SLAS - Aloof yachties?

Not a lot of searching but a bit of confusion ; placed at doormat of RNLI corporate, not volunteers or operators:


“Description​


The Helly Hansen Women's Pier Jacket in navy is your ultimate companion for all your coastal sailing adventures! Whether you're out for a weekend on the water or heading out for a day sail, this jacket has got you covered.

Crafted with the latest HELLY TECH® performance fabric, this jacket offers the perfect combination of waterproof protection and breathability, ensuring you stay dry and comfortable no matter what the weather throws at you. The outer layer effectively repels water molecules while allowing sweat vapour to escape, keeping you feeling fresh and dry even during intense activity.

Designed by the trusted experts at Helly Hansen, this jacket is built to withstand the toughest of conditions. In fact, the same brand that created this jacket also makes the gear worn by lifeboat crews when they head out to sea, which means you can trust that it will provide reliable protection when you need it most.”

*****Described as For All Weather LifeBoat Crew:******

Helly Hansen Women's Pier Jacket, Navy

?????

OK, just realised they state : “ the same BRAND (ie HH) that supply RNLI CREW; in other words HH supply dry suits to crew but advertise day jackets to public using … what I would describe as salesman speak for the general public.

Not a huge issue, but a bit off imho.

MORE AND BETTER INFO I FOUND:

rnli crew clothes - Google Search
 
Last edited:
Thank you. I will attempt to find the interviews and images…

Perhaps I will see you wearing someone else’s sweaty jacket.😊

Why the jacket you mention on camera / interview may I ask? If dry suits are the norm?

Why do the RNLI own ‘ordinary’ jackets if dry suits are the norm for rescues?

My question is not one of critique but pure curiosity?

I hold lifesavers in the highest esteem.

Ask away, I'm always happy to answer questions!

ALB crew wear Musto/HH type yellow jackets and salopets, it's only ILB crew in drysuits, although an ALB will also carry a couple of drysuits in case crew have to deploy the daughter craft.

I don't know why everyone wears an ALB jacket for SLAS, I guess it's just something that Blast wanted. Much like they always play that silly siren sound every time they show a lifeboat launching.
 
Ask away, I'm always happy to answer questions!

ALB crew wear Musto/HH type yellow jackets and salopets, it's only ILB crew in drysuits, although an ALB will also carry a couple of drysuits in case crew have to deploy the daughter craft.

I don't know why everyone wears an ALB jacket for SLAS, I guess it's just something that Blast wanted. Much like they always play that silly siren sound every time they show a lifeboat launching.
Thank you!
 
Most of us just wear what keeps us dry too. We don’t have such a requirement for it to be cheap as chips, as we’re not likely to rip it to bits on bits of pro fishing equipment.
Obvioously an HH fan. I think landlubbers( watching from Halfpenny pier, Harwich or Shotley marinas lock) look on thinking those people are about to cross an ocean.
 
Sorry but i am a shorts and T-shirt sailor. I only get my wet weather gear on when its starts raining or blowing a hooley. I only put a life jacket on when out at sea. As with a previous post, have you ever tried swimming in a life jacket, extremely difficult unless you semi de-flate it
 
Last edited:
As if choosing the right gear wasn't difficult enough, we now have to factor in whether fisherfolk will approve of it. :rolleyes:
Sir Francis Chitchester was very rarely seen in wet weather gear, he had a yellow waterproof overcoat, if required.
 
Last edited:
What we yotties sometimes call 'pro fishermen' - especially them wot beam-trawls out of Looe - cannot be printed here, or them thar muddleraiders will be down on us like a tun o' bricks.

:cool:
You say Looe and it brings a smile to my face. I love walking around the harbour when the tide is out. Pretty firm underfoot. You say beam trawl ? I always imagined the bottom would be too rocky.
 
Ive never met a "yachtie" , or anyone else who works or plays on the sea in the British Isles,who did not not think the RNLI and its every member ...... boat crew , back office , mechanics.............. arent absolutely fantastic people and hold them in the very highest esteem , awe even

