Ever worn a sailing helmet ?

[PilotWolf]

When wearing a helmet, you have to get used to the fact that you are effectively a couple of inches taller so will contact objects that without a helmet, you'd glide under.

That was the problem I could never get used to!

W.

 

[thinwater]

That was the problem I could never get used to!

W.

The first few times I wore a hard hat in industry that is the way I felt about it. After many years, that does not happen anymore. You re-calibrate. I hear people say they can't work with gloves on, yet ice climbers and workers in refining environments learn to. Mostly it's practice.

The snagging problem is the one that would bother me the most. There are places and times, though, where it seems to make some sense. Up the mast in rough weather (not at the dock) and some low-boomed boats and single handing those same boats in rough weather. College teams seem to have a problem with boom strikes, since you get a mix of experiences and a lot of excitement.

 

[RJJ]

We take our kids and their scooters. I make them wear their scooter helmets when it's growly, mainly for when they have to go below.

I have taken to doing the same; I have a wakeboard helmet from Da Kine which does well.

A fall across the inside of the yacht is a highly probable head injury, more so (I believe) than boom strike on our boat.

 

[Seajet]

t I really really don't fancy the straps of my lid getting caught around something (like a stowed spinnaker pole along a Fireball boom) and having my neck snapped thanks to the thing strapped around my head. Or, for that matter an underwater entrapment scenario.

When I had a Dart 18 it had a line hanging under the foot of the main - when we gybed this caught my fiancee's ear-ring ( I should have told her to ditch such things before we sailed ) - it dragged her right across the trampoline by her ear, with a very loud rising and falling doppler effect as she screamed going past.

That cost me bust ear drums and a good meal...

 

[Gunfleet]

I don't have a boat helmet because I never knew they existed but I had a 'kick' put in my mainsail so you'd need to be about 6'6" tall to be hit on the head in an accidental gybe.

 

[elton]

I often wear a cycling helmet on the boat, mainly to defend against a swinging boom. Below decks I was too often taking the skin of my chrome dome, but after a couple of years I developed a reflex stoop.

 

[Kukri]

I was taught to sail sixty years ago. I was taught that you should not cover your ears as the feel of the wind on your ears and face will save you from an accidental gybe. On my boat the boom is well above head height standing in the cockpit and as John Morris has wisely said if the topping lift fails you are a dead man.

So no, I don’t wear a helmet.

 

[thinwater]

I was taught to sail sixty years ago. I was taught that you should not cover your ears as the feel of the wind on your ears and face will save you from an accidental gybe. On my boat the boom is well above head height standing in the cockpit and as John Morris has wisely said if the topping lift fails you are a dead man.

So no, I don’t wear a helmet.

I'm sorry, but the fellow that taught you didn't know much about winter sailing. There are far more senses than your ears, and you will only develop them through practice.

But what do I know (see an ears?).


There is also the little matter of hoods. There is a problem with being "taught" to do something rather than "learning" it, be it math or history or sailing. There is less drive to understand "why" in a addition to "what."

 

[rszemeti]

I have one worn on various dinghies where I considered the boom to be low enough to be a significant problem, I've never felt the need on a yacht.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

You can't be too careful these days

 

[Neeves]

On the Clipper yachts each watch have 2 helmets. These are worn for mast work at sea and when someone has to go over when trying to recover a MOB. In both cases the movement, of the hull or mast, is not particularly predictable and head protection essential (as anyone who has been up a mast at sea will confirm). The helmet, harness, spare carabiners, tool bucket, gloves and jumars are all stored in one 'mast' bag.

Most marinas will not allow mast work on the hard - which then means the yacht is in the water - even the wash from a passing vessel can make mast work hazardous.

We carry a helmet for mast work


As an aside - hats with peaks, like baseball caps, I find a nuisance and cut the peak off. I thus wear a skull cap (?) and sometimes a beanie - peaks demand you need to move your head too far in order to monitor sail trim.

Jonathan

 

[Mister E]

A Bump Cap will add less height to your head than a Wooly Hat.
Not much more than a Baseball cap