A New Law Makes Using a Critical Boat Safety Feature Mandatory

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Boating safety is essential when operating any type of boat regardless of what type of marine vessel it is. No matter what you’re piloting, you want to do whatever you can to avoid sinking the vessel or causing any other types of accidents. 

Boating Magazine explains what this new law is and how it works. They also explain the times when it’s needed and when it’s not. Since boat sales skyrocketed in 2020 there’s more watercraft on the water than there used to be, so safety is important now more than ever. 

What is this new boating safety law?

Starting April 1st, 2021, a new law took effect for those who operate marine vehicles under 26 feet that are powered by a motor running around 2-3 hp or 115 lbs of static thrust. The law requires the boat operators to have, at all times, while on the boat, a cut-off switch to kill the engine when certain situations take place. 

The kill switch is required only when the vehicle is running at higher speeds. It doesn’t apply to situations when you’re docking your boat, launching it from the dock, trolling at lower speeds in no-wake zones, and loading it onto a trailer. 

The U.S. National Guard has considered the cut-off switch to be a required piece of equipment to have on recreational models since December 2019. There are even seven states that already have laws similar to this one. Some of them are Illinois, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. An ECOS device is considered one of the most important boating safety pieces of equipment you should have. 

How does an ECOS work?

Yachts and boats | Sergei MalgavkoTASS via Getty Images

RELATED: The Most Common Reasons to Not Buy a Pontoon Boat

ECOS, or engine cut-off switch, is a special switch that you wear by using a lanyard. If you’re piloting one of those boats, and you happen to fall overboard for whatever reason, the device on the lanyard will get wet. 

The ECOS system will detect that you have gone overboard the watercraft, and it will send the necessary signals to shut down the engine on the boat. This is to prevent the watercraft from running away from you and possibly causing injuries to others. 

These cut-off switches have been installed on boats before, but they just haven’t been required to use up until now. Not all boats that meet the specific requirements have them integrated into the motors, though.

Those built before 2020 are less likely to have them. If you decide to go with a used one, try to find one that has one of the kill switches installed. This way at least you’re staying safe while operating the vessel. 

Do you really need this piece of boating safety equipment?

Boating Magazine shared a story where one such cut-off switch could’ve come in handy. The operator left his boat idling while he was at the dock getting ready to launch. He chose to bypass tying the vessel up and instead just straddled it and the dock to keep it in place while he prepared to launch. 

His two-year-old grandson and son-in-law entered the boat. The toddler immediately started exploring everything within reach. The son-in-law turned his attention off the toddler for a few seconds to help the operator, but that’s when the curious child decided to pull back on the engine thrusters and sent the vessel into reverse. 

The incident was averted quickly by the son-in-law jumping to return the thrusters to the normal position. This is where a cut-off switch could’ve been needed, though. 

If the thrusters were pushed into forward position, the boat would’ve gone forward at a decent speed, causing the operator, to fall into the water. The boat would then have been without someone to pilot it. A kill switch, of sorts, would’ve disabled the engine immediately. 

Boating safety of any sort can save many lives on the water. This new law, concerning cut-off switches, can become one of the most useful ways to remain safe while operating your recreational marine vessel. 

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What Problems Does the Mazda CX-5 Have?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The Mazda CX-5 is a popular SUV that is fairly reliable overall. Some years have more issues than others, but Consumer Reports still recommend it. Buyers in the market for a new or used Mazda should know common issues to prepare for the cost of ownership.

Which Mazda CX-5 year has the most complaints?

A red Mazda CX-5 SUV on display in Belgium
| Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

According to Car Complaints, there are 366 complaints lodged over eight model years. For the 2014 CX-5, there were 96 complaints made. That went down for 2015 (11 complaints) but went back up to 133 complaints for 2016.

For that same year, Consumer Reports gave the reliability a four out of five. The owner satisfaction was three out of five. CR notes five recalls. The Daytime Running Lights failing, the light gate failing, and an issue with the steering system. The other two relate to the fuel filler pipe and a loose bracket on the windshield.

