Sunburn and sailing

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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www.cygnus3.com
Has anyone been badly sunburnt whilst sailing?

I was out the other day and slapped suntan lotion on the exposed parts. When it got a little warmer I took those zip up portions off the bottom of my trousers to make them into shorts without thinking. I knew about it later when just one side of each leg hurt like hell.

We had a Aussie couple on the boat and they could not believe how little protection we use as the suns effects are drummed into them all the time.

I have also been told that you get very little to no extra protection over factor 15. I don’t know how true this is.

Have you been badly burnt?

Do you always use sun screen?

How dangerous is sailing in the sun, and overcast weather to our skins?
 
Living and sailing in the Med means......
- Sun cream protection at least 30 (usually we use 50). "Refreshed" every few hours.
- Stay below the bimini
- Wear a hat and sunglasses

The sun never make jokes!
 
I'm fair skinned and have spent many years, including most of my childhood, in sunny climates. I spent 6 or 7 years cruising full time during which time I got massive exposure to the sun. I paid scant regard to the dangers of exposure and my reward was a malignant melanoma. Quite rare, fortunately, and in my case successfully excised and a full recovery made. A very dangerous cancer.

Other forms are a bit less scary, but highly undesirable. Keep covered up and use high protection factor sunscreen.

Good information on skin cancer here:http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Skin/Skincancer.aspx

It's particularly important to protect youngsters because skin damage done in the first 20 years of life can manifest itself as cancer much later in life - after 40 and, usually, in your 60's and older.
 
Whenever I'm on the water for work or play my face (inc lips), forehead, ears, and the patch where there is less hair than there was gets a min of SPF 30.

Any other skin showing gets the same.

I also where my Tilley hat when out sailing on Pixie and the sun is shining.

With a history of skin cancer in my family I'd be foolish not to
 
An awful lot of light is reflected off the white of the boat as well (same as that reflected off the snow when skiing), so it's not just those parts that are in direct line of the sun that are getting hit by harmful rays...
 
I also read recently that tee shirts only have a SP factor of 15. I suppose the difference is it's always 15 where as a sun cream will gradually reduce over time.
 
It's amazing how people who should know better repeat the same mistake over and over again. I include myself in this.

I'm extremely fair and have scientific evidence that my skin has the choice of only two colours. White or red. A couple of weeks ago there was this rare and unusual bright thing in the sky. We were motorsailing from Holyhead to Howth. I was wearing shorts, reading a good book and looking at the horizon every 20 minutes. Both legs, from ankle to knee, caught two red stripes, each about 2 inches wide, that burned like hell that evening. Just over a week later, the skin shed itself to reveal a new white patch.

I remember burning my ankles a few years ago and needed to sit on the swim platform, feet in the water, as first aid for the burn.

I'll never learn.

I always wear a cap and long sleves, though.
 
I always keep a bottle of factor 5 on board, just incase of visitors! Occassionaly I put some on my face and neck!

I have a friend in medical research who tells me that there is evidence (albeit light) that the ingredients in sunscreens may contribute to carcinogenic effects! :eek:

I wouldn't be surprised, if this is proved to be the case in years to come!
 
My wife was diagnosed with pre-cancerous sun damage on her face a few weeks back - just after we exchanged contracts on our boat in fact. Pretty much knackered her sailing for the season. Anyway, one of the first questions the dermatologist asked was "Do you play golf or sail?"

When she expressed surprise, saying that she always wears face cream with a PF15, he just laughed. PF15 isn't enough was his view: you must go for PF50.

I'm as bad as anyone. I've got fair skin and I'm always getting a bit burned, although it does take much. I can come off the water with a face like a beetroot on a cloudy day. It's time to rethink things now, though: let's be careful out there!
 
satsuma said:
I have a friend in medical research who tells me that there is evidence (albeit light) that the ingredients in sunscreens may contribute to carcinogenic effects! :eek:

I wouldn't be surprised, if this is proved to be the case in years to come!
Click to expand...

And that's a thing that worried me too. I've also read that nanotechnology is widely used in sun creams now. They make the particles or the active ingredients incredibly small so that the cream goes on more smoothly and less greasily. The thing is that these particles are much smaller than a skin cell, and so they could be absorbed into the cell itself. I read they don't really know what the long-term effects of this might be.
 
