Fastnet race (Cat2 monohull) - Flare requirements 2019.

[Martin_J]

Back in 2013, the flare requirements were a full RORC pack which included 4 parachute rockets, 4 red handheld, 2 buoyant smokes and 4 white handheld flares (as well as what's already packed within the liferaft)..

This year, the requirement seems to have reduced somewhat and is now just 4 red hand helds and 2 orange smokes..

Am I reading this right? If so then it looks like just a £50 inshore flare pack (2 red and 2 smokes) with the addition of 2 extra reds (£24) will suffice instead of the £260 full RORC pack.

I know this is a minimum although for cat 2 we do now need Personal AIS beacons but it does seem like quite a reduction in pyrotechnics (and incidentally the flare manufacturers are still producing and selling the full RORC pack).

 

[flaming]

That agrees with how I read it.

I think this is pretty sensible, the job of the parachute rocket flares is arguably being done better with EPIRBs and Personal AIS beacons but in some circumstances there is just nothing better than a hand held flare for attracting the attention of someone close by, or pinpointing exact position once help is close at hand.

 

[Martin_J]

Thanks for that.. We had read through the requirements numerous times and that was the conclusion we had come to..

Strange that the white handhelds have also gone.. Maybe they're expecting that our personal waterproof torches (and the one at the helm) are brighter than they ever were.

I'm still tending towards having the white handheld on board near the helm just in case..

 

[ckris]

We have just been working through OSR, one to watch for on flares is that it is still required to have 2 red parachute flares in liferaft equipment (OSR 4.20.2).... As we do not have this in our liferaft pack, we bought 2 red parachute flares for the grab bag.

Ckris

 

[Martin_J]

Indeed...our liferaft does have the flares.

Interesting as well that this year the declaration needed a photo of the liferaft in the usual storage location... Perhaps in the past some haven't complied...