OLAS Guardian and France's New Kill Switch Rule
France's Division 240 safety regulations now require a kill switch cord to be attached to the helmsman's wrist, leg or buoyancy aid whenever the engine is running. This applies to tiller-steered outboards, larger remote-steered outboards and personal watercraft. Whenever the pilot leaves the helm, the engine has to be off, or in neutral with the propeller unable to rotate. That part applies whether you're using a wired cord or an electronic kill switch, so going wireless doesn't mean the boat can keep moving with nobody at the controls. Where an electronic kill switch is used, the rule adds one more condition: if there's more than one person aboard, someone has to stay permanently at the helm.
OLAS Guardian, made by Ultimate Sports Engineering Ltd in the UK, fits well into that setup.
Where it helps
With a wired lanyard, you're only protected while you're physically clipped in. Every time the skipper needs to leave the helm, to go forward, drop the anchor, net a fish or hand over to someone else, the cord has to come off and get reattached or passed over. Miss that step and either the boat is running with nobody tethered, or the cord ends up unclipped and left hanging because swapping it over was too fiddly at the time.
OLAS Guardian does this differently. The skipper wears a small wireless transmitter instead of a cord, and that's what satisfies the kill switch requirement. So as long as the engine is in neutral, the skipper can step away from the helm and stay within the law without unclipping or reattaching anything.
If there's crew on board, the rule just asks that someone stays at the helm to keep an eye on the throttle while the skipper is away. That person doesn't need to wear a kill cord or a transmitter themselves. It's the skipper's own wireless connection that keeps the boat covered the whole time.
Worth knowing
The neutral and propeller rule doesn't go away just because the kill switch is electronic. The boat still can't be underway with the skipper off the helm, wired cord or not. A backup kill switch also has to stay on board and accessible, whatever primary system is fitted, and it's worth checking your setup with a dealer since France hasn't published a list of approved devices. Even with those caveats, for boats carrying more than one person, OLAS Guardian fits the way the French rule is actually written, and takes away the main weak point of the traditional lanyard: a cord that someone forgets to move.
Reflects Division 240 / arrêté du 11 octobre 2024 and French boating industry reporting, current as of August 2026.