Flares

[harry barker]

flares

We carry flares because we have been told to.....Any RYA classroom courses
test the pupil on there knowledge of use of flares And the correct deployment for the situation at the time.Its a visual distress
signal only.
Sailing off shore say 20-30 n/miles with no visual sight of land or other vessels close by its pointless using flares.
I agree with other posters on this subject that the use of flares are very useful but if you note what they say its mainly the SAR services that find useful..... not the vessel in distress.
I also agree with the belt and braces thinking about if all fails I've got my flares to alert the SAR services as to my location but as above out of visual
sight they don't work.
We can also help ourselves a lot by keeping a up-to-date ships log,this to include your position in lat/long every hour/or1/2hour depending on your movements,visual sighting of land marks.sea conditions/wind direction/visibility/tide movements and directions/speeds of drift.
Also before you departure the number of persons on board.
Have you reg your boat and its identity to the rescue services.
This information would be a great help to the SAR services if you need to call
them in a emergency.
If its in your log its much easier to read off the information rather than trying to remember at a difficult time.
These logbooks make great reading years after use and bring back all times
spent at sea....good and bad.
Also in a case of collision or other vessel/person accident your insurance company
would insist a reading of this important document.
You could also include you catch report as well

[Charlie_Thompson]

Harry, it's the boat users who are in the main, going no where near 20 -30 mile offshore who this thing is going to effect. I jumped in quickly without knowing any real facts about the whole thing. Your earlier post put things into perspective. I've since had a bit read about what others have to say it It still seems like the utter madness it seemed earlier. The bottom line which these nobbers always seem to miss is - "We're not daft" The issue has only been raised because it costs x organisation y to do x, organisation b1 could save f.5 by doing z. All down to our money being spent in the wrong places by incompetent fools.

[The Great Wallsendo]

And a coupla Mackerel

He wouldn't need to carry them - over the years Alan has mastered the mating call of the mackerel...he would simply yodel and the fish would follow