2017 shows only one complaint and 2018 shows three. Overall, that means the CX-5 is improving year over year. One of the biggest complaints in earlier years was about the windshield, which seems to have been remedied by Mazda.

Consumer Reports gave the 2017 and 2018 CX-5 a reliability score of five out of five. The overall owner satisfaction was four out of five. The 2018 model has two open recalls for the power train and airbags. For 2017, there is only a recall for the trailer wiring harness.

What are the biggest issues?

RELATED: 2021 Mazda CX-5 vs. Tesla Model X: Cost & Specs

The number one issue noted across the board revolves around the windshield. Some drivers commented that the windshield cracked easily, which is a fairly significant issue. The typical repair cost is noted as $780 and usually requires a windshield replacement. 10 drivers complained about the cracked windshield.

The second most common issue is similar: that the windshield breaks easily. In order to repair (not replace) the windshield, it cost around $440. There were a total of 19 complaints about this. Some drivers noted that the windshield cracked out of nowhere, without any previous damage or cracks.

Another big issue was related to lights on the SUV. Drivers complained that the daytime running light LEDs went out prematurely. Other complaints noted that various blinkers and running lights went out. There were 41 noted complaints about the DRL failure.

The typical repair cost is about $1,130, which is a hefty price to pay. Since drivers need to replace the headlight assembly or headlamps, it is not a cheap fix.

That doesn’t mean you should avoid the CX-5

RELATED: Is the 2018 Mazda CX-5 a Reliable SUV?

The CX-5 is popular for good reason. It is a reasonably priced SUV that comes with many standard safety features. When purchasing a used vehicle, it is a good idea to know about common problems before they happen.

Consumer Reports still recommends the 2016 Mazda CX-5. It scored a four out of five for reliability. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave the various crash and rollover tests “good.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rated most crash and rollover tests four and five stars. The only category that received a three-star rating was the overall frontal-crash, passenger side.

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The 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Gives You a Sporty Sedan in an SUV Package

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio takes everything people know about sedans and throws them out the window. Blurring the line between your standard small-sized vehicle and SUV, Alfa Romeo gives its drivers a wholly unique experience on the road and in your driveway. However, while the car has many fans and lots to be excited about, some might want to think twice before spending their money on such an ambitious project. 

Driving the 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio

According to Car and Driver, the $42,845 base model packs a punch with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and up to 280 hp to boot. For those looking to drive in town, the car should have them covered, but for those who might desire something more thrilling, all-wheel drive is available for a price.

The car’s engine packs some power for such a small car, but those looking to test the limits of an SUV may want to look elsewhere. For casual drivers and adventure seekers, the 3,000-pound limit of the base model may be a turnoff. The upgrades add the extra oomph that drivers want and need if they are will. 

With the peak upgrade, the horsepower goes up to 505 hp thanks to its twin-turbocharged 2.9L V6 engine that allows its drivers to go from 0 to 60 mph in just a few seconds. However, the cleanness of the driving combined with the ease of use remains one of Stelvio’s biggest sells of them all. 

The car boasts adaptive cruise control, several packages ranging from sunroofs to a ten-speaker sound system, and a variety of packages that add both functionality and entertainment to the traditional car.

According to Car and Driver, the Quadrifoglio package runs drivers a significant amount, $82,854, it might not be the car for everyone, but for those who like the sleek Sedan design but want a bit more power in the background, the hefty price might be worth the potential driver’s investment. 

Concerns under the hood

RELATED: The 2020 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Is 1 of the Fast SUVs You Can Buy Under $50,000

While MotorTrend praised the Alfa Romeo Stelvio’s design, power, and interface they felt like the car’s look and aesthetic leaves much to be desired. One of their biggest concerns had to do with the car’s size.

With a bigger build than similar cars like Alfa Romeo’s in-family Giulia, the people at the website believe that the extra weight and extra height can run a bit cumbersome. Furthermore, with the compact design which aims for power, the car can be a little cramped for anyone hauling anything but their own bodies. 

