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[Kettlewell]

These PowerFlares look interesting. I bet something like this is the future. Also interesting is how bad perchlorate (chemical in pyrotechnic flares) is for you and the environment.

[perchance]

I have no problem carrying the required flares etc. What I do have a problem with is the fact that since they are mandatory it seems to give the vendors a license to charge what ever the traffic will bear.

[Astrid]

Perchlorate is also a naturally occurring metallic salt.

[Kettlewell]

Wikipedia talks about perchlorate problems resulting from flare manufacturing:

One example of perchlorate related problems was found at the Olin Flare Facility, Morgan Hill, California—Perchlorate contamination beneath a former flare manufacturing plant in California was first discovered in 2000, several years after the plant had closed. The plant had used potassium perchlorate as one of the ingredients during its 40 years of operation. By late 2003, the state of California and the Santa Clara Valley Water District had confirmed a groundwater plume currently extending over nine miles through residential and agricultural communities.
The Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Santa Clara Valley Water District have engaged in a major outreach effort that has received extensive press and community response. A well testing program is underway for approximately 1,200 residential, municipal, and agricultural wells in the area. Large ion exchange treatment units are operating in three public water supply systems that include seven municipal wells where perchlorate has been detected. The potentially responsible parties, Olin Corporation and Standard Fuse Incorporated, are supplying bottled water to nearly 800 households with private wells. The Regional Water Quality Control Board is overseeing potentially responsible party (PRP) cleanup efforts.[4]
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[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Looks like that little Navi Light is certified as a navigation light, not an emergency light.

By the way, I have fired off various out of date flares on July 4 and it was surprising how many are complete duds, or how many misfire. Even a slightly out of date SOLAS grade flare I fired once was disappointing. I pointed it downwind and it went out that way maybe 50 yards, then turned around 180 degrees and strafed us on the boat. The flaming missile went across the deck about head high, luckily missing all the rigging, and then across the harbor above the wave tops until it landed in the drink just astern of someone madly rowing his dinghy to get out of the way.

next time be sure to record the video. Do you have any more from theat lot #??

[Kettlewell]

No, that is the only SOLAS grade flare I have ever fired and it was another guy's stash on his boat. We were in St. Thomas and figured it would blow off rapidly in the trade wind, but it turned around and came back to windward right at us. After that we retired below and had a drink or two instead of playing with pyrotechnics.

[Nicholson58]

A couple more drinks and you could try some more. "Hold my beer while I show you sum'thin"

[Richard_W]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

We were in St. Thomas and figured it would blow off rapidly in the trade wind, but it turned around and came back to windward right at us.

Were they made in Australia, or looked like this?

[zeehag]

sailing gom 2009-2010 i happend to see at night late some bright lghts above horizon..no pattern to em. kept sailing northward... the lights were occasional,and by the time i saw them off beam i saw they were flares. i kept looking --i saw helicopters circling the area in which the flares were seen---i figured was either a practice or a rescue in progress.
flares can be seen loong distances and over horizon----in some situations, the civilians who answered flares did a good job in assistance.

[perchance]

Originally Posted by Astrid

How many people outside of former or current CG and Navy signalmen would recognize a light flashing SOS?

dah dah dah dit dit dit dah dah dah?

[Hydra]

dah dah dah dit dit dit dah dah dah?

I thought it was the other way round: dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit.

Alain

[Richard_W]

Originally Posted by Hydra

I thought it was the other way round: dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit.

I was thinking the same way!
Just was afraid to start another PAN-PAN/PON-PON like discussion ...

[Hydra]

Just checked: File:SOS.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alain

[Astrid]

I was thinking more along the lines of how many casual yachtsmen would recognize a light flashing SOS as something more than a boat experiencing a shorting out light. At any rate, here is an example of SOS and supplementary message by light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEbkQE3JBPg

[sww914]

Get a big hat. Squirt some foam-in-a-can from Home Depot in is so it floats. Go out on the ocean at night when it's blowing over 20 and throw it overboard. As you throw it, mark MOB on your GPS.
Sail or motor for 10 minutes.
Turn around.
Find the hat.
Now tell me that you have better tools than flares to aid a rescue.