White is Bad !

Lakesailor said:
Even in bright summer sun when cyclists go into the shade of trees they become very difficult to see.
Motorcyclists have to wear crash helmets for their own safety, why shouldn't pedal cyclists have to have a minimum area of reflective material, for their own safety, and those flashing rear lights would help in awkward lighting as well.
It's all very well claiming it's the motorist that is at fault for not seeing them, but that is not the point.

What was that campaign?

See and Be Seen
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What about the one's wearing hi viz, but then also wearing a large black kitbag on their backs, which nullifies the whole safety ensemble from behind.
 
Seajet said:
I could put up with white waterproofs being extinct, largely a 1980's fad BUT I see some current kit has white shoulders, exactly where one doesn't need it if trying to be rescued.

As for white horseshoe liferings I don't remember visiting any perverted red light light sort of place which sold them but apparently they are or were available to match white hulls, rescuing people in the water not a part of the eqaution...:rolleyes:
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Good topic seajet, I have been thinking along these lines for some time as I could do with upgrading my wet weather gear.
Why would Musto and other leading manufacturers be still producing full suits in Black, Graphite, Platinum, Navy, foul weather gear when you would think that they should be producing clothing that would be more Hi Vis when in the water?

Hopefully they will pick up on the thread and re-think their colour ranges.

Must admit though to still having a white horseshoe lifebelt on the boat which I inherited at purchase! ( Don't know it's original purchase history !! )

This is a reminder that I should upgrade it Thanks
 
I was about to buy some charcoal grey sailing gear when I had a horrible image of floating in grey waves and realised the drawback. Instead I got a bright red set which make me look like Santa, but I'd rather that than drowned. I felt vindicated by a MCA report of a man who fell overboard in the Channel: his friend was unable to recover him and he was in the water for some time but was found and saved by another boat because he was wearing orange.
 
Quite agree with the OP on this subject. To expand the area of thought, why are there so many dark grey cars on dark grey roads , it seems fashionable to have a dark grey Porsche, Mercedes, BMW or Audi these days. Nearly pulled out in front of one the other day, overcast, under trees and no daylight running lights, pretty well invisible.
 
xeitosaphil said:
Good topic seajet, I have been thinking along these lines for some time as I could do with upgrading my wet weather gear.
Why would Musto and other leading manufacturers be still producing full suits in Black, Graphite, Platinum, Navy, foul weather gear when you would think that they should be producing clothing that would be more Hi Vis when in the water?
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I think it's economics. Hardly any foul weather gear is worn in foul weather; it's much more likely to be worn in good weather to make a fashion statement. Cool blacks and greys with a bit of an "I'm an adventurous chap, me, always just about to head off round the world" will sell far better than something which is practical at sea but untrendy ashore.

tl;dr: most sailing gear is bought and sold to look good ashore, not to work at sea.
 
xeitosaphil said:
Merry Girl said:
Better to look like “ Santa “ than a customer for the ” Grim Reaper “
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I heard the local sailing club, at there carol service lots of kids waiting for Santa to arrive..

I was passing putting sails away, and there is this comment, ""Here he comes.... Oh wait its not....."

When I bought them I bought for price not colour seems I made the right choice :D
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Two more groups of camouflage types spring to mind;

Marine Police trying their hardest to look like a cross between the the SBS and Batman,

Horse riders who wear green and brown, ride along country lanes then wonder why nasty inconsiderate car drivers don't see them...
 
JumbleDuck said:
I think it's economics. Hardly any foul weather gear is worn in foul weather; it's much more likely to be worn in good weather to make a fashion statement. Cool blacks and greys with a bit of an "I'm an adventurous chap, me, always just about to head off round the world" will sell far better than something which is practical at sea but untrendy ashore.
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I must be unusual, then, as the only foul-weather gear I would choose on the basis of image is the seemingly armour-plated plain yellow PVC stuff from Guy Coten, in order to look like a salty old seadog who needs to shrug off mountainous seas on the deck of his big old gaffer, and cares only for practicality and cost and not for looks. Somewhat ironic really!

