[C320-list] Expired Flare Kits

[sail-ability at sympatico.ca]

I agree wholeheartedly, and the Canadian Coast Guard has used this reasoning to reduce the #of flares on our size boat from 12 to 6. Now if they use good sense they will abandon pyrotechnics and authorize the electronic flares. A friend of mine said the most likely use of the pyrotechnic flares is an accidental discharge setting fire to your boat😁
JEM
1999#574

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 13, 2020, at 6:18 PM, Jack Brennan <jackbrennan at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> 
> So here’s a question: Has anyone ever actually used a flare in an emergency?
> 
> Forty years of off and on sailing, and I’ve only used one once, when I was young and stupid. I had my first sailboat, a 19-footer, and a friend of mine and I sailed it from Pompano Beach, Fl., to Key Largo.
> 
> The motor and the wind died, of course, so we were still off Largo Sound when the sun set. We tossed the anchor, but a strong tide out of the sound sent us dragging toward Hawk’s Channel.
> 
> Smart boys that we were, we set off a flare gun and then a flare in hopes of getting someone to tow us in. There were some boats around, and some houses on shore, but we would have died of old age waiting for someone to see and respond to the flares.
> 
> We learned a valuable lesson – don’t rely on anyone else for help -- and repaired the outboard in the dark as we dragged slowly toward the reefs. 
> 
> These days, cell phones and VHFs are much more important than flares unless you are going across oceans.
> 
> Jack Brennan
> Sonas, 1998 Catalina 320
> Tierra Verde, Fl.
> Dolphin Cruising Club of Tampa Bay
> 
> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
> 
>