Autotether wireless lanyard

[iceman]

Anyone had any experience with this or if its any good ?

Boating To A New Level Of Safety - autotether.com

cheers

Rich

[chewy]

Nope but I'd prefer the normal kill cord if the choice was mine...

[Poly]

Iceman, they have been discussed here before if you search you should find it (perhaps something like wireless killcord?)

I would agree with chewy for the sort of stuff I think you do. It's easy to visually see your helmsman are wearing them, problems are relatively easy to debug and a mechanical linkage is fairly robust especially if subject to routine test and inspection. It also forces your helm to stay at the helm position which I think for a safety boat is a good idea.

That's not to say that I think wireless is a bad idea, I think for people with very big boats and/or who are short handed who have a reason to leave the helm when underway it may be a better idea than just unhooking the kill cord.

[Pikey Dave]

I've not seen that type before, the ones I've seen are hard wired, which I'd certainly avoid. The advantage of that type is if it does go t1ts up, you can just fit the ordinary kill cord. Personally I find kill cords a pain in the 4rse, especiall when picking up divers or fishing. Quite often you need to leave the helm with the engines ticking over in neutral, you either forget to unclip the kill cord, or clip it back on again after doing what you need to do.

[Channel Ribs]

Don't take this the wrong way, but would you have the engines running when picking up divers?

In the past when I have been doing lots of stop/start I clip the kill cord onto the centre of the wheel, makes it immediately apparent that it needs attaching back to me (or whoever takes the helm).

[wavelength]

We tried some electronic ones (and prob not this make -its about 5 years back now) we were given to try at a show for the three days we were there and while at first it seemed a good idea after a few peeps had pushed buttons it all went tits up and it was hit or miss whether it stopped the motor or not. I'll stick with the curly string..less to go wrong. We also had an incident on a coastguard rib a few years back when the helmsman not using the footstraps got sorta launched out of the seat ( it was b.... rough to be fair) and ended up down on the port side deck, head down legs up!
The kill cord had not pulled out cos his leg was now nearer the control box than it had been so we were still powering on. I reached forward and ripped the cord out (starboard side) to stop the boat which was now doing everything short of handstands! Cant do that with an electronic gizmo!

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Channel Ribs

Don't take this the wrong way, but would you have the engines running when picking up divers?

.

It depends, if you're diving around islands / rocks (thinking Farne islands here) sometimes it's necessary to pickup close in. This usually involves hauling the divers unceremoniously in over the side & making a hasty exit. Last thing you want to be doing is wondering if the engines will start or fumbling the gears. So we usually have the engines ticking over in neutral, no problems. Most, if not all hardboat skippers keep the engines running. Saying that, a hardboat chopped up a diver on the Farnes a couple of years ago, but that's a different story

[Channel Ribs]

Interesting, thanks.