Now that I am the proud owner of a 3.7mtr tinny, I found that it is time to look into the safety regulations aspect of it all. Getting stranded on the sand banks with an outgoing tide at where the Barron river meets the ocean might have had something to do with it. Also running low on fuel in choppy waters 2 km off shore doesn't help.

So have a read at this:
Personal watercraft
Distress Signals
Flares

Things to think about:

• Signalling device:
  - Torch, fluorescent light, lantern and cyalume (=glow) stick.
  - Air gas horn (aerosol)
  - Whistle
  - Mirror (a most underrated signaling device; visibility over 10km in daylight!)
  - Great idea (and xmas gift): Emergency Xenon strobe light
• 406 Mhz EPIRB (if you're going out further than 2 nautical miles)
• Flares (orange=smoke, red=hand or parachute flare)
  It is a requirement to have two orange hand smoke flares and two red hand flares.
  it is not a requirement to have parachute flares for a recreational vessel.
• You are required to carry life jackets or PFDs for each person on board.
• Bailing bucket
• V sheet
• Marine radio
• Fire extinguisher
• Marine chart
• Liquid damped compass
• Navigation lights (for a tinny there's these 3-in-1 red-green-white battery operated snap-on ones).

Attachments:

File	Description	Uploader	File size	Last modified
Pdf_rec_safety_equipment.pdf	Safety Equipment - Recreational vessels	Harald Coeleveld	28 Kb	06/12/09 23:49