Furthermore, when it comes to some cosmetic and user-based features, the car leaves a lot to be desired. People might not care about next-level infotainment, custom designs, and eye-popping internal design, but those who are looking to feast their eyes on top of their driving may want a little bit more. When it comes to the performance, however, the people at MotorTrend still named it one of the best sports cars on the market. 

What to expect in the 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio

The 2020 Alfa Romeo Stelvio | Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

For those who are looking for an SUV experience without the size and cost, the 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio is among the best options on the market. However, the car may not be for everyone. The performance is, even at the base level, hard to beat for the price. However, with every additional feature that potential drivers want, it might not be the car for them. 

Few cars provide the level of compact space combined with the SUV sentiments that the 2021 Alfa Romeo Stelvio does. With peak performance and much to be desired in terms of user-friendly options, however, potential buyers may want to weigh the good with the bad before they drop money on it.

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Ola Stenegard and the 2022 Indian Chief: A Rhapsody of Design

by Gabrielle DeSantis

While the Vintage models retain their flowing fenders, the 2022 Indian Chief celebrates its 100th birthday with a full redesign. Not to mention some extra touches by several celebrated custom bike builders. The redesign comes from the team assembled by Indian’s head of design, Ola Stenegard. And recently, MotorBiscuit sat down with him over Zoom to talk about his life, his inspirations, and how he and his team blended old- and new-school techniques to redesign the Indian Chief.

Ola Stenegard has always been into building bikes

Ola Stenegard headshot | Indian

Born in Sweden, Ola Stenegard has deep motorcycle roots. His mother, father, brothers, and all his friends rode motorcycles, and he started riding around the age of six. But his earliest bikes weren’t exactly showroom-fresh. “I couldn’t even afford a moped,” he told MCN in an interview, so he had to make his own rides. And shortly thereafter, his father taught him how to weld.

Those first bikes Ola Stenegard built usually featured a two-stroke chainsaw engine shoved into a moped or bicycle frame. But after getting his license and a ‘proper’ motorcycle, he started making grander designs. This was the ‘70s when choppers and bobbers were first hitting their stride. And Swedish enthusiasts “always had a very, very deep connection with old American hot-rod and chopper and bobber culture,” Ola told me. One of his early heroes was a ‘60s Swedish artist living in San Francisco whose bikes regularly appeared in Swedish magazines.

Ola Stenegard working on a motorcycle in a garage
Ola Stenegard working on a motorcycle | Indian

After building a succession of bikes and entering shows, Ola Stenegard studied industrial design at Stockholm, Bike Exif reports, and later enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in California, J&P Cycles reports. The current VP of Industrial Design at Polaris, Greg Brew, was one of his professors. And this would be another connection that eventually led Ola to Indian. Or, rather, back to Indian.

There was “a quick 15-year detour,” but Ola Stenegard is ‘back’ with the brand he has a deep connection with

Indian Motorcycle co-founder Carl Oscar Hedstrom with a vintage Indian bike
Indian Motorcycle co-founder Carl Oscar Hedstrom | Indian

As a Swede, Ola Stenegard has always felt a connection or kinship with the Indian brand. That’s because one of Indian’s cofounders, Carl Oscar Hedstrom, was born in Sweden before emigrating to the US. And Ola briefly joined the company during its first revitalization back in the early 2000s after working at Saab. However, it “was very much a start-up company, and unfortunately, after two years it started being very wobbly,” he told me.

One of my co-workers, Thom Taylor, also did some design work for Indian at around the same time. Ola is a big fan of his from back in the days of hot-rod magazines, along with Chip Foose. He even owns a copy of Taylor’s book, How to Draw Cars Like a Pro, that’s falling to pieces it’s so well-thumbed. Ola’s son even learned how to draw from that book and is currently studying design because of it.

