Foul Weather Gear - 18 Jan 2007
by Kate Laird

At the moment, Hamish and I both have Musto HPX Ocean foul weather gear. It's their top-of-the-line GoreTex model. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. The hood system is very good – it seals out the water, but it is not so fussy that you have to do it up in front of a mirror. It doesn't last as well as the old PVC stuff, but it is a lot lighter weight and less sweaty.

When I had my 28-footer, I bought a pair of Musto HPX Ocean GoreTex trousers to go with my $49 PVC jacket. To me this made a lot of sense – as a single hander, I spent a lot of time in the trousers, just in case it started to rain, because it takes seconds to throw on a jacket, but a few minutes to get the trousers on. Those trousers lasted me until this year when I finally came to face that they had entirely delaminated and leaked like a sieve.

One of the things that kills trousers is leaving them rolled down around your boots, fireman style. It is hard on the clothing, but it is the only way to be ready quickly. On cold weather passages, we never hang up the trousers, just roll them down around the boots and leave them ready next to the bunk.

We've tried a few other foul weather gear brands and found zips that open up in the wind and other details that don't work quite as well as the Musto ones. But there are loads of brands we haven't tried yet, and they all look like they would work quite well.

I would say that we need tougher gear than ocean racers, because we want it to last for far more miles and we want it to put up with the abuse of being left rolled up around our boots over several years – we're not getting a new set of branded kit for every race! One thing we do to make it last longer is keep it on board the boat – we try to always wear regular hiking waterproof gear when we are in the dinghy or running shore lines ashore, to save the HPX meeting brambles and rocks.

Dry Suits

We have a Gill non breathable drysuit for work in the dinghy when we think there is a good risk of tipping over. And once in Greenland, Hamish used the drysuit to swim ashore and release our shorelines. We wanted to break down the dinghy and get it below (for heading offshore) while still in the shelter of the anchorage, but how to release the shorelines?! The drysuit let us put the dinghy away in the afternoon, although Hamish was a bit surprised to find a light skim of ice over the harbor when it was time for his swim the next morning.

The Musto HPX dry suits are great, but not really worth the price for our use. Kate wore one on a leg of the BT Challenge and became deeply devoted to it – nothing is better for regular foredeck work, but with roller furling headsails and a bit of patience to avoid beating into gale force winds, it is not really necessary on board Seal.

Hamish once used a Musto HPX suit for scuba diving on the boat in Antarctica, when his scuba diving dry suit was damaged. It wasn't very comfortable, as he couldn't adjust the pressure inside the way you can on a scuba suit, but it kept him dry, even five feet underwater.

Boots

We haven't seen anything to beat Le Chameau Neptune Boots with the leather lining. They are warm, have thick rubber soles to keep your feet off the cold deck, and they last for years. They aren't cheap, but they are worth it for the Southern Ocean.

Le Chameau leather lined Neptune Sailing Boots can be found at http://www.bestboots.co.uk/neptune_sailing_boots.htm.

Gloves

This is the hardest bit to get right. We use GoreTex mountaineering mitts over fleece mittens for helming, and it works quite well. We wear through them quickly, though, and we haven't yet found a perfect solution.

Outdoor Research Meteor Mitts (For Men):
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?memberId=12500226&productId=39215705

For sail changes, the Gill Neoprene winter gloves are quite good because they have dexterity, and the neoprene cuts the wind and provides warmth even when wet. You still have to make pretty quick sail changes!:
http://www.gillna.com/gloves/7670_neoprene.php

For handling shore lines, we wear fleece gloves under oversized rubber fishing gloves.

The best way of keeping water out is to make sure the top of the wheel is below your elbow. If your hands are angled up, water pours in down your sleeves and wicks up to your chest before your watch is over. If the wheel is lower, your hands are more vulnerable, but that is less of a problem than getting your arms and chest wet. And since mittens start to leak relatively quickly, your hands are likely to be wet no matter what the height of the wheel.

In many ways, the hardest thing to balance is staying at the right temperature for different activities. When we're short handing, we might stand three hour stints at the wheel, and in that time, shake out a reef or put one in (in high winds, heading downwind, it's just as much work to put in a reef as shake one out). Working on deck is sweaty work; standing at the helm, even in heavy conditions, is cold work. In this case, it's crucial not to be wearing a cotton layer that will fill with sweat, but even in the best wicking gear it is miserable to be too hot. The only quick fix is a balaclava hat – this lets you pull off the hood and hat (the balaclava sits around your neck and saves losing the hat over the side) and going bareheaded. Your hair may get wet, but it is a quick way to cool off. The fleece balaclava is warm at the wheel, even if you have wet hair.

