Breathable foulweather gear

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I saw you anchored at Cawsand when I was anchored at Kingsand this year but by the time I'd weighed you had sailed off round Penlee Point.

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That is our old boat, now officially renamed Heartbeat of Arne and living in Plymouth with the new owners. We retained the name Heartbeat and transferred it to our current Jeanneau Sun Legende 41 and we are still in Poole. Funny thing too is I was also reminded of our evening in Port Blanc when flicking back through an old log book, it is a small world!

Robin
 
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I'm at an age where I have bridged the change from natural fabrics to the synthetics of today.I would suggest that the academics are typically not backing up lab studies with on the ground verification of result.
There is no way that the old stuff is anywhere near as good as the new,if it was all the serious players would be wearing it.

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But horses for courses of course... We do +/- 2000mls/year but don't set out to sail the Southern Ocean in winter and mostly need our wet gear for summer season rains and the odd upwind bash rather than sitting on the rail upwind round Cape Horn! What we do use (Guy Cotten PVC) keeps us 100% dry and we can layer warm clothes under the neath as and when required for extra warmth, we can de-salt it, dry it and put it away after use quickly too. Oh and we had change out of £100 for each suit too as I recall! To complete the low tech outfit, we wear Aigle rubber shorty yachting boots (£19 I think) and again they keep us 100% dry as well as solvent. I will admit we spend a bit on our superb Sperry Topsider trainer style deck shoes, they were £124/pr at F4..... but just $79in the USA.


Yes the serious players will wear the latest gear, but then they may be called on to sleep on the rail for the Fastnet or whatever and white PVC probably would get a few smirks on the podium. If that was my thing I might buy different, but as it is, for what I do I don't! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Have to agree

Good quality breathable foul-weather fabrics are the biggest single improvement I've seen in sailing over some 30 years. The old PVC gear which made you sweat and kept you damp and clammy thereafter have been superceded by wonderful modern materials which dispel moisture and keep you warm and dry.

If you're not feeling the benefits you are buying cheap.
 
I did a similar path. 1st cheap XM breathables. got caught in a storm in July off France and got wet and cold. Considered hyperthermia a safety risk so took out 2nd mortgage for Musto Ocean breathable for top 2 layers. Used cheaper ski underwear for base layer.

Never regretted the expenditure just wish quality gear was cheaper!
 
I cannot cope without breathables. Without any particular exertion, in PVC stuff, I get as wet from condensation as I would from not wearing it... I second XM Offshore. Bought ours at Marinestore for £130 a set, and it's excellent.... at the moment.
 
High mountaineering and sea sailing are different environments with different clothing needs. By high mountaineering, I mean permanently cold enough that it never rains. These environments also usually have a low humidity. These are the clothing requirements for mountaineering high up...

1) Windproof
2) Warmth
3) Snowproof
4) Breathable
5) Light weight
6) Squashable

To filfil these requirements, some natuaral materials are as good or better than modern synthetic. For example silk is light, squashable, warm, breathable, snowproof and windproof. Down is light, very squashable, and very warm. Both will be hopeless in the wet and salty marine envrionment, but in the permanently cold and dry high mountain conditions, they are unsurpassable, especially down.

What makes a material poor for a marine environment also usually makes it poor for the conditions we find in our UK mountains. Down is a poor choice for Scotland for example, it's just too wet and not cold enough here.

In the 1990s I spent some time mountaineering in Greenland, above the Arctic circle. This part of the world has weather conditions similar to Himalayan mountains, i.e. permanently below freezing, and low humidity.

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Maybe there are other factors here too.

We rarely find it necessary to even wear wet weather gear and if we do it is more likely to be for rain than for dollops of saltwater. We always sail with the sprayhood down and on our boat at 41ft with an aft cockpit we stay dry from spray up to and including F5 going upwind at 7kts. Above F5 upwind we either need to put the sprayhood up or don wet weather gear, or consider swimming cossies. Off the wind is pretty well dry in all wind strengths and even in a downwind X-channel gale. The number of times therefore that we need to put on the full outfits are limited, this year I beieve we have worn ours just twice from memory and both times for rain rather than spray, despite logging some 1800mls so far.

We haven't found condensation to be any worse than when we used the full spec gear. Commercial fisherman also seem to manage well enough even in winter with very heavy PVC gear, but maybe there are other considerations. As an aside too, we have very expensive wet weather breathables for golf - I sweat really badly in those and 100% waterproof they are not, but white PVC on the golf course? Probably not..

We do not wear wet weather gear just for warmth, we have thermal jackets and gear for that and can add layers as and when required.

It just amazes me that some find it necessary to have the same gear that Ellen & Co wear just to transit the Solent on a damp Sunday! However I accept that life is probably more miserable on smaller boats although I managed well enough with what was available back in the early 70's, maybe I was hardier though then.
 
I know cost must be a consideration - but in my view "saving" on an outer layer can be a false economy, depending on how much use you get out of them. When racing, I used to go through the routine that you see on many boats, with the whole crew stripping layers off once the boat turned downwind - and dressing up again before the turn upwind. Now with my Helly Hansen breathables I need to wear less to keep me warm, and don't need to strip off downwind. I really didn't know how good these things were until I bit the bullet and tried some top of the range stuff.

Equally important as the outer layer is what you put on underneath. Fleece will keep you warm even if it is wet.
 
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