Expired Flares, rockets etc

[mjf]

A friend attempted to dispose of this out of date lifesaving gear this w/e and asked me where.

I said, the chandlers or the marine office. Niether would accept these, which I thought was a bit odd. So I suggetsed HMCG or RNLI which is, I guess a bit inconvienient, as neither are particularly close.

What is the general norm on this please?

 

[Solitaire]

Coastguard is best bet. But how out of date are the flares? Don't be too hasty in disposing of them if they are just out of date. As long as you have a complete in date set then use the "old" ones as back ups. They will still work, but over time the colour intensity degrades and the height of rockets may not be to the maximum. I keep my old flares in a separate canister and rotate when they are say 2 years past expiry date.

The RNLI used to take old flares to use in demos, but only in date flares are used for the purpose now.

 

[tcm]

i haven't solved this, so i keep the old flares as really really desperate flares, and attempting to let of mouldy flares in the liferaft will probably be quite entertaining.

Of course, a certain and definitely definitely legal way of getting rid of them is to give them to the person most likely to have a problem (or kep them yerself if this is you) with strict instructions that when the boat gets holed on the rocks or whatever they let off ALL the flares and not just one or two. OR best of all, let off the old ones ONLY (and i bet they will work) so that even when the boat has had it, they will still have nice in date flares left over for the new boat when the insurance comes in.

hope this helps.

 

[Nautical]

Be very careful about using out of date flares, particularly rocket ones. Saw a Coastgaurd demo at a seaside festival where they were doing a mock up of a rescue, let off a couple of expired rocket flares, one shot out to sea about twenty feet above the water like an Exocet and the other the same only straight into the crowd. Elderly lady ended up with serious burns and in intensive care and just missed a baby in a pram. Enquiry later, reported in local paper blamed out of date flares, the aluminum fins had corroded over time and therefore the flares had no directional flight.

A couple of years later watched a mock up battle by the T A and along with movie pyros to simulate motars and artillary they had a pile of out of date flares which some squaddie was letting off like the clappers, same thing again about half of them had no directional flight just flew every which way.

 

[mjf]

Yes, I know from personal experience.

Some years ago I was at Lowestoft on the beach where you had to let off a smoke job, hand held flare and a rocket as welkl as line throwing kit etc etc.

My hand held flare was in date and it was the type that you sort of unscrewed the top and ignited the flare by striking the top cap across the top of the flare.

This I did and Whoooosh nice bright flare bit poped out of the top and landed on my (ungloved) hand. It was a bit hot I can tell you - so much so that I ran into the ocean (N Sea in Febuary ) to put myself out.

Am very careful now as a result, but luckily never had to launch these things in anger.