Although under the right conditions, you can see the beam of light, especially with a green laser. These devices are not like "light sabers" you'd see in the movies. Lasers have been on the scene longer than LED lights but haven't caught on as an alternative to flares. At five miles, the performance dropped off considerably.
Doesn't have the range of visibility that pyrotechnic devices have.People might not know a signal from an LED device is a call for help.With no expiration date, batteries need to be checked regularly.The best-performing light consistently ranked as less visible than the control, a USCG-approved, red Orion handheld flare. Can be hard to distinguish from background lights.Far safer to handle than pyrotechnic flares.With appropriate power, can work for days, rather than minutes.Easy to set a particular color, length of flash, or flash pattern.Highest effective intensity of any electronic light available.LEDs are durable and long-lasting, so more devices are expected to come on the market in the next few years. Light Emitting Diode devices are relatively new to the scene, and as the technology continues to evolve, prices are dropping rapidly. The chemicals in flares are hazardous waste.The legal requirement calls for three flares, totaling no more than a few minutes of signaling (60 seconds minimum per flare, though some burn for two minutes or so).Flares expire 42 months after manufacture, for good reason flares become unstable over time and aren't as reliable.Our testers used welding gloves to hold the flares, and even with that, the heat from the flares made them almost too hot to hold. All the flares emitted sparks, which can damage your boat or burn you.
Very bright, SOLAS flares and their equivalents ranked in the top three spots at each distance tested.Easy to recognize as a distress signal.We know there's a problem when we see fire on the water. Observers commented that they subconsciously recognized fire as a danger, especially when it appears where we know it isn't supposed to be. But what if you don't need that level of performance?įlares have been around for more than 100 years, largely because they just plain work as a distress signal. If this was simply a question of the best flares money could buy, it'd be simple. They're around 30 times brighter than a standard Coast Guard-approved flare. So it's no surprise that the brightest and most intense flares, the SOLAS-approved or their equivalents, did so well. A distress signal must be big enough and bright enough for someone who may be miles away to positively identify and locate the source. The effectiveness of a distress signal comes down to whether or not an observer - who may be tired, careless, or untrained - can see and understand that the light is a signal.
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No matter which you choose, make sure you keep them up-to-date, easily accessible aboard, and know how to use them.
None of the options is perfect and it's important to have additional other means of signaling aboard, be it a VHF, cellphone, or satellite-based device, depending on your needs. And if you're somewhere in the middle, sticking with the tried-and-true might work for you. If you're headed offshore, certainly add more and better flares to your list, and maybe a laser or automatic SOS light for good measure. If performance is secondary to staying in the good graces of your local boating safety patrol, the Sirius Signal SOS light and a distress flag will cover the basics. A boater has a lot of choices when it comes to visual distress signals, But how does the boater who needs to make a decision proceed?
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