We have used the Windstopper Baffin Balaclava from Outdoor Research for years. It is excellent – the only disadvantage is that it is so windproof, that I've often had my foul weather gear hood blow off and not notice it until a wave came down on my head!

Outdoor Research Windstopper® Baffin Balaclava:
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=37927722&memberId=12500226

Color

We have always tried to buy yellow foul weather gear for visibility if you are in the water. Red looks better in photos. White and dark blue doesn't do anyone any good. We had never heard of the idea of "yummy yellow" until SetSail poised the question in her email, but it seems patently ridiculous to worry about shark attack instead of visibility which would help you get the person back on board quickly. It probably makes sense to avoid yellow in your wetsuit, but not in deck gear. Visibility is also good for that reassuring glance forward – when you see the yellow blob on the foredeck, you know everything is okay. In heavy weather, it is surprisingly hard for the helmsman to keep an eye on the person on deck, even on a fairly small boat.

Harnesses

Usually, if you have full foul weather gear on, it's probably time for a harness. I've read the life expectancy of someone in the water around here is seven minutes, which isn't enough time for a short handed cruising boat to get back around to pick someone up in heavy weather conditions. We carry combination lifejacket/harnesses for our guests strictly because it is the industry standard thing to do, not because we think the lifejacket gives a second chance to someone in the water. For ourselves, we'd prefer straight harnesses in these waters, with a crotch strap - which is fairly standard in the UK but an optional, ill-fitting extra in the USA.

Underneath

We wear normal fleece thermals underneath foul weather gear most of the time. Hamish has a set of old Musto "mid layer" gear - salopettes and a jacket with a windproof shell layer on them. The new ones are GoreTex and look like they work very well. My inner layers are just fleece without the water / wind resistant layer and that works equally well. On really cold days en route to Antarctica below the Antarctic Convergence Zone, I wear a lightweight layer, an expedition weight layer, and then two fleece jackets and salopettes. Hamish never wears so many layers.

Socks

Smartwool. We have heavy weight mountaineering socks for Southern Ocean/Antarctic sailing and standard light weight hiking socks for everything else. I have a lot of gray darning wool and I've thrown out all the rest of my socks that aren't Smartwool. Hamish still has some street socks, but that's just because someone stole one of his two pairs of hiking weight socks (I swear it wasn't me!).

Insoles

I wear thermal insoles (I can't remember the brand; I bought them at Campmor http://www.campmor.com) inside my Chameau boots, which make a big difference.

More Boots

In Antarctica, we wear rubber Kamik ice fishing boots with foil-coated felt liners(good to -35 F, they say) for cruising around (but not sailing in heavy weather as they are too slippery) and going ashore in the dinghy. In Tierra del Fuego, we have Wellington boots to do the same job.

Ski Goggles

Bolle makes a clear pair of ski goggles for night skiing which work very well for sailing in piercing rain and grapule. We seldom need them, but every once in a while they turn helming from absolute misery into an acceptable misery.

Children

It's very hard to find good foul weather for small children - and who is more likely to sit in a puddle? Campmor again has the answer, but it is on close-out right now so I fear for the product line:
Youth Rainstopper Rainsuit, $7.97 (top and bottom):
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=39175040&memberId=12500226

Helen and Anna have Dunlop Wellington Boots to serve ashore and on deck. I despaired of finding any rubber boots for them in the USA without "high heels". We tried one pair and Helen wore them out in approximately two months. Fortunately we spent last winter in England, although I am now regretting not buying the Dunlops in the next five sizes.

Grownups are best served by wearing many layers and working the balance right, but life is too short to get the kids into the right number of layers, so I've just bought them waterproof insulated snowpants and felt-lined snowmobile boots (with a spare pair of liners each) from LL Bean for our trip to Antarctica in February. Antarctica in summer is a very similar climate to New Hampshire in winter, and snowpants and snowmobile boots served me very well as a child, so hopefully they'll work well for Helen and Anna. They have a mix of expedition weight thermals and fleece jackets to go underneath - and Smartwool socks, of course.

You can learn more about the Lairds and Seal at their website www.expeditionsail.com.