Be careful out there. (graphic)

[Meadows]

This is not in any way meant to be insensitive or downplay the seriousness of these type incidents as these accidents are terrible and scary, and I realize it only takes one to to affect you, but when you consider of the amount of hours spent bass boating in any given year, the odds are pretty good that this will never happen to you. I can’t put any scientific data up for analysis, but I’d bet it’s right up there with getting struck by lightning.

I would imagine one reason some sort of safety feature that would shut off the outboard in the event of collision with an underwater object hasn’t been incorporated is manufacture liability if it failed.

You can’t sue the the manufacturers because you run into a stump or a floater, but you certainly could if a device meant to prevent the outboard from coming in the boat failed.

Very good point Dean

[RangrSkipr]

You gotta believe that outboard and boat manufacturers have spent years considering every aspect of designing some kind of safety feature into the motor or rigging to mitigate the possibility of this happening. This isn't a new phenomenon. I remember hearing these stories in the early eighties so if it was possible you'd think we'd have been sporting standard regulated equipment on certain types of boats for years. For this reason I don't believe its possible to design a system that could/would react instantaneously to shutting down the motor, braking the prop and much less containing movement or departure of the motor with the forces of a high speed impact.

What type of boat? What type of obstacle? Is it designed to absorb a 30 or 65+ mph impact? Remember the boat is immediately slowing down at the same time the motor wants to continue forward at the speed it was traveling when the impact occurred.

Impossible to design a fix for every scenario. Minimize? Maybe, but currently these types of accidents are not the fault or liability of the manufacturers. The first manufacturer that brings a design or piece of equipment to market claiming it will/can minimize or eliminate bodily harm or loss of life from occurring from such an accident would change everything.

Praying for Cody's family and a quick and complete recovery

[BigFishSteve]

So scray. I would think it would not be that hard for someone to put another kill switch in the circuit with either a push button that the motor would strike as it came too far forward or even a mercury type switch if it went more than horizontal (dampened for bouncing) Manyhere are handy enough to intall a pushbutton on a stem in the splashwell, pointed at the motor.

[SteezMacQueen]

This is not in any way meant to be insensitive or downplay the seriousness of these type incidents as these accidents are terrible and scary, and I realize it only takes one to to affect you, but when you consider of the amount of hours spent bass boating in any given year, the odds are pretty good that this will never happen to you. I can’t put any scientific data up for analysis, but I’d bet it’s right up there with getting struck by lightning.

I would imagine one reason some sort of safety feature that would shut off the outboard in the event of collision with an underwater object hasn’t been incorporated is manufacture liability if it failed.

You can’t sue the the manufacturers because you run into a stump or a floater, but you certainly could if a device meant to prevent the outboard from coming in the boat failed.

That’s a fair assumption.

[Thamelau]

You gotta believe that outboard and boat manufacturers have spent years considering every aspect of designing some kind of safety feature into the motor or rigging to mitigate the possibility of this happening. This isn't a new phenomenon. I remember hearing these stories in the early eighties so if it was possible you'd think we'd have been sporting standard regulated equipment on certain types of boats for years. For this reason I don't believe its possible to design a system that could/would react instantaneously to shutting down the motor, braking the prop and much less containing movement or departure of the motor with the forces of a high speed impact.

What type of boat? What type of obstacle? Is it designed to absorb a 30 or 65+ mph impact? Remember the boat is immediately slowing down at the same time the motor wants to continue forward at the speed it was traveling when the impact occurred.

Impossible to design a fix for every scenario. Minimize? Maybe, but currently these types of accidents are not the fault or liability of the manufacturers. The first manufacturer that brings a design or piece of equipment to market claiming it will/can minimize or eliminate bodily harm or loss of life from occurring from such an accident would change everything.

Praying for Cody's family and a quick and complete recovery

I don't really follow all these claiming "too many scenarios to test" or "too many scenarios to prepare against." You don't have to specifically prepare for a 30mph john boat when you have prepared for the worst case + a factor of safety. Design it for a heavy boat striking a solid object with no significant motor damage a the longest lever arm from the point of rotation going 100mph.

You can shut down a motor pretty dam fast with a kill switch and at that point the prop quits turning.

You have Newton's Law opposite as well. When a motor strikes something, the boat wants to keep going while the motor wants to stop.

[Tone357]

One good reason not to buy that particular J-plate.
Weve seen where it was the weak link.

Which plate would that be?

[fishnfireman]

Which plate would that be?