In fact what I actually have is a ten-year-old set of middle-of-the-range Gill oilies, in bright red :)

Pete
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Studies carried out by the USA Navy found that fluorescent pink was the most visible colour. The studies were carried out for locating downed airmen at sea and I came across it in one of the editions of "Safety and Survival at Sea".
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Don't think my shipmates or the bears on the rigs would take kindly to being forced to wear pink! :D
 
Moving up to boats: helps to be seen, even if only for collision avoidance:
what colour, traditionally (at least when sun is shining), is the sea?
and what colour wave crests?
so why do yachts have, usually, white hulls and blue dodgers/uv strips/sail covers?

stealth yachts
 
Well storm jibs have been available in dayglo for a long time now, and if one really has to have a sprayhood and / or dodgers I've always thought it sensible to make them red as some long distance cruising folk I know do; I admit it doesn't look quite as good in the marina as blue but I'd trade that.

I have painted my boat's cockpit sole yellow so that it shows up to the helicopter if and when I really cock things up.

I'm also making some alloy window covers for use in severe conditions, they will be painted yellow and likely I'll do the same with the anchor locker lid on the foredeck.

In the 1970's it was the mark of a serious long distance boat, racing or cruising, to have the upper section of the mast painted dayglo, radar reflectors too though having been involved with some military R.A.M. ( radar absorbent material ) paint & stuff I have an idea the soft dayglo paint may give an unwitting and unwanted ' stealth ' radar evasion effect !
 
When we practice MOB drill we usually use a bucket and fender. We have white fenders and dark blue ones; students often remark that the blue ones are much easier to see than the white.

Be careful with reflective materials. They have the property of reflecting light back in the direction from which it came. Good if you are using a torch, but not if you're using sunlight. In daylight the fluorescent materials are much better.

Red antifouling, in case of capsize?
 
peterb said:
When we practice MOB drill we usually use a bucket and fender. We have white fenders and dark blue ones; students often remark that the blue ones are much easier to see than the white.

Be careful with reflective materials. They have the property of reflecting light back in the direction from which it came. Good if you are using a torch, but not if you're using sunlight. In daylight the fluorescent materials are much better.

Red antifouling, in case of capsize?
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You jest, but I think the ORC special regulations require you to have a patch of hi-vis paint on the bottom of your boat
 
Surely anyone who is concerned about having the 'safest' colour foulies will be wearing a lifejacket at all times anyway, which renders the colour of the foulies irrelevant.
 
Bedoin, I'm not sure it would help much on my Anderson 22 which would hopefully come straight back upright after an inversion by a big wave - maybe without a working mast.

Simonjuk,

I'd reckon ones' hood and shoulders are the bits which show if a person is in the water...

However I always paint the bottom of my rigid tenders yellow, and this does seem to work; a chum who bought my old grp tender managed to hit something with his 4hp outboard at an angle, capsizing the boat in a wide part of the harbour.

He always wears a lifejacket but was out of swimming range of the shore and wondering what next, when a dinghy race safety boat saw the tenders' upturned yellow underside and rescued him.

On my racing dinghies I always had ' Don't Panic ' in large friendly letters on the undersides a la Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, but the most help this got was when practising capsize drill off the slip, a chap ran down, we thought to mistakenly offer help, but he just took a photo of the writing on the hull then cleared off...

I was quite serious about soft dayglo paint being anti-radar ' stealth ' BTW, when the Falklands War started in 1982 all our Sea Harriers had an overall grey paint job hastily applied, as well as making them less easy to see by eye it was also very soft, thick Radar Absorbent Material paint, I don't have any figures as to how much it reduced the radar signature but it wasn't much good at taking knocks or the plume from missile launches.
 
Seajet said:
Bedoin, I'm not sure it would help much on my Anderson 22 which would hopefully come straight back upright after an inversion by a big wave - maybe without a working mast.
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I think it is meant for when the keel falls off - Bullimore style :)
 
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