Do You Have Flares in Your Vest?

[Rick Webb]

Do You Have Flares in Your Vest? How about a whistle, mirror, marking light, PEPRB? May likely have made the difference for these three young men if they had.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MISSING_BOATERS_NFL?SITE=FLFNW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Quoted from the article:

"Scott Miller, a friend of the college teammates, said Schuyler told him that on the first night, a chopper shone a light right above them and that later on, as they continued to drift, he could even see lights from the shore."

 

[Mike B]

No flares but we do have whistles and strobe lights on our inflatable vests though. Ran with just the vests on one trip and ran into some bad weather at night. It didn't take long to realize that if we ended up in the water it would be near impossible to locate one another. The strobes and whistles go with us from now on.

 

[chuckwayne]

Every one of our vests has a whistle and 2 skyblazer flares attached, along with a strobe for just this reason. In heavy weather, all on-deck crew has transponders for our MOB system as well.

 

[sailaway78]

What a tragic waste

The loss of life is always tragic, and heartbreaking. My heart goes out to them. As for the question, whistle and strobe on the life jackets. A couple flares might not be a bad idea either. I think a signal mirror would probably the the best for daytime if needed. They can be seen from a long way off.

 

[Rick Webb]

These are the Ones in Our Vests

Wally World tends to have the best prices but the dates often are older than the ones at WM. I get the newer ones at WM and do the price match deal. Boaters World has very good prices on them but they are out of the way for me to visit.

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[SeaTR]

You Betcha I do...

Every vest has 2 skyblazers, a whistle, solas reflection patches....and a strobe if we are underway at night.

--Charlie

 

[Prime Time]

PFD with Pockets?

I seem to remember once seeing a PFD that had zippered pockets designed to hold flares and a mirror. Anyone else seen these? Otherwise, how do you keep the flares with the PFD?

 

[Jim Kolstoe]

My personal pfd vest is canoe/kyaek design with pockets with velcro closures, and a break at the waist level to allow it to flex when you sit. Look around and you'll find one with the features you want. As an extra, I remember seeing some literature about an inflatable pillow that stowed in a small flat package you could secure to your clothing when I took a course on cold water hypothermia as a volunteer SAR diver years ago. You can inflate it an sit on it, out of the water, to reduce heat loss, and coincidently, increase your visibility.
Jim Kolstoe, h23 Kara's Boo

 

[Skipper]

skyblazer flares warning.
I had four. They were slightly expired, maybe a year overdue. Prior to buying new ones, took the old ones and other stockpiled flares to the CG flare shoot. All four skyblazers failed. This of course reafirms the need to keep current flares, however in comparison only one of six 12g gun flares failed, and they were three years out of date. None of my larger hand held flares or smokes failed during the shoot, all of which were also three years or more expired.

I seriously question the reliability of skyblazers, as did the Coast Guard Ensign on duty at the shoot, due to watching the same occurence over and over with others.

 

[Rick Webb]

Our Inflatables have little Pockets

The inflatable I use when out with the Coast Guard Auxiliary has a little dity bag that holds everything. A fanny pack would work as well.