Michael Daly wrote:

On 28-Apr-2004, "riverman" wrote:


Maybe some sort of dye that
would mark the water where you are?


The dyes are for daytime use only.


Do they make something like a Pieps for
seafaring use. like what ships have for when they get in trouble?


EPIRB. Pricey but effective. Very pricey if you send a false alarm!


I know I'd be wary of carrying flares; between
accidental discharge or failure, they'd be worrisome.


I've not heard of an accidental discharge. If there was a significant
risk of that, I'd not carry three of them on my PFD at all times (for
the last 6 years).

ISTR reading somewhere that recent tests have shown that failure rates
are better for flares today when compared to even five years ago.
Can anyone confirm?

I can provide some imperical data that flares are far more reliable that
is often presumed. At a Coast Guard sponsored pyro demo, we were allowed
to shoot off our own flares (in addition to the much more fun stuff that
the CG brought). Out of ~20 SkyBlazers, Star Tracers and such that were
fired, there were zero failures. This included some of my own
SkyBlazers, which were carried exposed in the hip pad block in a kayak
for over a year and got wet every time I went out. Additionally, we set
off ~100 pieces of full size pyro (parachutes, meteors, handhelds and
smokes), all of which were expired, and there were zero failures. Since
that day, I've seen exactly one old SkyBlazer fail when we shot some off
on the 4th of July last year. So out of 25-30 such flares I've seen
launched, there was one failure.

Granted, this is not a scientific test, but the often quoted failure
rate of 50% is obviously a myth, at least when it comes to currently
available products. If one were to carry four flares, it's a safe bet
that at least three of them would work. I would expect that even if you
only carried three, they would all work. BTW, the Coast Guardsmen all
carry pencil flares in the mech vests they wear over their PFD's. They
believe in them and I imagine that like anything used by the military,
they were tested to death before being adopted.

As for accidental discharges, I don't see how that's even remotely
possible considering the way flares are ignited. The only design I've
seen that seemed like it might be prone to it was the Orion Star Tracer.
The little yellow cap comes off with little provocation, which allows
the igniter disk and cord to fall out where it could potentially snag on
something and fire the flare. That possibility can be elimiated simply
by keeping them in a bag. Since Orion bought out SkyBlazer, they have
upgraded the performance of SkyBlazer's superior design and have taken
the Star Tracer off the market.

Bottom line, I trust that the flares I carry will work, should I need
them. I carry three on my person and three more in the boat However, I
also have VHF radio and an emergency strobe attached to my PFD, both of
which I consider far more important and useful than flares.