In a message dated 3/12/2001 6:01:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, uhoeger_at_is.dal.ca writes: > now you got me confused. A white, flashing strobe like the ones > you can buy in marine stores or dive shops is considered what? > Okay, Ulli --- I'm the SAR guy. We were all essentially right. Just confusing. Yes, a white, flashing strobe like *some* of the ones you can buy in a Boats'r'Us shop --- the CFR rated ones --- are "considered" to be emergency lights in "inland waterways" --- which Ralph explained better than I can. It has to do with miles from land, but then all the Chesapeake Bay is "inland" so the miles don't always count. But they're just "considered" that way. They aren't *really* emergency lights. The only official, non-pyrotechnic night distress signal for anything bigger than an outdoor hot tub is the electric distress signal that flashes an SOS when you drop it overboard. It's that (which is something like $60 or $70 US from memory) and another confusing combination of hand held flares, dinky-poppof flares (SkyBlazers or whatever they are), and big hummer parachute flares. As kayakers in the US, for night paddling we are obligated by regulation to carry a combination of hand held or launched flares OR the electric distress signal and some smaller combination of flares. Y'see, Ulli, we have a problem in the US, and particularly here in Washington. We have an awful lot of lawyers. You guys have too many hockey players so they all come here. We have too many lawyers, and we just keep them. And they have to be productive, so all the spare ones go down to a place in Southeast Washington aptly called Buzzard's Point where the U.S. Coast Guard writes all this stuff. (And you really never want to go there by yourself. It's not that nice an area.) Anyway, it's not so important to protect attorneys, so they get the spare 50 or 60 lawyers for that day, and they each take turns writing one word of the CFR that applies to flares and strobes and other neat stuff. That might seem strange to you up there in Canada, Ulli, but here it makes perfect sense. And that's why strobes are "considered" emergency distress signals, but aren't really emergency distress signals. If you need more clarification on the really tough words like "distress" and "emergency", the people who really understood the definitions have both gone to New York --- one comes back here to Washington to work, and the other is looking at City Hall in Ralph's domain (no backs, Ralph!). Hope this helps, Ulli. I'm going to use this message as a sign-off on PaddleWise for a while, I think. Have been on since just after Jackie stood it up, but I'm now a graduate student (albeit with a 10% discount at Ames on Tuesdays!) and can't keep up with more than full time work and more than full time study and still read P'Wise. Will try the consolidated thing for a bit, but think I really need to go cold turkey for about another year. I've enjoyed the benefits of Jackie's work in running and maintaining this list, and maybe when I complete my masters in information technology I'll be able to come back and spell Peter or Jackie or somebody. Have a great paddling season! Jack Martin *************************************************************************** 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 - 19:26:52 PST
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