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Autotether – Wireless Lanyard Engine Kill Device
You have heard it at least a hundred times, "Wear your kill switch."
And even though a terrible tale circulates every couple of years of operators and passengers being thrown from boats and drowning or being horribly injured as the boat careens wildly with nobody at the helm, we still do not wear our engine kill switches as faithfully as we should. Tragically, people sometimes lose their lives this way.
I will be the first to admit that I sometimes fail to don the very cord that could prevent a horrible accident. When my wife catches me she reaches over and switches off the engine. Trouble is; she's not there all the time.
Hooking up your kill switch takes at least two or three seconds, and we're in a hurry, right? Wrong! Or what about this one "But I need to be able to move around a little bit and the cord is too short." Another lame excuse! Well guess what now we have Autotether.
Autotether is a wireless/remote engine kill system that makes the old-fashioned kill switch lanyard as obsolete as it can get. The best part is that it mounts on the dash of your boat, installs in less than two minutes, and allows you to leave the helm and walk around with the engine running, (out of gear, of course, and not making way.)
Here's how it works. First of all, the operator of the boat pins a device called a "fob" to their shirt or belt loop or perhaps places it in their pocket. The fob contains a transmitter. And there is a "host" device that gets mounted via double-sided sticky tape to the dashboard, which makes it easy to move from boat to boat. The host contains a receiver that is in constant radio contact with the fob. Unless the operator falls overboard, in which case the radio signal ceases because radio signals cannot be transmitted through water. When signal is lost, the host pulls the pin on the engine kill switch. The host, you see, also includes a cord with a spring-loaded actuator that attaches to your engine kill switch mechanism. Just about as simple as it can get.
One of the greatest attributes of the Autotether, in my mind, is that when the Autotether system is in use the boat can only be started and/or operated with the captain aboard. The captain wears the fob, the fob tells the host device it's okay for the engine to be started or running. No captain, no power, nobody gets hurt. I like that!
But that's not all! Autotether can also protect your passengers. An accessory kit can allow for up to three passengers to also wear fobs, except these fobs do not kill the engine, they trigger an alarm. Should a fob-wearing passenger somehow slip or lose their balance and fall overboard, the captain is notified immediately by a screaming alarm. The captain knows instantly he needs to shut down and circle back to retrieve his passenger. Who, if wearing a PFD, will only be wet and embarrassed for their experience.
Learn more about Autotether at www.autotether.com or visit the Breakwater Marine booth at the Houston Boat Show January 7-16, 2011 at the Reliant Center. Tell 'em you read about it in TSFMag!
And even though a terrible tale circulates every couple of years of operators and passengers being thrown from boats and drowning or being horribly injured as the boat careens wildly with nobody at the helm, we still do not wear our engine kill switches as faithfully as we should. Tragically, people sometimes lose their lives this way.
I will be the first to admit that I sometimes fail to don the very cord that could prevent a horrible accident. When my wife catches me she reaches over and switches off the engine. Trouble is; she's not there all the time.
Hooking up your kill switch takes at least two or three seconds, and we're in a hurry, right? Wrong! Or what about this one "But I need to be able to move around a little bit and the cord is too short." Another lame excuse! Well guess what now we have Autotether.
Autotether is a wireless/remote engine kill system that makes the old-fashioned kill switch lanyard as obsolete as it can get. The best part is that it mounts on the dash of your boat, installs in less than two minutes, and allows you to leave the helm and walk around with the engine running, (out of gear, of course, and not making way.)
Here's how it works. First of all, the operator of the boat pins a device called a "fob" to their shirt or belt loop or perhaps places it in their pocket. The fob contains a transmitter. And there is a "host" device that gets mounted via double-sided sticky tape to the dashboard, which makes it easy to move from boat to boat. The host contains a receiver that is in constant radio contact with the fob. Unless the operator falls overboard, in which case the radio signal ceases because radio signals cannot be transmitted through water. When signal is lost, the host pulls the pin on the engine kill switch. The host, you see, also includes a cord with a spring-loaded actuator that attaches to your engine kill switch mechanism. Just about as simple as it can get.
One of the greatest attributes of the Autotether, in my mind, is that when the Autotether system is in use the boat can only be started and/or operated with the captain aboard. The captain wears the fob, the fob tells the host device it's okay for the engine to be started or running. No captain, no power, nobody gets hurt. I like that!
But that's not all! Autotether can also protect your passengers. An accessory kit can allow for up to three passengers to also wear fobs, except these fobs do not kill the engine, they trigger an alarm. Should a fob-wearing passenger somehow slip or lose their balance and fall overboard, the captain is notified immediately by a screaming alarm. The captain knows instantly he needs to shut down and circle back to retrieve his passenger. Who, if wearing a PFD, will only be wet and embarrassed for their experience.
Learn more about Autotether at www.autotether.com or visit the Breakwater Marine booth at the Houston Boat Show January 7-16, 2011 at the Reliant Center. Tell 'em you read about it in TSFMag!