Gill wellies not good after one season

[jamesjermain]

I've had very poor experiences with a whole range of wellies from cheap to very expensive - three years seems a good life span which, when you are paying up to £160 a pop is a big annual outlay. My latest, Mustos, were just starting to leak at the end of last season when three years old. I should really keep a cheap pair of rubber wellies for dinghy launching and keep a decent pair of wellies and shoes on board. (Why does my spell checker keep turning wellies into willies!)

 

[Gordonmc]

I have never been able to get on with rubber wellies. Sweaty and the lightweight ones perish too quickly. Even as a teenager at the fishing I had to scour Army/Navy stores for leather boots. Ex-Wermacht jackboots were de-regeur.
After a brief love affair with Dubarries I now have a cheaper all-leather brand of sailing boot which are fine, but when they wear out I will consider rigger boots.
Any reason why not?

 

[Stemar]

I have never been able to get on with rubber wellies. Sweaty and the lightweight ones perish too quickly. Even as a teenager at the fishing I had to scour Army/Navy stores for leather boots. Ex-Wermacht jackboots were de-regeur.
After a brief love affair with Dubarries I now have a cheaper all-leather brand of sailing boot which are fine, but when they wear out I will consider rigger boots.
Any reason why not?

Grip on a wet deck would be my concern.

 

[Corribee Boy]

And the steel toecaps might be unnecessary ballast if you fall in!

 

[sailorman]

So what happened next OP

 

[Leighb]

I had Gill ones for some years, as they were certainly the most comfortable for me. However they invariably started to leak after 3 or 4 seasons of admittedly fairly heavy use racing keelboats. I just bought new again as the soles were usually well worn before the leakage occurred. I found that they perished and then split around the ankle where they got most flexing, never at the sole boot join.

I now wear lovely leather boots, present from SWMBO, 4 years now and still dry and toasty warm.

 

[Keen_Ed]

My Dubarries have finally had it after twelve years. New pair needed.

 

[roblpm]

It is annoying that my Gill tall wellies developed a spilt and now fill with water only after one season of very infrequent and light use at the cost of £55. I wished sailing wellies were as durable as my Dunlop country wellies. Any similar problems?

Just Queuing at the post office to send mine back. Very quick email response today to my moan requesting me to send them in, freepost. I am assuming they are going to replace them. I wonder what will happen after the next pair wear the heels out in less than a year? Surely they arent going to send me a free pir every year forever??!!

 

[petrel]

I have had 3 pairs of Gill rubber wellies, they all split after a season and Gill replaced them fine everytime, in the end I got my money back and purchased the Henri Lloyd rubber boots they also split, I wrote to them and they sent me a new pair, they split! I got my money back and splashed out £100 on a pair of leather Oceanic boots(quayside copys) the sole came away from the leather within months, Sent them back and got my money back. After all this I concluded you get what you pay for so bought the Musto leather Hpx boots, They have had a years worth of heavy use with no problems, they are warm, waterproof and very breathable. I treat them with Grangers G-max leather conditioner which keeps them supple.

 

[sailorman]

Try Dubarry Newports
very light & flexible

 

[PeterR]

This thread got me thinking about the durability of rubber in footwear. Most of the soles on my shoes used to last for eons and were replaced or repaired when the wear on the rubber became too extreme. However, on many newer pairs, particularly Clarks, the soles have disintegrated after about 4 years even when the shoes have hardly ever been worn.

I have worn Gill Long boots for many years and averaged 2 seasons use before they split and became unusable. When I moved from a swinging mooring into a marina 6 years ago I no longer had much need for long rubber wellies and bought a set of Musto HPX boots for use on board, these are still in good condition. At the time I also had a slightly leaking set of Gills and a brand new set. The old set which had seen 2 seasons use was no longer used at sea but continued to deteriorate and last year just crumbled apart. The unused set are still in their box and do not appear to have suffered any degradation with time at all. During the same period as at least four sets of Gill boots have disintegrated my pair of Hunter green wellies have continued in use ashore and are still in good shape.

It strikes me that the rubber in Gill boots reacts with something in the marine environment that causes the rubber to perish quite rapidly. If I ever went back on a swinging mooring I would use domestic green wellies for the dinghy and keep a pair of decent leather boots on board.

 

[Leighb]

Perhaps it is not the marine environment specifically, but just exposure to UV?

 

[Robert Wilson]

It strikes me that the rubber in Gill boots reacts with something in the marine environment that causes the rubber to perish quite rapidly. If I ever went back on a swinging mooring I would use domestic green wellies for the dinghy and keep a pair of decent leather boots on board.

Well, this afternoon my replacement Gill long boots arrived. Great. Than you, Gill.
Now, after all the above posts and particularly PeterR's I shall launch in green wellies and keep my Long Gills and my Shortie Gills for use on the boat.
I think that is the problem solved - unless the Gills do indeed deteriorate through UV exposure/Salt environment/age or whatever!
At least the green-wellie/Gills-aboard solution is cheaper by far than Mustos, Dubarries etc.

Cheers folks.
RW

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

I just wear ordinary land boots

can't be havin all that fancy £50 or £300 a pair stuff

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Mens-...stival-Wellington-Boots-UK-2-12-/170917620862

The Dunlop wellies are great; I use a pair for land and water quite often.

 

[wotayottie]

It is annoying that my Gill tall wellies developed a spilt and now fill with water only after one season of very infrequent and light use at the cost of £55. I wished sailing wellies were as durable as my Dunlop country wellies. Any similar problems?

Yes. Mine lasted 2 seasons.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

So what happened next OP

I had a new pair of Wellies from Gill, as a replacement free of charge, for Christmas. haha. Well done Gill. However, Gill should consider changing the design as they always split at the same place on both feet. Selling wellies that would almost guarantee to leak within a season it is not good

 

[roblpm]

Just Queuing at the post office to send mine back. Very quick email response today to my moan requesting me to send them in, freepost. I am assuming they are going to replace them. I wonder what will happen after the next pair wear the heels out in less than a year? Surely they arent going to send me a free pir every year forever??!!

Well sent mine back freepost. Got a very prompt and polite response.............. "sorry we cant replace them because






they are made by Musto!!"

DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anyway they are sending them back FOC. Great service!! Thick end user!!

Next an email to Musto!!

 

[sailorman]

I had a new pair of Wellies from Gill, as a replacement free of charge, for Christmas. haha. Well done Gill. However, Gill should consider changing the design as they always split at the same place on both feet. Selling wellies that would almost guarantee to leak within a season it is not good

Not very profitable either one would assume

 

[136069]

I have some Gill short boots, after 1 year of use the left boot started leaking - most irritating as I keep them out of sunlight and they aren't used particularly hard!

 

[chewi]

I have some Gill short boots, after 1 year of use the left boot started leaking - most irritating as I keep them out of sunlight and they aren't used particularly hard!

send them to Gill.
Good chance you'd get a new pair back.