JimH wrote:
"Suanne Lippman" wrote in message
...
I bought a case of Olin hand held flares at an auction. I thought it was a
good buy until I found out the expiration date was 1989.

Do flares actually expire?

Yes.

Will they fail to ignite or will they explode, or what?

Maybe, maybe not. The USCG and Auxiliary however only looks at the
expiration date when they inspect your boat. If out of date you are fined.

The auxiliary is not a law enforcement agency so they won't cite you
for expired flares. If they discover them on a courtesy inspection
there is no action taken. They don't want people to shy away from
courtesy inspections by thinking they will get fined for this kind of
stuff.


The regular Coast Guard will only site you if your flares are expired
and you have no other up to date, appropriate visual signals. You can
have expired flares on board if you also have current ones too. Many
folks, including CG people have nothing against keeping the latest set
of expired flares with their replacements.




Well, the container was worth the purchase price.