Black Foul Weather clothing!

[starboard]

Having just returned from LBS I am interested in Musto's latest colour introduction to thier foul weather clothing...Black!!. Some years ago I took part in a trial with the RNLI and a Dutch student with regard a hi visibilty baloon device for life-jackets. The main trial was with regard the colour of the balloon and its ease of visibility. Using all colours possible including black and silver it was found that the dark colours were better than bright ones. Indeed if you take two yachts on a distant clear horizon one with white and one with dark tan sails it will normally be the dark tan sail that will be spotted first. As for our fishing friends that care to mark their pots correctly it will normally be with black flags. It would have to be noted that after many years of trial by the RAF with all sorts of colours they eventually painted thier basic training aircraft Black....It would therefore seem that this is the colour to be SEEN in!! before I rush out and make my purchase it would be of interest to listen to your views( excuse the pun!)

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[qsiv]

Well, I've taken your advice - new boat is black, sails are (except code 0) are black, and foulies are likely to be black or silver.

I would argue that the only time the visibility of foul weather gear matters is when you go overboard. By then the foulies are underwater, and unless you are trying to attract fish with teeth, the colour doesnt matter too much! Even black foulies tend to have HiVis hoods, which is all that would be seen.

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[Twister_Ken]

Gaffe rigged boat

I trust you'll drink only stout and eat only caviar and black pudding aboard her. Wouldn't do to get uncoordinated colourwise. Must admit, though, this non-black code zero sounds a bit of a gaffe.

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[pugwash]

I posted about this a couple of years back, having noticed that lobster pot flags are much more visible when black than orange, and got a lot of scathing replies from people who said I was talking out of my sea-rescue-orange-painted bottom. The nub of those mixed signals seemed to be that black is more visible against the horizon, and rescue orange/red is better when seen from above, as from a helicopter for example, or the deck of a yacht hunting for a man overboard.

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[qsiv]

Re: Gaffe rigged boat

Guinness and caviar I can cope with, black pud - I'm afraid not. As for the 0 - it was really hobsons choice, due to the cloth.

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[Gunfleet]

The Henry Ford of sailmakers

He knows. We interrogated your sailmaker at the boat show about his code 0. He said you can have one in any colour you like as long as it's red, blue or white.

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[qsiv]

Re: The Henry Ford of sailmakers

You did better than me - I didnt get to Miami for the show he was at!<g>

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[Deep_6]

All very well unless you are doing a night passage, Sods and Murphy's law states that the crew member going over the side at night after a gentle tap behind the ear from the boom is the one who has stowed the 1,000,000 candle power hand lamp somewhere safe for the passage.
Surely high visabilty colours are a safety concern, even if you only improve your chances of being seen by 5% (just an example) by wearing bright colour oilies, then it should be a major consideration.
Fishermen do not seem to go for the latest fashion colours - I think they have progressed from yellow to dayglo red over the past 20 years or so - I wonder why?

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[jamesjermain]

Black is a great colour at night, provided it is silhouetted against the horizon or against distant water which is reflecting the night sky, which always has some light it in. The reason for this is that our night vision is only in black and white - below a certain light level we cannot see colours.

Black oilskins on board at night would be highly visible - more so than day-glo orange (the clue is in the name). In the water near the boat they would be almost totally invisible, as would be any colour. White, however, would be better in these circumstances. To be seen in the water at night, the only real answer is to smother yourself in retro-reflective patches about the head, shoulders and lifejacket and have a water activated light attached to you.

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[starboard]

Interesting to hear peoples views..thanks, in my experiance (RNLI) of searches at sea both day and night the retloflective tape as fitted now to all foul weather gear and lifejackets is a god send, visible at hundreds of metres when struck by a torch beam,...yes I think Black is going to be the colour to have once all the sceptics can be converted.

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[Twister_Ken]

Overheating

Suspect black oilies could also become a portable personal sauna in warm weather.

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[qsiv]

Re: Overheating

Thats my real concern too - hence the opt out for silver as a colour.

You can also construct an argument around the fact that by their very nature oilies tend to be worn when the weather is NOT sunny - but there are those days with brilliant sun, and a good breeze that do warrant oilies, and those might be the problems. Most of the time, though, it tends to be either dark, or rissing with pain and then overheating shouldnt be an issue.

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