I keep a flashlight, a flare kit, and a hand held VHF just inside the
companionway on both of our boats.


Bart wrote:
Good answer Doug. *

Thank you. This is a good thread, there have been a lot of good
answers. Thank you for returning to ASA and starting these threads!


What sort of things would you have in
a flare kit?

Depends on the boat (sorry to keep repeating that). For our small
sailboat, which I have no plans to take out in the "boonies," I have
an orange smoke for daytime, 4 hand-held flares, and 4 self-launch
rocket flares. For the tugboat, which we occasionally take pretty far
afield even if we don't cross oceans, I have a 25mm flare gun with at
least dozen rounds including a pack of 4 parachute flares. I have at
least a dozen hand-held flares too, 2 orange smokes (1 is old), a
signal mirror, a distress flag. Both of these kits have SOLAS rated
flares... no insult intended to the USCG but the SOLAS flares are more
than twice as bright & effective. More expensive too, but I reckon
they're worth every penny if it keeps us from needing them.

About the self-contained rockets & launchers... I bought a few of them
but did not have a chance to try any until early this year. Then, I
had several outdated ones to set off as a yacht club flare practice
party. The igniters were soft & crumbly, and one of them had a pull-
type striker that failed and had no way to try it a second time. I
would take a serious look at these before buying more, get the kind
that have a strike-type igniter rather than pull... they are more
difficult to set off if you're swimming, true, but it's no good if
they fail (or you fumble it, which is very easy) and you can't have a
2nd try. In fact, I'd look at a 12g flare gun before getting more of
these. But after using a 25mm flare gun, I have seen the difference
and 25mm is WAY WAY better!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King