Pictured in Post #214

[RangrSkipr]

I don't really follow all these claiming "too many scenarios to test" or "too many scenarios to prepare against." You don't have to specifically prepare for a 30mph john boat when you have prepared for the worst case + a factor of safety. Design it for a heavy boat striking a solid object with no significant motor damage a the longest lever arm from the point of rotation going 100mph.

You can shut down a motor pretty dam fast with a kill switch and at that point the prop quits turning.

You have Newton's Law opposite as well. When a motor strikes something, the boat wants to keep going while the motor wants to stop.

The physics and fix for eliminating such an incident could be debated till the end of time. My point which echo's Dean's before I read his is that as soon as a manufacturer claims to provide a product that would eliminate or minimize this from happening and then that system fails, the manufacturer would become liable. This is only supporting the argument of why such fixes that have been recommended here and in the past have not been developed and incorporated on our boats today.

[Dixie-Raven]

The physics and fix for eliminating such an incident could be debated till the end of time. My point which echo's Dean's before I read his is that as soon as a manufacturer claims to provide a product that would eliminate or minimize this from happening and then that system fails, the manufacturer would become liable. This is only supporting the argument of why such fixes that have been recommended here and in the past have not been developed and incorporated on our boats today.

I mentioned on other thread and repeating here. Will Precision Sonar now be liable then if a failure occurs?

[Thamelau]

The physics and fix for eliminating such an incident could be debated till the end of time. My point which echo's Dean's before I read his is that as soon as a manufacturer claims to provide a product that would eliminate or minimize this from happening and then that system fails, the manufacturer would become liable. This is only supporting the argument of why such fixes that have been recommended here and in the past have not been developed and incorporated on our boats today.

I disagree that the physics here could be debated at all. This isn't a complex problem to figure out a tensile strength for. Rotational kinetic energy is equal to the work it takes to stop the motor. Force can be derived from that equation, divide it by 2 for a basket configuration of the leash, and you have your minimum required tensile strength. Now add a hefty factor of safety. To do this, you do need some in depth figures from the design of the motor (like the center of gravity or rotational inertia about the tilt/trim axis).

[Thamelau]

I mentioned on other thread and repeating here. Will Precision Sonar now be liable then if a failure occurs?

That is something that I definitely wonder. I am guessing it depends on their exact verbiage in their disclaimer statement that I am sure they have.

[Hammmerhead]

That is scary and a good reminder for us all.

I would get a long leash that can go to the transom studs or the tie down eyes. Atlas plates and their tube and sleeve design are great for forward and back force, same as a Bobs track setup, but a lifting effect given from hitting a stationary or submerged object is going to explode with upward force and it doesn't seem like either design for that matter have a very hefty deterrent to keep the two components from separating. Having said that, Mercury may want to take a long look at how suitable their swivel/trim bracket assemblies are, and actually how viable the component is for these new heavy V8's.

Most of the guys are running their motors as high as they functionally can these days, which only add more leverage to the JP and the trim/swivel brackets. There is definitely weak links with these heavy motors and the new torque involved with the 4 strokes. But honestly, I dont think you could design anything weight wise that could survive a solid hit at 50+MPH, much less 70-100mph like most of them out there are capable of.

Think about an explosive vertical blow to a hydraulic jack plate and look at current designs out there. Some of the old designs look the safest to me.

[marathonman]

[Tone357]

Pictured in Post #214

I can't make heads or tails out of that pic. I'm assuming it's a Bob's since it's not silver in color.

[jb882]

I can't make heads or tails out of that pic. I'm assuming it's a Bob's since it's not silver in color.

And i dont see in that pic where the jackplate failed at all. The motors tilt bracket failed for sure.

Either way, its scary and i really hope the owner recovers 100%

[fishnfireman]

I can't make heads or tails out of that pic. I'm assuming it's a Bob's since it's not silver in color.

It's an Atlas..There are some more pictures somewhere that show it from behind. If you look at the port side tube that the rail slides up and down in you can see where it split and the rails popped out. The driver said he had it jacked all the way up. In the full up position there isn't much of the rail left inside the tube.

[fishnfireman]

And i dont see in that pic where the jackplate failed at all. The motors tilt bracket failed for sure.

Either way, its scary and i really hope the owner recovers 100%

Different picture and different incident..

[Hickory Legend]

It's an Atlas..There are some more pictures somewhere that show it from behind. If you look at the port side tube that the rail slides up and down in you can see where it split and the rails popped out. The driver said he had it jacked all the way up. In the full up position there isn't much of the rail left inside the tube.

there is a adjustment bolt on top of the JP, not a Atlas.

[fishnfireman]

there is a adjustment bolt on top of the JP, not a Atlas.

Different picture and different incident..Again we are not talking about the original photo but the one in post #214

[Graphfish1]