat in the case of a steering failure. Most tournament boats have a good bit of torque on the rudder going straight ahead. The tiller is attached to the end of the steering cable by one bolt in applications I've seen. Lose that one bolt and the boat takes an unexpected hard right. Where does the driver end up? Throttle still on mind you.

[sunvalleylaw]

no.

[6balls]

Agree with @horton highly unlikely in a tourney boat. No lanyard on me.

[Bookm_dano]

Never did for years but started wearing it when there's only one person in the boat. Like when I'm pulling my wife or she's pulling me. I agree it would be very unlikely in a tournament style boat.

[Nando]

Before kill switches were installed on tournament boats, Hank Longo's driver/buddy was killed when he slipped out of the boat while retrieving a ski Hank had lost. When he did that, he hit the throttle and the boat ran him over killing him. He actually was caught in the prop and died from drowning while Hank tried to free him. Gruesome, horrible way to go and it still makes me pause when thinking about it. If anything good came of it, it made skiers here pay attention to "pulling the pin" (the neutral lock pin) whenever picking up fallen skiers. We had a guy in an outboard ejected on a lake I ski on a few years ago. The boat was doing the "circle of death" around him. We headed out there, but his boat killed before we got there (battery connection came off somehow)- scared the crap out of us (and him!). I started hooking up last summer after seeing a guy almost flip himself out of a Centurion on our lake when he hit reverse too hard. What's the downside of wearing it, if yours works right?

[Beastmode]

@ski6jones - Anything is possible, but so is getting stuck by lightning. 50+ mph jetskis and bass boats this is a must and due to the high speeds it is easy to lose control crossing other wakes.

[Nando]

Regarding the mechanical failure of a tournament boat, I once had the rudder fall right out of a boat I was driving at 36 with a slalom skier (retainer wire failed, nut backed off- felt fine right until it happened) and all it did was make an easy turn out of the course- no violent movement or anything. Took on water fast, but that was the worst of it.

[MISkier]

@Nando, in AWSA driver training, they specifically discuss that the driver not reach over the side to retrieve anything. I wonder if that stems from your story.

[MattP]

I drive a boat daily for work. The emergency cut off switch saved my life once. I ALWAYS wear it at work.

My personal MC does not have one and I don't wear one when driving a tournament boat.

[Nando]

@MISkier, it might, when we did on the water tournament driver training here after it happened, we sure mentioned it. The fact that it happened to a guy who's pretty involved in AWSA affairs may have brought it to their attention- it's good advice.

[Kelvin]

I could see a tournament boat making a violent turn if the rudder had significant torque on it and the steering cable breaks.

[RPT]

I do not wear the kill switch in our Malibu ski boat, but I always used it in our bass boat along with life jackets the old Allison did over 90 on a slow day.

[Lovell]

I don't wear it or see it as necessary for tournament waterskiers, but I can tell you from personal experience how you can get thrown out of a 1986 Ski Nautique 2001. As noted by @horton you have to do something incredibly dumb which I tried in about 1987 and fortunately my brother and I both escaped unharmed and with a very good story.

[BrennanKMN]

I do not wear one in my ski boat. The places we ski and how we use it would take alot of work to get thrown around. Those seats hold you in pretty well.

 

When I am on my buddies I/O with the seat bolster up bouncing around on big waters I will wear one.

[SkiJay]

I was in a 1994 Ski Nautique that was "drafting" another boat at over 40 mph on a public lake. When our driver pulled out from behind the lead boat, the way our hull reacted with the lead boat's wakes put us right up on an extremely steep edge where it locked in and stayed for about four very long seconds. Close call.

 

I don't wear the lanyard, but I also never fully trust acute-angle boat-wake crossings.

[liquid d]

Stupid driver in video.

[liquid d]

On the bright side, if they are still alive, I bet they never make that mistake again!

[Nando]

Um, @Lovell, is it really a good story if you don't share it? ;)

[Drago]

In big open water I hook it up. Never on a tournament lake

[RichardDoane]

@mattp what type of boat do you drive for a living ?