RELATED: The 2021 BMW M 1000 RR Is the M3 of Motorcycles

After that initial Indian experience, Ola Stenegard went to BMW Motorrad, which was “just about to start this big product expansion.” He worked there for 15 years, Cycle World reports, and designed bikes like the R nineT and the S 1000 RR. But when Indian was reborn again in Polaris’s hands—“the right hands,” he told CW—he wanted back in. And in 2018, Ola was hired as the Director of Product Design.

The 2022 Indian Chief has been 20 years in the making

Rich Christoph's initial 2022 Indian Chief sketches
Rich Christoph’s initial 2022 Indian Chief sketches | Indian

Ola Stenegard didn’t design the 2022 Indian Chief all by himself. He has a full team, including principal designer Rich Cristoph, that is just as well-versed in chopper and bobber history.

But while the 2022 Chief is influenced by vintage Indians, it also in many ways resembles the bike Ola sketched two decades ago. “I’ve been carrying this dream for 20 years,” he said, with heavy emotion in his voice. And now, he finally gets to show it to the world.

RELATED: Carey Hart’s Giving a Motocross Touch to the 2022 Indian Chief

It’s also clear that genuine bike builders designed the 2022 Indian Chief. “We wanted to devote the new Chief to all those men and women that build custom bikes,” he told me. And that devotion played an important role in the 2022 Chief’s creation.

In Ola Stenegard’s words, “it’s become so easy nowadays to build and manufacture and develop really complicated things.” So, for the 2022 Chief, he aimed for a “timeless…simple and clean” look. And if you only stick to modern methods like CAD, that’s very difficult to do, he told Cycle World. So instead, he and his team combined both old and new schools.

It has modern “jewels,” but its design comes from old-school techniques and ‘60s bobber and chopper sensibilities

The black frame of a 2022 Indian Chief on a stand with its V-twin installed
2022 Indian Chief bare frame with engine | Indian

“‘Everything started with the frame,'” Ola Stenegard told Vintangent, and he echoed that sentiment when he talked with me.

The 2022 Indian Chief has a tubular steel frame, setting it apart from the company’s other cast-aluminum bikes. It’s unobscured by extra fenders, chrome, or wires. And many parts, like the rear fender, are bolted on rather than welded.

“Someone said, ‘Design is the art of giving form to function.’ I like that way more than ‘form follows function.’ I hate that, it sounds so boring.”

ola stenegard

That aspect, plus the use of easy-to-weld and easy-to-cut steel, has not gone unappreciated by custom builders like Keino Sasaki and Paul Cox. And it makes it simpler for garage builders and mechanics to work on the bike. Plus, the left-hand downtube is removable for easier engine access—imagine being able to swing your car’s left fender out of the way to speed up oil changes.

A black and a red 2022 Indian Chief riding down a damp city highway
2022 Indian Chief side 3/4 and front | Indian

The frame, incidentally, wasn’t created on a computer. Instead, Ola and his team sat the Chief’s V-twin engine on a crate and propped the wheels and frame tubes around it. The bodywork was all done in clay, rather than digitally. For Ola, physically arranging the pieces of a bike is the best way to make sure it has the ‘right look.’ And one of Ola’s team had a pattern-making background, ensuring the welds were as effective as they are striking.

“Rich [Richard Cristoph, principal designer] really poured his soul into every piece of this motorcycle…at one point, he said, ‘Each part has to be a celebration of itself.’”

Ola stenegard

But that’s not to say the 2022 Indian Chief design team completely abandoned modern technology. CAD and other software helped set things like the ride and seat heights and the suspension subframe design. Many of the details (which Ola calls “jewels”) like the fork triple-trees and the footpegs were designed in CAD. Plus, using 3D printing meant testing new prototype parts went significantly quicker. And despite its old-school look and air-cooled design, the 2022 Chief’s V-twin is Euro5 emissions compliant.

Ironically, at the time of our conversation, Ola hadn’t ridden a 2022 Indian Chief. COVID-19 restrictions meant he couldn’t ride it during development. And European-market models “are getting picked up pretty quick,” he said.

He’s waited 20 years to ride his Chief. Hopefully, he can wait a little bit longer.

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