For Those Opposed To Tether Laws:
 

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...ed/8539847002/Glen Arbor — A 63-year-old man has drowned after being thrown overboard from a boat in a northern Michigan lake.Kevin Herman’s body was found late Saturday afternoon in Little Glen Lake near Glen Arbor in Leelanau County, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported Monday.Herman of Suttons Bay and 50-year-old Kelly Walter were fishing on the lake when they lost control of the boat they were on. Both were thrown into the water, authorities said.The empty boat crashed before 12:30 p.m. Saturday into the shoreline.Walter was rescued by a kayaker. He was wearing a life jacket which was not secured. Herman was not wearing a life jacket.Little Glen Lake is northwest of Traverse City.

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I'm thinking the boat was a tiller steer. Most everything on that lake is pontoon/small fishboat/jetski. I was running a tiller steer freight canoe in very cold November weather once and my hand got so cold I accidentally let loose of the tiller. The boat snapped into a sharp turn due to prop steer and with luck I stayed onboard. Had a hard time getting that thing back under control. Meanwhile my son in law sitting in front facing back had eyes the size of dinner plates. No kill switch on that outboard.

That's odd. My 3.5 hp canoe had a kill switch.

Has anyone used the Fell system, it looks interesting and is reasonably priced?

so if he had a tether he would have lived? I think if he had a life jacket he would have lived

If he had both he would be retelling the story for the 50th time over a cold beer . Get pitched out , swim your cold happy azz back to the boat, make up a story for your wife and toss you wallet on the dash to dry out.

look i'm all for kill switches and seatbelts etc. i see the benefits of seatbelts in collisions everyday.

however i'm strongly against government forcing people to do things. you know the next step in safety could be mandatory rpm limits on your boat to limit its speed. all in the name of safety.

Maybe tiller steer motors should have a tether kill switch on them? I think it could be done with out increasing risk or inconvenience.

We have had nation wide seat belt laws for years and they have been rolling out cars like the New ZO6 with 670hp , the Dodge Demon , Porsche turbo cars and the Nissan GTR every year with more Hp. All seat belts do is save lives and when lives get saved things are cheaper to insure. Big hp boats are crazy to insure because they get wrecked and people die with regularity. If wearing something as simple as a tether would save my life or a passangers life im game and if mandatory tethers saved lives and insurance was cheaper I'm all for it and if people were to stop posting about friends who got injured or killed by using some simple technology I'm all for that too.