[ESPNSkier]

Back when ESPN owned B.A.S.S. I worked a good many BASSMasters tournaments and saw people ejected from boats a couple of times, always at high speed. They were required to use a kill switch and wear an auto-inflatable Mustang PFD. Never seen it happen in a ski boat and I don't wear one in my MC.

[Waternut]

I've driven an I/O bowrider where the steering failed like that at probably 35mph. We weren't drafting a boat and were in clean water. Probably had 5 people in the boat at the time. When the steering cable disconnected itself, the steering cranked hard over and we came to an almost immediate stop. People who were in seats didn't really even shift in the seat but one guy was sitting on the rail and he got thrown out. We all figured he was lucky but he thrown well clear of the boat. IMO, sitting on the rail or standing is more dangerous than not wearing a lanyard in any kind of semi-deep hull boat.

[MattP]

@RichardDoane I coach rowing from a jonboat with a hand controlled outboard.

[Jody_Seal]

Why do they need such fast equipment to Hunt Fish??

 

[LZywicki1]

@Jody_Seal Timed event and you need to get to the other end of the lake fast to see if there fish there.

[Horton]

@Jody_Seal that is a fake question. You are way too much of a red neck to not know the answer to your own question.

[gategator]

A few years back, I was pulling my buddy through the course in a 1999 Malibu Sunsetter and "coaching" at the same time. (yea, I know, stupid). I got too close to a guide ball and the ball passed under the left edge of the boat. For reasons that I have never sorted out, the stern jumped out of the water, the boat took an immediate hard right and the bow fully submarined at 34mph. A massive wave crashed over the window and dang near washed me out of the boat before I could yank the throttle. Scared the crap out of me and the skier (who owned the boat). We wore the kill switch for the next few weeks, but the memory faded.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@Gloersen I cant decide if I should swear at you for that image sticking with me or tell you to start a caption contest.

[Gloersen]

@Bruce_Butterfield - like you say "if it was easy, they would call it wakeboarding".

Imagine the head knocking and unconventional tools needed in the OR to extract that post.

[luckyone]

My only lanyard story is as follows- I have a 2002 American skier pro and every few months for the last few years I've have an intermittent electric problem(it dies) but after a few minutes it would start and go back to run great.By accident I messed with the lanyard and upon a closer look at it I noticed a slight bend in the part that holdes a button in , it was slighty warped and caused my problem.Got a new one and problem gone after years.

[ForrestGump]

On the river we used to put the boat in gear at idle, bungie the steering wheel so it went straight, and then we'd climb off the back and hold onto the platform and drag behind it as we came up on boats coming the other direction. When they got close, we'd duck our heads under the water. People would freak seeing a driverless boat. Don't think the lanyard would protect us from being 25 year old idiots. The funny thing was that you could steer it based on where you held on. So if you wanted to go right, both of you moved to the right side of the platform and vice versa. Hard to believe we never lost our grip on the boat. We'd have been screwed! lol

 

It's a wonder I'm still alive all the stupid stuff I have done in my life.

[liquid d]

That's fantastic! I can't believe we didn't do that!

[Horton]

This thread has finally become stupid enough and off topic enough that I moved it into the members only section. Is it almost ski season yet?

[Gloersen]

...not soon enough

...and this is stupid enough...

 

[gregy]

[bigskieridaho]

Now dat der is a funny! Dis is me boat, and der is goes buckwheat!

[Texas6]

I taught ski lessons in College on Lake Conroe near Houston during my summer breaks. The people I worked for had a late 80's model Barefoot Centurion with a 200HP Merc outboard. 2000+ hour boat. I was coming in from an evening lesson running about 35mph in 20' of flat water when the steering cable snapped. Boat skipped once and then flipped and landed upside down. I was ejected and immediately swimming in life jackets, blood, and seat cushions. Just minor lacerations to my shoulder and head upon ejection. There was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I wasn't wearing the lanyard, but can't help but think of all the bad things that could have happened, and also how lucky I was. Lanyard isn't the worst idea

[A_B]

I have my lanyard tied in a loop on the end and put my arm through it up past my elbow and ask the other guys to do the same. That gives you enough tether to turn and shorten the rope.

 

We don't do it all the time, but you never know when disaster strikes. Good habit to get into.