We had a scary and potentially tragic situation on the lake over the Labor Day weekend that I wanted to share. It was completely my fault, and just when you think it can’t (or shouldn’t) happen to you, it does.
I have a 2019 Bennington 23 SSRCX with Yamaha F115.
It was your classic 7+ pontoon flotilla in shallow cove, 90° temps, blue skies, great tunes blasting, and a lot of families in the water. The perfect way to relax and take in the remaining days of summer.
We had family coming over for a BBQ, so after a few hours we had to take off. Our pontoon, being early to anchor, had other boats stacked and tied up on either side. We pulled up anchor, untied from other boats, and manually slipped out (engine off) with the help of the adjoining boats so they could close the gap after we left.
Once the stern cleared the bow of the other boats I started the pontoon’s engine, while standing, throttle in neutral – My first mistake. I remember putting a few things away while we coasted a little further out from the flotilla, and while standing in the center of the boat reached over the captain’s chair and bent down to lay our docking hook/pole on the floor. As I stood back up it was either my elbow, arm, hand (or whatever) that hit the throttle pretty hard in the forward position, and the boat took off like a bat out of hell, as in a holeshot start. As quick as I could reached over and yanked the throttle back to neutral. Unfortunately my wife was standing on the stern platform at the time getting the last of the ropes, and got thrown off immediately when the boat launched forward. Thank god she was Ok, but definitely shocked, wet, and understandably not too happy. It was an accident to be sure, but really upset me that it happened, and how quickly and easily it could have ended badly.
I’ve been a boat operator since I was 15 (44 years), have taken the boater’s safety course (refresher again when my kids took it), am experienced driving inboards, outboards, pontoons, jet boats, jet skis, etc., big water, small lakes, etc. I also had zero alcohol to drink that day. It was a sobering lesson; do not start or have the engine running unless seated in the captain’s seat. I know, sounds obvious and common sense, but I’d be surprised if I’m the only one not following this practice 100% of the time.
Our ski boat (2005’ Malibu Response) has a safety lock on its throttle. You need to pull up on a ring on the underside of the throttle ball before it will release from a neutral position. You can’t accidently bump it forward or back. Our pontoon throttle has no such locking mechanism (however it won’t allow you to start the engine unless it’s in neutral). But once started it doesn’t take much effort to engage it into gear (you could do it with your pinky). At the very least the friction adjustment should be tightened. I hadn’t thought much about the lack of a safety stop until this incident, but it would seem to be a good idea to have ALL remote throttles come standard with them (as ski/surf boats do).
I checked with a few friends with other brand pontoons/engines (larger engines), and they have a throttle safety stop.
Either way, I’m going to be installing an aftermarket one before next season if I can find one. My current throttle is a Yamaha 704; does anyone know of an aftermarket (or OEM upgrade) with a safety stop?
Poor attempt at a life insurance grab?
