WATERSKIING is great fun-but it's not such a blast for the person who has to drive the boat. So while many may welcome the launch next month of a riderless jet ski that can tow a solo waterskier, safety campaigners in the US are already raising concerns about the potential hazards of such a system. Jet skis, they reason, can be dangerous enough if not used carefully-so one that travels well ahead of its "driver" may be even more of a hazard.
Powerful enough to pull even a barefoot skier out of the water, the Solo jet ski from Solo Water Sports of Redmond, Washington, is controlled by the skier through a keypad in the tow handle (see Diagram). But with no one actually riding the vehicle, the skier may not have a clear view of obstacles in the water ahead, such as swimmers, small boats or perhaps a diver's flag.
Solo Water Sports insists its system is safe, but Jim Saxton, Republican congressman for New Jersey, is not convinced. "I have strong reservations about an unmanned craft travelling in and around public beaches and environmentally sensitive areas," he told New Scientist. Saxton is already addressing the noise and disturbance issue surrounding jet skis. A number of states have introduced "no wake" zones to limit the speed of the craft, but Saxton is attempting to introduce legislation to apply this nationally, imposing a speed limit of 5 miles per hour (8 kph) in sensitive areas-and with a $10 million enforcement budget.
Robin Sells, co-developer of the Solo, welcomes this move, insisting that the machine will attract "a different type of person". "Skiers aren't after wake, they want a nice flat surface," he says. Indeed, this is half the reason for developing Solo because, he says, the flattest, undisturbed water is usually found early in the morning-too early to drag someone else out of bed just to haul you around the water.
"Controlling it becomes second nature," says Sells, who adds that visibility is exceptional because the tow cord is shorter than normal, and there are a number of built-in safety features. If the skier loses control and takes a fall, a cord attached to their lifejacket is pulled out, tripping a switch that shuts off the engine. Future models will use radar to cut the engine when an obstacle is detected, he says.
But jet ski groups are not keen on the new technology. Stephan Andranian, government affairs manager with the International Jet Sports Boating Association in Orange County, California, says that without a rider the Solo doesn't count as a jet ski or "personal watercraft", as they call it. But he doesn't doubt that the public will see things differently. "If they have problems with safety, it probably will reflect on personal watercraft users," he says.
The Solo is powered by a 70 horsepower, two-stroke jet ski engine, and has similar capabilities. Despite the fact that Solo's emissions are within the guidelines of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the pressure group Friends of the Earth is unimpressed: "This vehicle looks like a jet ski, pollutes like a jet ski and the safe operation of this vehicle is dubious like a jet ski," says Erich Pica of the FoE branch in Washington DC. He finds it difficult to imagine somebody responsibly controlling the craft from more than 10 metres behind it.
Author: Duncan Graham-Rowe
New Scientist issue 12th February 2000
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