Winter Sailing Gloves - recommendations from experiance

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Vento

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I will be crewing in April doing a delivery back across the Baltic. I'm looking for advice on gloves or tricks people have used to keep hands warm and dry. Unfortunately the old dinghy sailor's trick of using 'Marigolds' won't work this time.

I have a pair of the Henri Lloyd Helmsman's mitts and as great as they are, for rope and sail work they are not ideal and my normal gloves will just not be warm enough.

I have looked at the Gill and Musto winter/waterproof gloves but these seem to be bulky and more like skiing gloves. Sealskinz's also didn't seem that good when I tried them.

Has anyone cracked the warmth/dexterity problem?
 
Possibly

Vento said:
I will be crewing in April doing a delivery back across the Baltic. I'm looking for advice on gloves or tricks people have used to keep hands warm and dry. Unfortunately the old dinghy sailor's trick of using 'Marigolds' won't work this time.

I have a pair of the Henri Lloyd Helmsman's mitts and as great as they are, for rope and sail work they are not ideal and my normal gloves will just not be warm enough.

I have looked at the Gill and Musto winter/waterproof gloves but these seem to be bulky and more like skiing gloves. Sealskinz's also didn't seem that good when I tried them.

Has anyone cracked the warmth/dexterity problem?
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Father Christmas brought me a pair of 'Sealskinz' {http://www.sealskinz.com/ } these are 'Goretex' gloves that are warm and waterproof. Also have some 'grip' on the fingers and palms. The socks are excellent too!

For everyday use they have been excellent. My plan for longer, wetter, colder trips is to get an extra large pair of ex Army mittens to wear over them for helming.
 
If you find the answer, do let us know. My solution has been to buy several pairs of Lidl's or Aldi's snow boarding gloves at ~£5. They certainly are not waterproof but are considerably warmer than Gill Helmsman gloves and others I've tried claiming waterproof and breathable. Even when wet they seem to be warmer and with several pairs it is easy to pop on a dry pair. Used in conjunction with Lifa inner gloves (I believe silk is even better) they work a treat but ...... take them off for ropework, sail changing etc. and just use your hands. It's not as if you are continually trimming sails on a delivery trip, at least I don't.
 
Vento said:
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Has anyone cracked the warmth/dexterity problem?
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Its no great issue albeit thats in the UK where it rarely gets below 5C. , If you are doing a delivery trip you wont be operating ropes etc like you do round the cans, so you can manage quite well with normal sailing gloves for when you do handle ropes and mitts the long periods in between.

You are more likely to have problems with feet getting cold and maybe the whole body because you wont be moving about a lot on a delivery trip. I havent solved the feet problem.

I found the best answer for race helming in winter ( helms dont generate heat like the guys on the winches) was a two piece survival suit where the foam floatation lining insulated very well.

Above all, a warm fleecy hat. You lose a huge amount of heat from your head.
 
Keeping hands dry is the single most important part of keeping them warm in my experience. I carry several pairs of glooves in my kit bag for that reason. Places like TKMax sell Gortex ski glooves at prices a fraction of those carrying a sailing brand logo.

On a long trip, much of the deckwork can be done while wearing gloves. For the more intricate work, take them off, do the work, dry your hands and put the glooves back on.

I'm a diver as well as a sailor. In the winter time, having cold hands is always the dive time limit. Once they are hurting, they'll hurt more before getting back to normal so it's a clear sign to get out of the water.
 
Thanks

I will be conducting a practical trial shortly and will be posting my Best Buy, Best in Test and throw them over the side recommendations in the May issue of this post!

BTW - on the cold feet issue, my Dubarry Ultima have never let me down in all my offshore sailing but in true sailing tradition I have a backup plan. I found some chemically activated foot warmers. They are adhesive backed to stick in your boots and work just like normal chemical hand warmers, only they are much thinner.

You can never have too many options when it comes to keeping warm! :-)
 
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Gloves

Look at surfing/windsurfing gloves.


Full neoprene surfing gloves will keep your hands 100% warm and dry

'Open palm' windsurfing gloves will give you excellent grip and keep the wind/rain off the backs of your hands

Also from experience (of surfing/windsurfing all year round) the best way to keep hands warm is to ensure the rest of your body is warm. Soon as the body starts to get cold it assumes the extremities are expendable ;)
 
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