Bill Leonhardt wrote: > >So paddlewisers, what flares do you use? Why? Where-- Under the category of not practicing what I preach-- I carry a small pack of Sky Blazers in my PFD. I really don't know why after a very graphic demonstration I saw a year ago. Our local Coast Guard Auxiliary gave a demonstration of a wide variety of flares. They asked people to bring out-of-date flares and those that were just about to expire. They demonstrated each flare by announcing what make, model and expiration date on a VHF radio channel and then shooting the flare (or attempting to in many cases.) They had a large number of Sky Blazers with current dates, just about to expires and expired stamps. I have a distinct memory of being surprised at the number of duds in all categories. They simply did not fire. Those that did fire were less than spectacular. The commonly advertised Olin flares were considerably more reliable (both in and out-of-date) although admittedly more expensive. Sticking with the old adage, you get what you pay for, the most spectacular display came from SOLAS flares.(Pains was the name of the manufacturing company. SOLAS is an international standard.) Regardless of how old they were these flares ALWAYS fired. They were brighter and lasted considerably longer than ANY of the other flares. They are more expensive. I guess if my life depended on it (as it probably would if I were moved to fire a flare) that is the kind of flare I would want to see. When I get around to it I am going to buy a few of these to keep handy. They are available from most marine supply stores including West Marine. Ed Bean *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:00 PDT