Believe me, it was a real bummer when I couldn’t attend a live distress flare demonstration recently at Coast Guard Station Ludington. Unfortunately, duty prevented me from attending the event, which occurs around as often as a full eclipse of the sun. It took a great deal of publicity to pull off this live flare demonstration. Radio announcements, newspaper advisories, marine radio broadcasts, all must precede the demonstration. And even after the world was put on alert, the flare demonstration still drew calls from boaters and from those on shore. For when the sky lights up with visual distress signals, so do phone lines at emergency response centers. And they did from Coast Guard Group Grand Haven to Ludington, Michigan.

This is not a bad thing because it demonstrates that the public is keenly aware of the meaning of distress flares. That is the major reason distress flares are required on recreational boats- to attract attention to a disabled vessel. And indeed distress flare sightings do draw a response, I certainly can vouch to that .

Make no mistake about it, they are an important safety item that unfortunately boaters too often ignore or worse yet treat as just another federal safety requirement to be tucked away until called for by an official during an inspection. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pistols and hand-held parachute flares and meteors are much like firearms and therefore should be handled with the respect and knowledge due any firearm. Further, distress flares could be the only means available to attract attention in an emergency.

If you are going down, faced with a medical crisis, or have lost someone over board and need immediate assistance, a visual distress flare could be your only means of attracting attention, especially if your radio has gone bye bye, assuming, of course, there is a radio aboard. But even if there is a radio, it still can provide an enormous challenge to rescuers to identify a distress vessel amongst a sea of boats spread across the horizon. This can prove especially challenging if boaters haven’t a clue as to their location, or they provide vague references to landmarks on shore.

I faced such a challenge last summer during a rescue of a 22-foot boat on Lake Michigan. Reportedly, the vessel was taking on water approximately five miles southwest of Muskegon Harbor and around three miles offshore. The operator’s position was based on what he could see on shore, which was sketchy at best. So, here we were racing in the general direction of his estimated position. Tiny boat silhouettes peppered the horizon. Even though we had radio contact with the vessel it was impossible to identify him from afar amongst the distant boat dots. Believe me, it’s very frustrating knowing a boat is seriously taking on water, but which boat?

The field quickly narrowed after the boater fired off a flare on our request. Within minutes, we were alongside the boat. The fiberglass boat’s stern sat six inches above the waterline; 2-3 foot seas lapped over the gunnel filling the boat with water. It was only a manner of moments before the lake would claim its prize. If not for the flare, it may well have had its way, but we were able to dewater the boat thus deny the lake the opportunity.

As with so many of my Boat Smart columns, I use real rescue cases like this to breath life into seemingly mundane safety requirements. Listen, the marine environment, make no mistake about it, is a dangerous environment. There is nothing mundane then about safety items that can protect you from prevailing harm in that environment.

But it’s one thing to have safety equipment on board another to know how to use it, especially visual distress signals. Next week I will address in detail important lessons learned from Station Ludington’s live distress flare demonstration. Boat Smart, don’t miss Part ll next week.

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Boat Smart is now on the Internet: www.boatsmart.net (includes Lake Michigan water temperatures and local weather).

Use channel 16 for emergencies, and channel 9 for calling fellow boaters.