https://www.wwaytv3.com/i-was-going-to-die-man-goes-overboar...
Overall the rating is pretty good but definitely a number of one stars.
The challenge with a lot of safety and backup systems is that you might never need them, but if you do need them they absolutely have to work.
Or maybe that’s survivorship bias, and the ones where the engines do not properly cut out are never in a position to review.
The XKCD issue would be more common though - people who are happy with it because they've never had to test it.
Buying a device directly from the vendor comes with a degree of responsibility that you can't afford with buying from 3rd parties (seller), on a 3rd party marketplace (amazon).
The only problem I've had is false positive cut-offs when I'm on the dock untying or when I prepare to dock and I use the arm with the wireless FOB on in the rear compartments of the boat.
I could probably fix it by angling the antennae so that it was upright instead of pointing out horizontally behind the base unit, but TBH it's such a infrequent issue and only happens at no/low speed anyway that I haven't bothered.
On the plus side at least I know that it does cut the engine and probably would in a real situation as well.
In a light wind or current an average boat is still going to be moving faster than most people can swim.
The wireless kill switch is good. But pair it with an inflatable PFD.
I was watching the video of that boat that rolled at the Columbia river outlet in Oregon and the USCG rescue swimmer was astoundingly fast with the fins on.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/exotech/folding-fins-a-...
(Have to remember to teach the buddy how to override the MOB-system so that he can actually start the engine after I go in the water though, lest it become a real situation)
The key is to not fall off in the first place. One hand for you, one for the task. Also, if you're solo offshore you really should be wearing an auto-inflating PFD with tether and a PLB. Everybody has their own risk tolerances but if you don't wear one most of the time at least clip in when you take your pants down.
Similar to '3 points of contact', which is my personal mantra. Reminds me to keep feet planted.
So, we introduced rules.
1) Nobody on the deck without clipping a safeguard line to their belt. Ever. We stretched a wire all the way both sides of the yacht, and everybody just clipped a lanyard to the wire. We could move relatively freely with that.
2) We put a flag on a fishing rod at the thin end and a floating element a foot from the thick end, and a weight at the thick end. If someone fell overboard, another crew member would immediately throw the thing in the water (we had it set up at the rear of the yacht), because that pole in the water is so much easier to see than a person, also from a long distance. NB: We didn't have anything like that Garmin tracker mentioned in the article - those things weren't available back then - but this actually worked pretty well when we tested it.
3) After all the testing we actually concluded that if someone fell overboard in choppy waters and if nobody saw and could throw the "flag pole" in the water we could as well just continue sailing. We never managed to find the soccer balls etc. we dropped in the water, whatever search pattern we used (those you find in books about rescue). Thus we established hard rule 1)
4) Zero alcohol unless we were moored for the night somewhere. This was a 100% enforced rule. It's incredible how little alcohol you need to decide to not bother with the lanyard when you just need a moment out there.
Will these wireless keyfobs reliably cut out within 10 seconds when the boat never goes more than say 60 feet from the captain? I suspect not.
Also, can you cite any sources for that event being common (relatively at least)? Not that I doubt you specifically, the scenario is just so horrifying that I am generally having trouble accepting it.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/rockhampton/a...
I am personally aware of quite a few speedboat related accidents, some fatal, and this is a common pattern.
The types of death that people imagine (boat sinks, boat engine dies and drifts out to sea) tend not to be killer in small boats because they mostly operate in busy waterways near shore where someone else will come help.
By the inverse square law accuracy should be better at close range, cutting out at 10 to 30 feet but not 0 to 6 feet should be possible, especially with UWB, and even moreso if the fob detects water directly.
You really shouldn’t wear an auto-inflating PFD in a situation where going into the water isn’t 100% a bad thing. Kayaking seems to be one of those activities where you wouldn’t want it. Even dinghy sailing/racing seems like a poor use case.
In case anyone is unfamiliar with them, though, they all have a manual pull handle that is supposed to trigger the CO2 canister, and as a 3rd backup they even have a tube you can pull up to your face and a one-way valve so you can blow them up with your mouth.
