Why would anybody be opposed to a tether? Personally if you get thrown out and watch your boat go on without you that's your tough ****. You play you pay. However stupid decisions affect others like family and friends.

Its 33 degrees right now in Traverse City (7 am). So that lake was cold. Maybe he couldn't swim, maybe hypothermia got him. If I had a choice between a tether or a life jacket I'd take the life jacket every time.

A 63 yr old guy likely couldn't get back in the boat from the water anyway so he was in trouble either way (with or without the tether).

Posting this particular article is like posting a story about a guy that gets run over by an 18 wheeler while riding a motorcycle without a helmet saying "helmets save lives"..........when in reality he was going to died with or without the helmet.

He would have had a boat nearby to swim to and at least hang onto.

Both of mine had kill switches.

Poor analogy. Had the boat had a kill switch he could have swam to the boat and at least held on and get part of his body out of the cold water until help arrived.

Speak for yourself but because you're 63 doesn't mean you're lame.

Kill switches can help, lifejackets can really help. I looked up canoe statistics for a different way (non motorized) to look at things.

From:
USCG

https://www.google.com/amp/s/yaklogi...tatistics/amp/

The leading cause of death in these (canoe/kayak) fatalities is easy to guess; drowning. 109 of the 128 kayakers and canoers who passed away in 2018, or roughly 85%, did so by drowning. Out of those 109 only 22% had their life jacket on. Looking at all drowning deaths in 2018 only 15% of victims had their life jacket on.

I'm nowhere near 63 :D...........but cold water, likely dressed for cold weather (long pants, coat, boots etc) and that gets heavy......guy has 30-60 minutes in that cold water at best. If he doesn't get back in the boat in the first 3-5 minutes it isn't happening. I'm picturing a small skiff type boat (no boarding ladder, no trim tabs to climb up). Of course if it is a jon boat type skiff and he tries to get up on the transom corner then you worry about taking on water as your weight hits that corner of the boat. This is not going to be a Michael Phelps body double trying to get out of the water, I'm thinking more along the lines of John Goodman!

Just a question for you: If you got tossed from your 22 Donzi could you reboard the boat in cold water wearing "winter clothes" (assuming it doesn't have a boarding ladder, never seen a 22 with one).

If for nothing else use a tether to keep your boat from running into mine when you fall out. I boat in a pretty deserted area so if you fall out your pretty much dead if you can't get back in. My brother boats in a more congested area and he has seen boats without operators doing the circle of death. If I'm horsing around, my life jacket is on and my tether is firmly connected and I'm in a deep 28' with full wrap around stand up bolsters.