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Sigh.. Flares!


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Was having a good sort out on the boat today and thought I would go through the Grab bag and double check the safety gear the bag was dry and is wall mounted.

These flares are less than a year old, they are not cheap and dodgy (being German made and cost $50 each for a red hand flare), they are clearly not suitable for a marine environment.

I have flares 20 years old that are in better condition than these, it's time YNZ had another look at these things as they are clearly a liability and should not be relied on.

 

 

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Somewhere in their life, they have been significantly wet with Salt water. Either someone had wet hands handling them, or some water was in the bag you didn't know about.
That corrosion is both Salt and Ally Oxide.
Saying that though, a Flare should be far more resilient to corrosion that that anyway.

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That's the thing wheels, they have only ever been in the Grab bag, ok a very damp environment on a race boat but they look like they have been lying in the bilge.

I think it is just really crap alloy. Will take them back to the shop so they can send them back to the distributor.

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Yes, we keep only a couple of the previously expired flares on the boat when we replace them.
Don't really find any security in them to me they are more of a hail Mary, I prefer to rely on a VHF radio and a satphone, the best use for them that I can think of is collision avoidance.

The Pyro's really are a dinosaur of a bygone age.

The LED ones would probably be useful for signalling a rescue chopper or vessel. 

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There are many inspectors beside me trying to get flares replaced my LED or Laser flares. Most experienced people I challenge to show me 'which end is the hot end' fail. When I say most I mean nearly all. I'm convinced they are potentially more dangerous than helpful in a panicked persons hands when they have lost their glasses at night. I understand waiting for Solas approval is still the hold up. Roll on some sensible change here!

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We have several epirbs and just bought a torch that shoots a very bright spot in morse code. We usually take more than we need.

 

Flares  and almanacs should be optional. Cat three should be minimal and kept simple so that more boats get cat 3.Go Tim.

 

90% of the gear is essential. Like buckets, anchor, torches life jacktes, radios and a structural check etc.

 

Cats are required to carry dinghy inflated on deck, it can fill with water when you nose dive and cause the entire boat to flip. We need to have tethers, I would rather bring an ash tray. 

 

A roll of duct tape should be on the list, simple cheap and saved us from sinking twice.

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A group of rescue organisations recently did some real world tests of LED "flares"

We strongly recommended that they not replace traditional flares at this stage.

The results were just not very good.

As KM has said visibility is poor at best. In any situation of near coastal you would have no hope as they simply either blend into other back ground lights or if near shipping are not unique enough to attract quick and positive action.

They may be useful in a situation that needs a visual guide to an already known situation. Given that some kind of contact has already been made and most probably a lon and lat, it would be only slightly more useful than a bright torch.

As a sobering lesson...at the same time a traditional flare was also set off to act as a bench mark. It was brightly seen from all the observation points both at sea and land based...BUT...not a single phone call was made to authorities by shipping, other maritime operations or the general public...

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yep ... and the tests that I mentioned were all  hand held...not rocket..

Different Australian states have different rules...and they in turn  have different zones that may or may not demand rocket flares.(Enclose,Inshore or offshore waters). The most common requirement is two orange smoke and two red hand held.

...its also probably not a good idea to get into trouble around midnight on new year....

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Last night I found out Laser Flares are damn good for using when laying out deck gear to check if lines will run nicely.

 

Lovin the multi use ability of them :)

let's just be sure no one tries that with a rocket flare... 

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I have a few out of date but I needed a nice pencil line, not a 100mm wide scorch mark :)

 

Found the flare is also very good at scaring the crap out of Cats. I have a problem cat that has learnt to be wary of me when I hold long skinny things. I've got it a couple of times with the slug gun, at range, so rather than pull out the far better range Rugar, a tad harsh in suburbia, I pinged it the other night with the flare. Holy crap you would have thought I did Rugared  it. A wicked shriek as it leaped and took off hell fast, it's never looked that freaked before, nice. As a FYI, I think it maybe a tad wild, it is a scabby shitter who has climbed on and in my boat.

I'd buy one for that purpose alone...

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