Observations About The Violence of Setting Off Flares

[charles_reed]

I think that flares, like ducking witches, are an anachronism.

Dangerous and unreliable they are best replaced with an EPIRB and a strobe.

I have used them and, even in date, there is more than 8% total failure and about another 10% of dangerous malfunction.

 

[Ian_Rob]

I too have fired or tried to fire a set of Inshores Flares [in a competely screened situation].They were still in date [but would have been out of date by the start of the new season]. I was surprised that of the four flares, one white flare didn't ignite at all - despite the cap firing and one red flare despite four attempts at striking by hand was only finally ignited by dropping it on its base on to hard surface from a height of approx 1.2m. The difficulty of setting them off and the 50% success rate seems a bit alarming for a reputable brand.

 

[tigr]

If you read what this guy has been through you would not want to set one off. Apparantly he is the only person to have had this happen and survive!
He does RYA training and got me through the dayskipper course so he must be good. I was trying to find out something about the course and found this:

http://www.westviewsailing.co.uk/2009/02/hello.html

Google "Duncan Wells flares" there are also articles on laser "flares"

 

[haydude]

The real violence came when lighting the red pinpoint handheld. As before they started with a loud bang then went straight into a furnace of brilliant red light, too bright to look at and sending a shower of debris out as they burned. After burning out, the metal cylinder housing the flare continued to glow red hot for a minute after. The second flare’s primer detonated without managing to ignite the flare itself giving a three out of four sucess rate.

So practically if you are in an emergency and use flares you risk adding fire and injury to any problem you are experiencing.

 

[duncan99210]

Having been rescued by the RNLI off Alderney a few years back after a knock down damaged the steering and injured some of the crew, it was only due to a flare that they were able to find us, as all that electronics were not up to pinpointing the boat amongst the confused seas and other craft. Once we'd fired the flare, the lifeboat was alongside shortly afterwards.
I'll go for the simple pyrotechnic as part of the basket of other ways of attracting attention. They create so much light that they are easy to spot and enable a rescue craft to home in on you. I strongly doubt that the laser 'flare' reviewed in the MBO article would have been any use at all in the seas that night. Yes, VHF is essential to call for help; yes, an EPRIB would have served the same function; yes, we could have used a mobile phone (luckily in sight of land and therefore a signal) but when you come right down to it, the fastest, easiest way to help the lifeboat over the last half mile was a flare.

 

[Shorn100]

It was a PW Mk 7

The flare that the OP must have been using was a Pains-Wessex Mk 7. These were replaced in 2006 with the Comet designed Mk 8 following the incident with the white Mk 7. As far as I am aware all hand held flares now commonally available are string pull friction igniters.

I have fired literally hundreds of flares in the past in organised demonstrations - all in date - and found them to be remarkably reliable.

It would be wrong for anyone here not to resort to using a flare in an emergency because of concerns that it might misfire. It's extremely unlikely to fire dangerously.

One word of advice though - never fire rocket flares over land - they are designed to land in water and are known to not always extinguish themselves before landing.

Shorn

 

[Baddox]

There’s some good advice and sobering feedback in the replies.

I don’t know what make/model of flare it was that failed to ignite with the firing mechanism, I went back with a blow-torch strapped to the end of an 8ft stick and successfully ignited it that way. It fizzled for a second or two before flaring to the same intensity and voracity as the first one. The metal tube remained but any markings on the outside were scorched off.

It was an interesting and valuable learning exercise setting them off but I don’t think I’ll do it again to dispose of out-of-date flares. The long drive to Edinburgh or Humberside CG seems more worthwhile, especially as I have some parachute flares approaching old age.

 

[snooks]

I think that flares, like ducking witches, are an anachronism.

Dangerous and unreliable they are best replaced with an EPIRB and a strobe.

Sorry I have to disagree with that.

It depends on where you sail.

I sail in the crowded waters of he Solent, tell me how an Epirb or strobe would pinpoint my vessel and position to a helicopter crew who are needed for a medivac? It's a sunny day and there are hundreds of other similar looking vessels all around me, or on an occasion like the RTI race when there are thousands of boats around me, lat and long are time specific, a strobe would have little effect in bright sunshine.

The easiest, simplest and quickest way is with a flare.