puder

Just wondering what safety device do you have on your boat?

What safety features are included in your boat?

The post about the death of HTM founder Steve Coloumbe got me thinking. We all spend a ****load on money and time making our boats faster but how much time or effort do we spend on making them safer? Manufacturers spend a ton of $$$ developing faster and faster hull that require less and less power to achieve superfast speeds. At teh same time bigger and bigger engiens are being produced. How much efforts do biulder put into saftey aspects. Cars are crash tested, designed to handle massive collosions, have crumple zones, airbags ect. What do we have on a boat a lifejackets and an engine kill switch. Our race machines as a mater of fact are biult so they aren't as strong and as a result are faster. Would a formuls car EVER be biult this way??? NO. Race teams put TONS of effort into making the cars safe for the driver. I think maybe its time we all start taking a good look at soem safety procedures in our boats.

Earlier today i watch a horrible wreck happen on teh highway a car flipped 4 or so times and was horribley twisted and desroyed. I don't know if they survived or not (i was going the other direction but i actually watched it take place and called 911) but i can tell you that they had a chance to survive. If a wreck or equal magnitude happend in a boat would they have any chance at survival in an accident that is pretty much a worst case scenario?

[ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: puder ]

SHARKEY-IMAGES

I think I may have replied to a thread like this once before. But I have the SAFETY IGN. KILL SWITCH installed on my boat along with all the mandatory Coast Guard items. I wear the approved LIFEJACKET (up to 100mph) w/a HANDHELD VHF and a WHISTLE attached to it. If you're thrown from the boat and are conscious, it doesn't do you any good if the radio is in the boat. For my size boat and it's speed, I choose to wear the FULL FACE RACING HELMUT. Probably the biggest safety item I carry along is, COMMON SENSE. I know my boat's limitations and therefore I do not exceed them. Other people may disaggree about exceeding my boat's limits.

[ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: SHARKEYMARINE ]

skatermike24

Kill switches for both driver and passenger!!!!

Jassman

Its a good point taken, HTM death has me thinking alot more about safety, it scares the hell out of me, I spoke with Steve several times, he was a super guy, his video of his wife and two kids were cute, I realize life is to short, cherish every moment with your loved ones.

What certain steps can I take besides the lanyards(kill switches and pfds to improve safety on my Active Thunder. Any help would be appriecieted

RumRunner

The worst thing about this tragic event is how many people commented about the safety issues before this happened. Now none of us can speak about that event, but we all can take better care of ourselves, and our boating companions. I know I will start wearing my life jackets more. I always use my kill switch, but while I do some re-rigging this winter there will be kill switches put in for my passengers.
Any other thoughts of what to do ? Other than the most important COMMON SENSE !

SHARKEY-IMAGES

I make it a habit to go over all the nuts and bolts prior to going out. Drives and steering bars are a terrible thing to come off at any speed... And of course a little LOCKTITE doesn't hurt either.

puder

as for what i can do i am not sure.

I was refferrgin more to manufacturers to start biulding in some safety features. If they don't exist design them. Yes design costs are expensive and soem manufacturers operate on razor thin profits, but i think safer boats would tend to popular.

On race boats enclosed canopies for teh styupid fast one are a real good idea. I saw the APBA year wrap up and the cockpit video from Jack Carmody's boat is kind of chilling to watch, knowing they were moments away from a bad carash. You can see him in the canopy and the open roof. Pods on pleasure boats might not be the answer, if they are in fact used as pleasure boats. a 150mph 30' cat in my eyes isn't really a pleasure boat. And anyone taht is planning on running there pleasure boats in such a manner should take a few extra moments when considering IF they can make there boat that fast to if teh SHOULD make thier boat that fast. I konw after teh jack carmody's death many racers began considering converting from canopies to pods, Maybe pleasure boat should also start considering some kind of pods. Not liek eth raciong style pods but soemthing a little more like the advatage 40' hardtop, poker run version. It leave space for passengers but at the same time would provide some more protection.

Or mayeb even some more basic stuff, Like better designed bolster or buckets. Maybe padded dashes of some sort. Or mayeb even soem new kind of restraint system that allows you to be secure while running or in even of a crash but at the same time allows to you get out of the boat in case of a roll.

What idas do you guys have? Hell we are the biggest Offshore community we should have some decent ideas stirring about.

pullmytrigger

Im unclear to the reason you would have kill switches for your passengers. If a passenger flew out and the engines were killed you would have to root around, find another set, install them,(remember, they take their half of the lanyard with them) and get the engines refired (which could take awhile), then turn around and go get them, if the person was knocked unconcious, it might be too late. to take that further, if two or three people fell out you would have to find and replace three sets before you could refire. If you cant accomplish this your boat is dead in the water and the closest craft to the accident scene is out of commision and unable to provide transpotation for possibly seriously injured people Doug

puder

I just mentioned the advantage 40' becasue i know it has a hardtop. I didn;t think it was fully enclosed. I though the back was open. That woudl provide protection for a stuff or even a roll. But when water got it it wouldn't be liek teh pods on tommy bahama or somethign like that.

Here is another though. I am a rescue diver and got certified as a such about 5 years ago. We coudl all put "Spare Air" cans in our boats as a safety feature. They are the baby air tanks with the reg on top. You coudl easily mount them in your boat. They aren't even that expensive. They would act as a poor mans air system. Hell the "holsters" for them could even be integrated in bolster or seats where they could be gotten quickly in an emergency.

puder

twin that is a good point. Maybe some kind of work around could be included like switch that would by by-pass the rip cords if pulled, so that way if teh engines were cutout by the passenger cords the driver coudl just flip teh switch an refire quickly without worrying about finding the clip jammies. It would need to be made in such a way that is could only be used for a little while or placed were it wouldn;t be convenient to just flip the switch instead of using eth pull cords.

[ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: puder ]