It’s No Toss Up with TOSS ‘N SAVE

Manfred and Teresa Klotz receiving their CASBA award from Ted Rankine, CSBCThe owners of Windabout Enterprises have developed a product that demonstrates, once again, the beauty of simplicity of design, and the Canadian Safe Boating Council’s 2012 Best Marine Industry Award. Manfred and Teresa Klotz are the proud company owners, and Manfred the designer of the life-saving product in question: Toss N’ Save.

The product is an innovation in heaving line, which is required equipment on vessels. It consists of a 52-foot heaving line coiled around a buoyant disc that makes it both easy for the tosser to throw the line accurately to an individual overboard, and for the latter to catch and hold the line. Highly visible, long-wearing, competitively priced, and easily reloadable, the Toss N’ Save complies with Transport Canada regulations for powered pleasure craft up to 78’ in length.

As with many inventions, Toss N’ Save’s conception was entirely accidental. Company owner Manfred decided to make custom foam cushions for his canoe in the spring of 2002 in preparation for the upcoming season. He then began running down his checklist of required equipment when he took a critical look at the heaving line he had on hand for the canoe. He wondered just how useful it would be in an emergency.

Could an almost weightless length of rope be tossed either far enough or accurately enough to reach an individual in the water?

He looked from the rope to the foam left over from his cushion project, and set to work. By the time he was through, he had carved out a piece that resembled a movie reel, and then wound his heaving line around it. Looping the end of the rope around his wrist, Manfred then easily and accurately tossed the disc across his yard Frisbee-style. The hole he had cut in the center of the disc would clearly be easy for someone in need of rescue to grab and hold onto.
“Just toss n’ save,” he thought.

What better name for the product, and what better product manufacturer to acknowledge for improving boating safety in Canada?