OK guys, now you got me confused. A white, flashing strobe like the ones you can buy in marine stores or dive shops is considered what? In the last couple of posts I read different view points, ranging from distress signal in any case, to distress on inland water, no distress at all. One participant identified himself as a SAR person, another one as a captain, all those guys look to me like people who should know and be able to answer the question, so who is right? Like in many things there are for sure national variance (Canada, US, Europe) and custom habits (even if it is not officially considered a distress signal, we will check it out), and for sure also situation depended interpretations. A flashing strobe in the cliff may be more likely a distress signal than just a position maker of a hiker/mountaineer, since they don't illuminate themself while climbing or hiking. A flashing strobe in the middle of a lake with no power boat traffic as well, since there is no reason to show off like a christmas tree. But in a busy harbour, with a lot of background noise? Have to check later at home the water for the harbour ferry, I think that thing has a strobe flashing on its mast. Guess I have to call the local Coasties to find out what the rules are here in NS/Canada, but all the people I asked over the weekend (kayakers, sailors, divers, and few power boaters) shared my impression that a white flashing strobe on a boat is more a position marker than a distress signal. In combination with distress signals (flares, acoustic signals, radio calls), an initiated search and rescue, and rescuers looking for you it will speed up finding you, but all by it self? So, what are the facts? cheers Ulli (All spelling errors are intentional and are there to show new and improved ways of spelling old words.) Ulli Hoeger Dept. Physiology and Biophysics Dalhousie University Halifax, B3H4H7, Nova Scotia Canada Phone I : 902-494-2673 Fax: 902-494-1685 Phone II :902-488-6796 http://is.dal.ca/~uhoeger *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Mar 12 2001 - 15:00:55 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:38 PDT