Non pyrotechnic inshore alert systems?

[maxr]

Having just disposed of an out of date inshore flare pack, I'm not keen to buy another one. Built-in obsolescence, short operating times and occasional reports of pyrotechnics misfiring or failing are against them. We can now buy affordable disposable batteries in the high street with a 15 years storage life and 10 year guarantee, so I feel it's time we moved on.

What do you use in the way of visible non pyrotechnic emergency alerting devices, for inshore use, day and night? I have an Odeo LED flare which I think would be very effective at short range in decent visibility.  However 'inshore' covers up to 3 miles off, and I'm not sure the Odeo would be highly visible at that range in poor conditions at night, or in daylight. I read that laser flares have a much greater range. The ones I've seen appear designed to allowed emergency services to home in on the casualty once they're on their way by producing a strobing red light effect, unlike the Odeo which flashes SOS in red.  Do any of you have a complete 'non pyrotechnic' solution yet?

Max

[Graham W]

I'm in the same position.  My last flare pack expired on New Year's Eve, something that we chose to, er, celebrate. Having repeatedly forgotten about my flare pack when using major subterranean transport facilities, it's time to replace them with something less dangerous, more waterproof, longer lasting and generally more useful. 

Here's an article on the subject http://www.cruisingworld.com/how/electronic-vs-traditional-flares.  Perhaps someone could make a flare with an Odeo-style LED as a locater signal at one end and a green laser for attracting attention at the other.  The lights would share the same power source, so it shouldn't be that difficult.

I don't think that any of these newer flares are SOLAS-approved yet but they may be accepted by Sail Caledonia in future as an optional alternative to red pyrotechnics.  Smoke flares for daytime use would however probably still be compulsory.

[maxr]

Graham said:

'I don't think that any of these newer flares are SOLAS-approved yet but they may be accepted by Sail Caledonia in future as an optional alternative to red pyrotechnics.  Smoke flares for daytime use would however probably still be compulsory.'

So far as I can see (corrections welcome), SOLAS approval doesn't apply for our purposes - MCA's advice on this from 2009 was:

'Pleasure craft of less than 13.7 metres in length are not covered by any statutory requirements
as far as life saving or fire fighting equipment is concerned.'

There's quite a bit of discussion on yottie forums about carrying flares - it appears quite a number of yachtsmen are switching to electric flares when their old pyros go out of date. The consensus appears to be as above for UK coastal waters. Obviously one needs a good alerting system. However given the practical disadvantages and very short burn time of pyrotechnic flares (30 seconds for a red parachute flare, 1 minute for an orange smoke compared to 7-8 hours or more for LEDs and lasers), I remain to be convinced that 'fireworks' are worth buying for inshore use.

In this case the regulatory authorities appear to have left it up to small boat sailors to sort out what is best for them. Given how fast things are changing in this area, perhaps bodies like Sail Caledonia could require adequate safety equipment and give updated guidelines for a range of acceptable equipment, including both pyros and electric flares?.

[Graham W]

perhaps bodies like Sail Caledonia could require adequate safety equipment and give updated guidelines for a range of acceptable equipment, including both pyros and electric flares?.

See Appendix B of the 2015 Sail Caledonia sailing instructions http://www.sailcaledonia.org/Sail%20Caledonia%20Sailing%20Instructions%202015.pdf.  Electronic flares have not made it on to the list this year but may perhaps do so next year.  I was going to be this year's guinea pig until I had to cancel.

[david]

Here is an interesting article from a person that conducted a test of different kinds of traditional and electronic flares. The results are interesting. I was surprised by their results. Some good food for thought.
http://www.cruisingworld.com/how/electronic-vs-traditional-flares

[maxr]

Interesting article, David - it's a pity they didn't include orange smoke and red rocket flares during the daytime tests, as of the other types of flare, even the hand held red pyro was invisible to the naked eye at just over 2 nm.

Graham: those sailing instructions look very sensible. I guess all they'd have to do is add a sentence or two to allow electronic flares. The question then is, what does one actually need in the way of electronic kit? If we take as an example e.g Pains Wessex pyrotechnic flare packs, their Inshore flare packs consist of:

Inshore (less than 3 miles from land): 2 x each of parachute red, red handflares

I assume the duplication of pyrotechnic flares is mostly due to their short operating time. You don't have to worry about that with electronic flares, and you can test them every time you get in the boat without materially affecting battery life. A recent Ocean Signal LED flare claims to have a range of 'up to 7 miles'. The Odeo LED flare claims to be visible at 3 nm at sea level, and 6 to 10 nm from a helicopter - and of course, these both operate continuously for hours, not once for 30 seconds. Both will flash SOS mode.  More info on each at:

http://oceansignal.com/news/ocean-signal-develops-worlds-most-compact-electronic-distress-flare-the-new-rescueme-edf1/

http://odeoflare.works/

I suspect either of these (both operating close to sea level of course) might in some conditions have limited visibility compared to a parachute flare - which may be where laser flares come in. These appear currently to be available in UK from:

http://www.rescue-flares.co.uk/

The site says that when used correctly, laser flares produce a brilliant red strobe effect, visible up to 20 mile away in optimal conditions.

So, once the emergency services are alerted by VHF/mobile phone/personal locator beacon or whatever, an LED or laser flare should pinpoint your position. If you're close to help, an LED flare flashing SOS might do the whole job, and compared to a laser flare, it's omnidirectional so you don't need to know where the chopper/lifeboat is coming from. If conditions are bad, perhaps a laser flare will cut through clouds etc. better providing you point it the right way? It's not quite so clear what the electronic alternative to an orange smoke is during daylight, but if you're in even a small vessel and transmitting your position with a beacon, a) do you need to worry about that, and b) how much confidence do you have that someone will see your orange smoke in the 1 minute it burns?

[Graham W]

It's not quite so clear what the electronic alternative to an orange smoke is during daylight, but if you're in even a small vessel and transmitting your position with a beacon, a) do you need to worry about that, and b) how much confidence do you have that someone will see your orange smoke in the 1 minute it burns?

Isn't the principal purpose of smoke flares to guide a rescue helicopter upwind towards you when it has already located you?  I think that's the reason why Sail Caledonia will want to keep them whatever happens to pinpoint flare technology. Plus the raid only takes place in daylight hours.

It's interesting to see that of the electronic devices, the green laser was the most visible during daylight.

[maxr]

That's the general advice about orange smoke - but if you're shining  a laser flare at a helicopter in your immediate area, day or night they're going to be in no doubt about your location. So far as wind direction goes - a floating orange smoke presumably drifts at a different rate from the boat it was launched from, and do SAR helicopters not now have instrumentation which shows the wind direction more accurately than a small portable bonfire? I wonder how old this advice is (when did they start using SAR helicopters?) and whether it's time all this is updated to allow for these new and safer (for us amateurs at least) technologies.

It's interesting that the green laser was most visible during daylight - something to do with the colour wavelength perhaps? These devices are sold for climber hiker and canoist rescue in USA, but what does a strobing green light mean to uk marine emergency services in say the Solent - maybe a channel marker buoy's gone wrong?

[Graham W]

what does a strobing green light mean to uk marine emergency services in say the Solent - maybe a channel marker buoy's gone wrong?

Non-strobe lasers in the UK are often used by vandals to try to distract airline pilots and police helicopters, so it's a bit of a  difficult area.  If the US Coastguard have been testing for five years and have yet to reach a conclusion, I'm not expecting a speedy decision on this.