So i'd be very suprised if anyone who crews (and was assisted) snubbed SLAS or the RNLI and and would imagine it was for editorial , logistic or creative reasons , nothing else
There are people around who don’t speak so highly of the RNLI. Some of them have had bad experiences, some work for other organisations and feel the RNLI get too much hero worship whilst they struggle to even keep the lights on doing just as valuable work. Idolising them is probably not healthy - but by and large people who have been rescued by them will have nothing but praise, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they want to go on TV or that even if recorded they were particularly coherent. The programme makers are trying to tell a story, to people who mostly dont really know what they are watching. Some of those stories may be a little overstated because it makes better TV and perhaps not everyone who is rescued buys into the “life saved” story (rightly or wrongly)…
The oh-so blatant branding thing does make me giggle..."ocean spec" RNLI foulies all done up to the neck...sat in a nice warm, dry studio.
Presumably it’s contractual?
I don't know why everyone wears an ALB jacket for SLAS, I guess it's just something that Blast wanted. Much like they always play that silly siren sound every time they show a lifeboat launching.
It’s a simple TV technique to make the audience understand who they are watching. Scientist - will be in a lab coat, police officer in uniform, doctor in scrubs, lifeboat crew in a yellow jacket. They aren’t necessarily the actual PPE or item worn by that person normally but it saves explaining to the casual viewer what this person’s role is in the story. It’s particularly helpful when they cut to/from different people as you don’t need to remember who they are. The siren is the same - it’s a technique to anchor the viewer on where they are in this story line - probably helpful because of this annoying tendency producers have of jumping between different story lines simultaneously.
 
Sorry but i am a shorts and T-shirt sailor. I only get my wet weather gear on when its starts raining or blowing a hooley. I only put a life jacket on when out at sea. As with a previous post, have you ever tried swimming in a life jacket, extremely difficult unless you semi de-flate it
You don’t sail a multihull. Our apparent wind is not often less than 20kn. And will be pushing 30kn if we have 20 true. The shorts come out when we moor up.
 
Obvioously an HH fan. I think landlubbers( watching from Halfpenny pier, Harwich or Shotley marinas lock) look on thinking those people are about to cross an ocean.
Of course there are always the scruffs, and the clothes we wore sailing in the '70s would certainly fit that description, but most sailors just want to be comfortable and safe. My first set of Mustos were a revelation and I could be warm and dry whenever I wished. 25 years ago I changed them for breathables and allowed myself to be downgraded from ' Ocean' to 'Offshore'. I know that there is some astonishingly-expensive kit out there, but I doubt if an observer on shore could readily pick these out from a more basic HH, Musto or Gill set.
 
Sorry but i am a shorts and T-shirt sailor. I only get my wet weather gear on when its starts raining or blowing a hooley. I only put a life jacket on when out at sea. As with a previous post, have you ever tried swimming in a life jacket, extremely difficult unless you semi de-flate it
Where would you swim too?
 
I wonder what the poser types who wear Helly Hansen, for rarely going outside the marina would think it the knew HH is owned the the Canadian equivalent of Halfords..
Canadian Tire..
 
Many years ago I had a period crewing a UFO 34 in Crouch YC EAORA & Sunday racing. I did like the polar series.
In those days posh sailing kit was not really used by all & I was the 2 wooly jumpers & old jacket type.
I recall one very cold day on Priors slip a queue of sailors had built up & being posh types they all had XM & Musto kit on.
Our skipper had a mix of crew & one of them- invited for a one off- was a very dodgy car dealer who talked out the corner of his mouth. He arrived dressed in wellington boots and a very full length plastic mac tied at the waist with string. & a plastic hat with a cord under the chin. I turned up wearing a duffle coat also tied at the waist, wooly hat, jeans & Gill yellow boots.
Don, the owner, went mad at our dress. Even more so when I said " Sorry Don, Too cold for thermals. This is duffle coat weather today"
The car dealer looked great on the foredeck handling the spinnaker poles, although Don would have preferred he had stayed below
Neither of us were cold that day, although many in the bar later complained of the weather.
 
Yep. Its hard to beat natural garments underneath ur oilees. Ive had all manner of "fleeces", "tech" layers and whatnot over the years. Splashed out on a slightly expensive shetland pullover last year. I can now go sailing all year round. Marvellous.
Old dad was a hoot. He used to head off across the channel wearing mums old gardening windcheater and the most ill fitting pair of plasticky yellow trousers, all underpinned by a wonderfully moth eaten roll neck sweater. I lent him my Musto a few years back and he said he felt like he'd been given a concrete overcoat. It was removed forthwith and handed back before we'd even left the mooring!
 
I take my hat off to all you hair shirt sailors. You must be tough. I wear technical layers, ie wicking base layer, fleece/water repellent down if it’s proper cold, ie frost on deck, a goretex offshore dry smock with latex neck seal, and yes, yellow HH breathable hi fits. When I’m warm and dry with the spray and float smoke coming aft at 30kn I don’t give a damn if a bunch of old gits want to think their gear would do the job. It wouldn’t. It might, I guess, be tolerable if you never exceed 5kn and don’t sail to windward.
 
One of the most practical bits of clothing I had was a simple Breton fisherman's smock. It was made of some type of canvas material.

It was cheap (I bought it in fisherman's supply shop) and, important on a small boat, it could be rolled up small and stuffed in a locker.
 
Top