Flares or Lasers

[steve yates]

If your boat was seaworthy....what advantage would the trawler have rendered to your injured sailor that you couldn’t have ?

Did you miss the 24hrs to shore to get medical treatment?

 

[steve yates]

Transferring a sick person at sea...from a small boat to something as unsuitable as a trawler is fraught with danger....don’t you have an engine or vhf ?

But the trawler could have called it in even if it could do nowt else.

 

[boomerangben]

Mmmm this is a slightly different take on the usual. White para for locating a MOB. Not a bad idea although probably not great for the subsequent switch to night vision (ie the humans eyeball transition to low light). For me PLB and/or AIS beacon, life jacket light and day night in the pocket is the best option for finding a MOB. And of course a VHF mayday call to get more eyes on scene, whether it be emergency services or other mariners.

As for laser/LED flares….. depends when you go sailing. Waste of time if you only sail by day.

And been to several reports of red flares, all false alarms with good intent. Probably disposing of time ex flares.

 

[jwilson]

But the trawler could have called it in even if it could do nowt else.

Had a VHF and a SSB. Neither worked. After lots of seawater has sloshed around everywhere below, including the cabin ceiling, not much 1970s electronics stayed working. Hint, the keel had been sticking up in the air several times and one small 10mm saloon window was smashed. A separate issue took out the engine. Water below made even nicer by some diesel.

Has any poster cogitating over this actually seen a red parachute pyro in action? I have, twice, with successful outcomes. Mebbe that affects my views....

A year later I responded to a red para flare off the edge of Portland Race: towed in a wet, tired, fairly frightened crew of a retired Fastnet 79 competitor with an intact rig but dead engine. They were a bit embarrassed afterwards to find it was a sailing school boat I was skippering at the time that had towed them into Weymouth.

Still these days wouldn't carry hand or para red flares if not forced to by coding regs.

 

[ylop]

As for laser/LED flares….. depends when you go sailing. Waste of time if you only sail by day.

Provided nothing goes wrong which means you are still our when it goes dark!

 

[westhinder]

As for laser/LED flares….. depends when you go sailing. Waste of time if you only sail by day.

A LED flare is pretty blinding by day, I wouldn't advise looking straight at it at close range