Flares - do we need them?

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rjandhl

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The time has come to give lots of good money to the local chandlery in return for a large yellow box of explosive devices that we may or not need. In addition we will have yet another stack of unwanted explosive devices in the garage that nobody wants to take off our hands.
So the question is.................in this electronic age of DSC, GMDSS and Epirbs do we really need to carry stacks of explosives on board as well as in the liferaft? Which is most likely to generate a response when out of sight of land, a firework or the EPIRB?
Or are we just lugging them around to satisfy the French? Even the RYA are starting to think about it................are we?
 
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When you have had to use them, you will believe that they are exactly what you need.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with you on this one.

You're in the liferaft, or floating out of control miles from anywhere, (like happened recently to a yacht in the Atlantic):

You've set the EPIRB off, and have your handheld VHF, but you dont actually know if either has worked, (or will work), and you see a ship in the distance which sails on by.....

Will you wish you had had 2 or 3 parachute flares to hand? You bet your life you will!!

I keep all my old flares on board ..... the chances are that they will work, even if out of date, (dont forget to have a pair of gardening gloves in the flares container)

Richard
 
[ QUOTE ]
So the question is.................in this electronic age of DSC, GMDSS and Epirbs do we really need to carry stacks of explosives on board as well as in the liferaft?

[/ QUOTE ]
My current flare set runs out in 2012 and I am having second thoughts as to whether they will be renewed if my cruising is still 95% within VHF range. I will probably keep them on board for a couple of years beyond the use-by date.

After 2012 I will continue to keep some in date red smokes on board since a daylight inshore medical evacuation is the only significant emergency I believe I face e.g. boom whack on head. Also a night time MOB search is another plausible risk which reminds me that some white rockets could be handy.

In fact thinking about it, a standard RORC flare set is poorly matched to the risks faced by an English Channel yacht skipper.
 
make-it-stop.jpg
 
a fellow forumite had life threatening accident whilst demonstrating flares. they can be dangerous. the faulty in date flare nearly killed him.

only ever have in date ones

i have used white flares to let a big ship we are there. i am in favour of them.


take your old flares to the local rnli or police station they will dispose of them
 
Do your own risk analysis.

Weigh up the chances of anyone seeing them, and responding to them: against the small chance it will misfire and blow your face off.

ps. I won't go chasing half-way across Start Bay again in response to flares. They were setting off old flares for fun, and unapolagetic. Twats!
 
hi i buy two new flares each year and throw out two that are over five years old,keeps cost down and numbers up,i have used flares twice in my life and would not put to see with out them,at night thay wanted me to fire a flare so thay could pipoint my position,the water was up to my waist which was ok but i was standing in the cockpit at the time !!
 
My theory is that I don't need them, but I'd be very pi$$ed off if I died kicking myself.

Water and electronics don't mix too well, batteries can die, epirbs can float away, flares can sink, no one rescue aid is a solution, the more you carry the greater your chance of being rescued

I believe, as a skipper, I have a duty to whomever I take on board for their safety as well as my own. If I didn't carry flares and an incident arose where some ones life could have been saved by carrying them if it wasn't for me penny pinching, I don't know whether I could live with myself. Could you?
 
[ QUOTE ]
When you have had to use them, you will believe that they are exactly what you need [ QUOTE ]


And when they just melt and burn your hand you'll promise to keep only in-date flares on board.
In our case I also swore not to pick the Irish Sea for a dismasting!

I suspect that our duty of care for the crew is obligatory. They may not be capable of marine radio procedure yet should be able to fire a flare - wearing thick gloves of course!
 
There should be an annual date and time when we can let off unwanted flares.A Fifteen minute window would be sufficient.

But then-------the flare manufacturers would get into a panic that people are ACTUALLY GOING TO USE THEIR PRODUCTS.

The risk analysis boys would go crazy.

This just highlights that a dangerous product is being freely sold without any provision for safe disposal.

IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!!!`
 
As far as disposal is concerned, every public body seems to have abrogated their responsibility in this respect. They will get what they deserve.

If there is no straightforward means, people who wish to dispose of them will use unstraightforward, (is there such a word), means.

There are plenty of easily accessible dustbins outside blocks of flats, plenty at marinas, and so on.

They could just be dumped anywhere that someone felt they were not observed, or at sea.

Once dumped unobserved, there is no way of knowing who dumped them.

Piled up in an owners garage, they are an accident waiting to happen - at the very least, children, (current or future houseowners), might think they are fireworks.

The fact that the authorities are willing to fine people for putting recyclable stuff, (i.e. paper and plastic bottles etc.), in the wrong bins, yet will not take any responsibility for the disposal of explosives, is yet another sad indictment of the system we are governed by.

I havent felt a need to dispose of any to date, so can honestly say that I am not guilty of any of the above /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Richard
 
It does seem daft that we are not allowed to practice using a safety item. Or aren't we? When I was in Anstruther the moored lifeboat had flares drill. I don't know if the old hands were playing jokes on the newbies but they set off the smokes into wind - and then they stood there having to breathe the stuff /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I did not hear them asking CG permission, or informing them of the forthcoming exercise.
 
The answer is very clear!

Electronics when they work are the bees knees.

When a tiny bit of salt water invades they are useless.

By all means use the electronics whilst you can, but flares are reliable and are your final backstop.

Why not carry that final solution!
 
On board becalmed boat deep sea with disabled engine (also all electronics dead through excess application of water) and badfly injured crew member once let off many flares in rockets within a mile of two trawlers that motored on by ignoring us .....

Equally however I have responded to para rockets and towed the boat in, informing the CG on VHF that I was doing so. They had not had the flares reported to them other than by me (about 3 miles offshore in the Channel).

These days I could be easily persuaded that 2 x VHF, EPIRBs, satphones and super-bright torches are better than flares.
 
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