Are those fishing kayaks so stable that they have very little expectation of going overboard comparable to being on a powerboat or sail boat? I use touring and whitewater kayaks myself.
I kayak and sail so I have life jackets for both use cases (two type V rescue jackets for kayaking and 4 type V inflatables for sailing to accommodate friends and better the much safer European spinlock deckvests, which are not USCG approved, so I keep USCG approved inflatables on board too)
The failure risk here is the phone doesn't go with you and it keeps chugging along.
Do you trust them as an adult? Or in some other context? What about kayaking makes you distrust them? Should I, a non-kayaker, trust them?
> Do you trust them as an adult?
Yes. The alternative (ignoring the solid foam type of life jacket that you see kids wear) is a manually inflating one. They use the same CO2 cylinder with a bladder, but you have to pull a cord to inflate them. You can buy the exact same model of life jacket as auto or manual inflating. The auto inflating ones also have a cord you can pull if you need to.
There is some debate in the sailing community as to whether the auto or manual jackets are a better idea but most people go auto-inflating. With the manual ones you can manoeuvre better in the water if you don't inflate the jacket so you have a chance to swim to safety, perhaps climbing back on your boat, but if you get knocked unconscious or you're in shock (or the boats still sailing) then that's going to be harder/impossible to do.
Personally me and my immediate family have auto inflating ones, this model specifically: https://crewsaver.com/uk/products/16708/ErgoFit190N. We have some more basic models for guests. I figure I'm unlikely to be sailing single handed and the best chance of survival offshore is getting picked up by the crew of the boat you were just in. Plus, I'm in NW UK, cold water shock is a real thing. Staying afloat in the middle of the sea is going to be the main thing you're going to want to be concentrating on.
> Or in some other context? What about kayaking makes you distrust them?
I wouldn't wear an auto-inflating jacket anywhere that I'm likely to get dunked in the water as a matter of course. You'll just inflate the jacket when you don't want to, it will be completely in the way and you will have to deflate it and it's then mostly useless until it's repacked with a new gas cylinder. Plus, you're unlikely to be in the big seas that would make an auto-inflater safer.
That said, it can get wet enough on a sailing yacht that jackets can get wet enough to be inflated, but that's very uncommon. Pretty funny though :)
> Should I, a non-kayaker, trust them?
It depends what you're doing. Sailing, going out on a pleasure boat, day trips, weeks at sea, then sure. Stick one on each of your family and guests, show them the pull cord and tell them not to pull it unless they need to, and you can pretty much rest assured that if they fall in they're going to float until you can get to them. You can also get beacons you can add to them, I've added them to mine.
*edit* Here's someone testing the lifejacket I have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09y_AM36v0M
In the sailing community a life jacket would tend to be either a much bulkier statically buoyant thing (picture the large orange things kids wear on sailing holidays or boat rides) or more commonly an inflating one. Of that last category auto-inflating is more popular. Remember, auto-inflating life jackets also have a pull cord that you can use if the auto inflation mechanism doesn't trigger.
If you were sailing on my boat there is no way you'd get away with wearing a buoyancy aid. I don't know what the failure rate of auto (or manual) inflating life jackets is (I bet it's less than 1 in 1000), but a buoyancy aid will not provide enough buoyancy 100% of the time in the sea.
Don't get me wrong, I will wear a buoyancy aid, but I wouldn't class it as a life jacket, and it would be in certain situations like kayaking or paddle boarding perhaps.
The context here was kayaking. In that very unlikely scenario that your auto-inflating life jacket doesn't deploy, there is a very likely scenario that you're disoriented or unconscious. That's a big risk in any scenario where you need a PFD and the reason I'd rather go with an always-deployed one appropriate for conditions than hope I have my head on straight if I get dumped overboard and things get worse from there.
Basically, as a kayaker, you only want a life vest once you are out of the boat and you can’t get back to your boat or to the shore.
I mean, then you could probably call someone.
The risks are really apparent though for anyone out on a boat and it just doesn't seem to be the standard operating procedure for most folks.