Re: mercruiser 4.3 engine won't stop
This is something I have never understood about skiing... Why does the engine need to be shutdown when picking up a person in the water? If it's to ensure the prop isn't turning, then that's why you have a shift control... It may be a hangover from the old days when ski boats had big old V8s in them that were bolted to a propshaft, without a gearbox. I can well understand it in that situation, but the modern sterndrive does have a gearbox, use it....
I work in the offshore industry and we are all well versed (too well versed sometimes) in emergency procedures, that includes recovering people fro the water... The first rule is NEVER shutdown an engine, especially in crowded waters, when picking up people. You need that engine running and ready to go....
If you have just been pulling a skier around your engine has been under maximum load and the cylinder temperatures will be sky high.... THAT is the main reason it's running on... Let it idle and get the cylinder temps down....
Chris.............
Couple of reasons. First of all, the reason that you mentioned. You don't want to accidentally knock it into gear while someone's climbing up the drive. I'll wager that in most crowded water rescue situations, it's not routine for people to be climbing up on/behind the drive.
Secondly, it's just a bad habit to have an engine running near anybody in the water. Carbon Monoxide collects on the surface of the water, right at face-level for people in the water. It's not so much a big deal for quick pick-ups, but for simplicity's sake, loading and unloading of passengers should ALWAYS be done without pumping poison onto the surface of the water.
Skiing in highly crowded areas is also ill-advised.
Rescue situations are going to be a bit different--especially when making guidelines for professionals vs. weekend warriors. On a rescue boat, everybody's got a job, and a place where they're supposed to be. The pilot's not likely to be standing up to hang wakeboards on racks, handing people towels, or anything else that's likely to distract him from his job. Unlike quite a few people I've boated with.
Hell, CPR has completely done away with vitals checks before going straight to chest compressions, and there is no longer any rescue breathing involved.
You can bet your butt that BOTH of those steps are SOP for medical professionals, however. I'll continue to stick to the vitals check/rescue breathing.
I'll also continue to load and unload riders with the engine OFF.
Both are, to me, just common sense.