A crowd of us yachties used to get together on Guy Fawkes night when our children were young, well in land, and have a party which largely consisted of letting off out of date flares.

Some of these were up to 15 years old (I don't know which of our friends was quite that mean) and back in the days that the tubes were cardboard rather than plastic. We didn't let off any that had obviously been wet or damp although this could happen to a brand new flare.

We never had a failure and of the hundreds we must have let off over the years, only one (very ancient) parachute flare had slightly lost its colour.

Whilst not advocating the use of antiques, I am sure that the careful stowage of flares is much more important than their exact age.

Of course, If I was a manufacturer, I would want yachties to replace them every week!

In one Jonathon, I let my old ones off on Guy Fawkes night, they are always just fine. A few years ago I let off some ancient parachute flares that came with a boat that I'd bought, they worked just fine, though the Red was almost white and the parachute strings had clearly rotted as they came down nearly as fast as they went up ! But they worked all the same.

I've found with hand held flares that when they get 5 or so years out of date, they seem to splutter a bit moreand chick out bits of hot but unburnt magnesium - perhaps not too ideal for use in an inflatable life-raft!!!!!!

But as usual it seems that we are all targets for the "lets rip-off the yachtsman again" approach that most manufacturers of things nautical seem to adopt.

I'm told that one can legally purchase VEREY light pistols, the military use them so they must be OK, perhaps that would be a better (and probably cheaper) alternative. Certainly jolly useful if we start getting pirates on the Orwell.

Very pistols are great BUT you have to have a firearms certificate along with associated rules of secure storage etc.-strange really because a parachute flare can do more damage if misused as we have seen at football matches.

Phil

I have two lots of flares. Those in date, and those that I have kept that are out of date. Those out of date are clearly marked on the flares with an indelible black cross so as not to be mistaken. The reasoning being use the new ones first and if that gets no response fall back on the old ones.

I was wondering if you only had out of date flares, could you compromise your insurance in any way in the event of a serious claim? Scotty

they worked just fine, though the Red was almost white and the parachute strings had clearly rotted as they came down nearly as fast as they went up !

Pendantic but thats not working just fine in my book! Remember that a lot of the miltary ranges use white and yellow flares - CG will ask  for confirmation of the colour if there is doubt that the flare came from a range... you might be missed.

As for compromising insurance - I don't know but it is certainly a very real possiblity that it would be seen as contributary evidence in a negligence charge. Also if the boat is coded the coding would be invalidated by the out of date flares and that would probably negate the insurance.

I also believe that the police will not refuse a Firearms Certifcate for a Verey pistol - unless I guess you ve a record of armed robbery! Its also an abnormally that flares stored ashore are subject to fire resistant magazines, hazard signs, etc but on the boat there is nothing!

W.

If the parachute lines broke on David's old flare it probably meant it had been damp, I am still sure that storage in a really dry place is the answer although this can be tricky if you want them quickly available. (There is no way of knowing if they have got damp in a deck stowed liferaft).

Had to replace flares on ships when I was in Merch. When well away from any other vessels we would let off the old as safety drill. Never saw one fail.

On my boat - I have new and old. I do not buy packs as I think they are economic and ill thought out. I buy singles and rotate out oldest. This way I stagger the sets and also increase the packs size to a more realistic number. Doing it this way also spreads the cost out so not hitting my sensitive pocket so hard !

If anyone wants cheap flare container - plastic sweet jars ! Trouble is - it's getting harder to find a sweet shop witrh them. Another alternative is the DIY shops Power drill case. Nice and flat / square - easier to stow than the "jar".

I like the idea of a glove - makes sense!

But that of course leads us to another point - the design of them, the fact that one can burn ones hands rather suggests that they are not really designed at all, just a mishmash of how its alsways been done and what costs the manufacturer least to develop.

Given the very medium of the flare - it is normal that hot waste drops at times from it ... it's not only the sheer heat of the flare that they advise hold at arms length - it's also to have that waste hopefully drop away from your feet !!

Very Pistol - watched a Tech'y who pleaded with me to let him fire a Very on a Seismic Vessel I was on ... He did and it landed and bashed about the deck of a Libyan Gun-Boat, disguised as a Fishing Vessel. Honest - no joke. That simply spoilt everyones day ! Lucky we were on contract to Libyan Oil !

Personally I would only chose the mini flares as a back up in your pocket or if on a surfboard, etc.

They re not that easy to use if wearing gloves or you ve got cold hands and if it's dark I d forget it - not used them in anger but have played with a dummy set. Also 6 seconds is a very short time and is likely to be missed if someone isn't looking in the right direction.

w.

Disposing of "time expired" pyrotecnics can be a problem.   I too have seen a flare drop and hit the ground still burning, right into a farmyard!   Fortunately, there was no major stack fire or similar disaster; but it was a salutary lesson!   When at sea once we fired one down into the sea, which, having hit the face of a wave, obeyed the law of reflection and shot vertically upwards and no matter how much we tried we were unable to wish it to go out or come down NOW until it had completed what it was designed to do!   So take care.