Pains Wessex to hold a series of Flare Amnesty Days

Pains Wessex will be giving recreational boaters a safe and convenient way to dispose of out-of-date flares across Spring with several Flares Amnesty Days. Boaters will be able to hand over their old pyrotechnics to the flares manufacturer, regardless of the brand, age or condition. The sessions will be held at accessible locations along the South Coast, kicking off in April.

The events come as the end to the Coastguard's Flare Disposal Service approaches on 31 December 2022. The RYA would like to remind members that flares should always be disposed of safely and that leaving expired flares at police and fire stations amounts to illegal dumping and is potentially a criminal offence. 

Each of the days will run from 10am to 3pm, and customers will be served on a first-come, first-served basis. 

02 April – Sea Safety Day at Macsalvores, The Boathouse, Commercial Road, Penryn, TR10 8AE

23 April – Sea Safety Day at Universal Marina, Crableck Lane, Sarisbury Green, Southampton, SO31 7ZN

14 May – Pains Wessex Flare Amnesty at Poole Yacht Club, The Yacht Haven, New Harbour Road West, Hamworthy, Poole, BH15 4AQ

Anyone using the service is invited to make a cash donation for the flare disposal, which will go towards a series of charities. For Penryn, the donations will go to the local RNLI station, Cornwall Air Ambulance and Southwest First Responders. For Poole and Southampton, the charities are the Jubilee Sailing Trust, the local RNLI stations, Wetwheels Foundation and Sail2Help.

You can learn more about how to safely dispose of flares on the Safety pages on the RYA website.