I do use sunscreen, but prefer to wear clothes to keep the sun off when at sea (it's rarely warm enough not to anyway in the UK!). Just got a Tilley-type hat with chin strap and that's a great bit of gear. Also shirts with collars rather than T-shirts. A lightweight windproof jacket and long (below the knee) shorts completes the kit. The sunscreen (which I hate with a vengeance) only then has to go onto lower legs, back of the hands and a few other areas. Once we're at anchor and it's at least mid-afternoon, I can strip off and get some Vitamin D from the weakish sun's rays. I work on the basis that "if it's red it's damaged" but fortunately can go brown quite easily without redness if it's moderate exposure later in the day.
 
Nostrodamus said:
How dangerous is sailing in the sun, and overcast weather to our skins?
Click to expand...

Got my worst ever case of sunburn ( blood blisters and all) at the top of Ben Nevis at easter, and with snow on the ground. It felt cold!

So I've no doubt you can get a bad doseon the boat since the breeze will stop you feeling your skin heat up.
 
First time sailing in the med - sunglasses, hat, suncream. Job done. Or so I thought. I was wearing sports-sandles (/flip-flops/whatever they're called) and didn't apply suncream to my feet. By the time I realised it was too late and I ended up with a huge blister on the top of my right foot and a feeling of my foot being on fire. Not the first time I've been burnt. Stupid, I know :o
 
My view is putting all these chemicals on your skin probably doesn't do it much good. So in Britain i avoid sun cream and never been sun burnt but were all different.

If i'm going abroad ill wear it but not slap it on every hour maybe 3 times a day.

Wearing a hat and a sitting in shade between 12-3 is my best opinion.
 
wotayottie said:
Got my worst ever case of sunburn ( blood blisters and all) at the top of Ben Nevis at easter, and with snow on the ground. It felt cold!

So I've no doubt you can get a bad doseon the boat since the breeze will stop you feeling your skin heat up.
Click to expand...
Strangely enough,the worst sunburn I have ever had was on the Cuillin ridge on Skye,again early spring with snow on the ground and yes it was perishing cold but brilliantly sunny.
Skiing is another way to get sunburnt..even in Scotland.Interesting comments re the sunscreen factor question .
 
Supine Being said:
My wife was diagnosed with pre-cancerous sun damage on her face a few weeks back - just after we exchanged contracts on our boat in fact. Pretty much knackered her sailing for the season. Anyway, one of the first questions the dermatologist asked was "Do you play golf or sail?"

When she expressed surprise, saying that she always wears face cream with a PF15, he just laughed. PF15 isn't enough was his view: you must go for PF50.

I'm as bad as anyone. I've got fair skin and I'm always getting a bit burned, although it does take much. I can come off the water with a face like a beetroot on a cloudy day. It's time to rethink things now, though: let's be careful out there!
Click to expand...

A friend of mine had a malignant melanoma above his eye, on the underside of his eye brow. Consultant said, "don't see many there, are you a sailor?" Light bounced up from the water apparently.


As a lot of a slap head it's cream up and Tilley hat for me.
 
Always wear sun screen, as high a factor as I can find, lather it on and try to remember to repeat the application later in the day. Also wear a Tilley hat, never go shirtless when sailing solo (because I can't reach my back to put it on there).

If I do this I can build up to a moderately OK tan after a few weeks. Fortunately my kids seem to have taken after my wife's Mediterranean lineage and go from white to deep nut brown in a matter of days, with no burning. But they still get covered with SPF 50 twice a day.
 
Some interesting things on this thread and it certainly makes you think.

I would love to see an expert’s point of view.

Do people generally wear hats in the sun or is it because most people are follicle challenged. I tend not to wear a hat unless it rains but I do have hair.

People who do go on holiday tend to wear a diminishing factor over the time they are there. Do you put a lower factor on the browner you get. When your skin is browner due to the sun is there less of a risk or are you at more of a risk? I just don’t know.

I have that skin that goes brown rather than red so I have always used little or no sun cream and have no doubt now that it is dangerous.

Having also got a ginger friend I sometimes sail with and I have to feel sorry for him. Not even a lead lined box will stop him turning into a lobster.
 
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