Re: Do you have an electric horn on your boat ?
none of my boats came with horns, the biggest being 21', but my sister's 19' grady has one. As a salt water boater, I give equipment like that a life span of 5 years and a 20% chance of it working when you need it.
I use whistles. They don't short, corrode, or run out of air until I do. Plus they can stay on my pfd or in my pocket conveniently for my own emergencies. I have an air horn I found on a used boat I bought but I doubt I'll replace it.
We don't need to use horns around here, so like everything boating, there are no "rules" but one. But following the recent discussion about "signalling intentions" I overtook a 110' tour boat yesterday, and no way the captain would hear or see any signal from me, so I called him on 16 "overtaking on your starboard" and he appreciated it and waved. At the time we were contending with an approaching container ship and a Coast Guard cutter sitting in the channel.