We often read reports from England on the advisability and necessity of carrying flares, but a point I have tried to get across to people is the totally different situation in Australian coastal waters. It is well known that sea traffic in the English Channel is like the road traffic across the Sydney Harbour Bridge at peak hour. As well as this, England is a very densely populated small island, the coastline having numerous small towns and villages and lighthouses and coastguard stations all along its length. It is quite obvious to me that if I was paddling in English waters then flares may be carried to some advantage. But I ask you, do these conditions apply to our sparsely populated nation that is not steeped in the well documented sea tradition of England. Flares are expensive, they need to be specially waterproofed but still remain available in an emergency, they are unreliable, and need to be changed every two years anyway. In an emergency they may or may not operate, they may or may not be seen by someone, and it may be some time before any action is taken anyway. The English lifeboats are a joy to watch as they zoom down their slipways on an errand of mercy, and are beautifully designed and manned for extreme conditions by experts. There is no Australian equivalent.

We don’t have many of the tide races and other conditions that make sea canoeing in England so challenging and I find it hard to imagine in my own mind the situation where a competent group of sea canoeists on a coastal trip would require the all out action that a flare would instigate. A group of three or four paddlers are pretty self sufficient and should be able to extricate themselves from any sticky situation they inadvertently find themselves in. I personally would not carry flares (as they are at present) just on the million to one chance they may be of some use over the next 20 years. By all means carry them if you so wish, but they should not be compulsory items for any ACF award. Safety equipment I do recommend is the code of ground to air signals included in this magazine; should you be overdue because of bad weather or any other reason and are just sitting it out on a beach, then any preliminary search by plane will immediately get a positive message from you that all is well, or you require food, etc. A flare in this situation will start a very expensive rescue operation, and in fact I think the English Coastguard is plagued with these situations.

I carry half a dozen two meter strips of orange plastic for these signals but they have never been used yet. Let’s keep sea canoeing simple and inexpensive, but still with due regard for safety.

A survey done by Choice Magazine perhaps qualifies some of my comment. See Choice, July, 1979.

Laurie Ford