The choice of specialist clothing probably has a more direct effect on the enjoyment of small boat sailing than has any other equipment choice so I thought that it might be interesting if the DCA Bulletin were to include occasional articles about members’ experience of alternative types of sailing wear.

In really nice weather, shorts and tee-shirt are suitable clothing, with old trainers or perhaps plastic sandals to avoid the very real risk of injury when paddling ashore. However, such conditions account for only a part of the average British summer and for the rest of the time the cold can be very uncomfortable, sometimes even a danger to life. This is more of a problem for dinghy cruising than most other outdoor activities since when dinghy cruising one is sitting inactive for hours at a time whilst being exposed to the weather and driving spray. Racing dinghy sailors, canoeists and mountaineers probably stay warmer by being more active and cabin boat sailors are better protected. The crew perched overnight on the windward rail of a racing yacht may be an exception.

Over the years I have experimented with quite a variety of sailing clothing, most of which has been much less effective and less durable than the advertisements would suggest. Many years ago I bought a 'top of the range' waterproof suit from one of the UK's two leading manufacturers. After a few days use the trousers fell apart at the seams and within a couple of seasons the internal waterproofing coating of the jacket had started to delaminate from the heavy nylon fabric. Perhaps I was a particularly unlucky customer but I have not risked buying from this manufacturer again. My conclusion is that expensive sailing clothing is not necessarily effective. One can probably find poor value for money throughout the price range, and the price range is certainly wide; I have recently seen two-piece sailing suits advertised at £9.99 and at around £400.00.

Until the last few seasons my sailing wear mostly consisted of conventional medium priced waterproofs made from coated nylon. These generally lasted for two or three seasons of weekend and holiday use, perhaps only the equivalent of a few weeks of daily sailing. Failure was often due to delaminating of the coating or the taped seams. I have tried both the two-piece suits and one-piece overalls. The overalls are generally better in bad weather although a two piece suit is better for combined shore and afloat use. It is only rarely that I would choose to wear just one half of a two-piece suit at sea, conditions are either such that one needs no waterproofs at all or such that all over protection is needed. A disadvantage of most one-piece suits is the lack of a hood, a useful feature for cruising although said to be a nuisance for racing. I have recently acquired a nylon version of the traditional sou'wester which is not quite as weather-proof as the best hoods but does give all-round vision. For more warmth it can be worn over a wool hat.

When I changed from a Mirror dinghy to a larger cruising dinghy I realised that the crew was at least as vulnerable to the elements as the boat itself and that someday I might be very glad to have some form of 'survival' clothing. Getting cold and wet could lead to low moral and dangerously bad decision making long before the physiological effects of hypothermia. Apart from that it makes sailing a misery. This led me to purchase a heavy duty wet suit in the hope that even if I capsized, became soaked or fell overboard I would not become cold. I rarely used my wet suit but kept it on board as a stand-by. However, when I did try it I found it to be ineffective, either dry or immersed. In the dry the thermal insulation of 5mm, of neoprene is probably no more than that of a thick woolly jumper. Immersed it is obviously better than a woolly jumper but with the earlier generation of wet suits there is still massive heat loss due to water passing in and out. Sailboarders seem to cope with this but sailboarding in any wind strength is an extremely energetic activity and good sailboarders do not stay immersed for very long. My wet suit was also uncomfortable to wear for any length of time due to roughness, particularly at the neck, but I would have put up with this had it kept me warm.

A few years later the Steamer wet suit came on the market and I purchased one in the hope that it might be the answer, but it was not. Steamers leak less underwater than ordinary wet suits but they still leak and out of the water they are no warmer than an ordinary wet suit of the same thickness. I have no experience of the very expensive steamers with special zips and a smooth external skin to reduce heat loss. These may be better than the one I used. They are sometimes advertised as dry suits although they are quite different to the loose fitting type of dry suit.

Eventually I gave up wet suits and progressed to a dry suit, by which I mean the loose fitting type which can be worn as an outer shell over almost any other clothing. I am pleased to say that this is a big improvement and I think the best solution yet to the problem of keeping warm in a small boat. Although I originally purchased it for occasional use in unpleasant conditions I now wear it more often than any other sailing clothing.

The prices of drysuits range from just under £200 to about £300; one could buy a secondhand cruising dinghy for less. There are even more expensive models, but these are mainly for specialist use such as commercial diving rather than sailing.

A dry suit does not itself provide all that much thermal insulation but provided that it is in good repair it keeps the underlying clothing thermally effective regardless of rain, spray or total immersion. Unlike a wet suit, the warmth can be adjusted by choice of underclothing.

Being in good repair is an important point; it only takes a small leak to spoil the effectiveness of a dry suit. The neoprene seals of a dry suit may have a short life but they are replaceable and perhaps should be regarded almost as consumable items to be changed when they show signs of starting to perish. I have had to replace the neck seal of my dry suit using a kit which cost £15. A more serious fault is delaminating of the waterproof fabric and it would be useful to know which of the various types of fabric in use are most long lasting, all the manufacturers claim that theirs are the best. After a few seasons my suit has a couple of small delaminated spots which do not appear to be in particularly stressed areas. I have patched these using surplus materials from the seal kit but more extensive delaminating could not be repaired.

My dry suit (Musto and Hyde) is a one piece laminated nylon type with a front zip under a velcro cover and it has integral rubber feet. These all seem to be good feature although I have no experience of alternative types. It is reasonably easy to put on and take off; easier than a wet suit but more difficult than ordinary waterproofs. The dry suit feet must be externally protected and for this I wear old worn out trainers. A dry suit makes Wellingtons redundant which is good since Wellingtons are awkward to stow and the water is so often just too deep for them. Most dry suits do not have hoods so I often wear mine with a sou'wester. Manufacturers might well consider providing dry suits with hoods, perhaps detachable ones. I would have thought the extra cost would be relatively little.

Several manufacturers have recently introduced dry suits in 'breathable' fabric. A film of condensation always forms on the inside of my non-breathable dry suit but I find that for an inactive pastime such as dinghy cruising this is not noticeable with all over-clothing underneath so I would not consider breathable fabric to be essential. However some of the breathable dry suits are no more expensive than similar non-breathable ones so they may be a good idea provided that general durability is not compromised.

Deep pile 'thermal suits' are recommended for use under dry suits and are claimed to draw the condensation away from the skin. They are good but they are not the only type of under clothing which can be used. I have often worn my dry suit just to protect normal clothes when crossing mud and puddles to get ashore from the boat. A dry suit should be sufficiently loose fitting to allow a free choice of under-clothing.

In moderate conditions some protection from light rain or spray may be required but one might not choose to wear a dry suit either because it would be too warm or to preserve it for when it is more needed. For such conditions I have purchased a really cheap - £9.99 - two-piece bright yellow PVC suit which seems good value. A weak point is perhaps the press studs which rust. The seams are welded and so may well be more waterproof than the stitched and taped seams of more expensive waterproofs. It is also useful ashore on rainy days, although it has a clammy feel for walking any distance.

If I wear a buoyancy aid, it is for extra warmth rather than for buoyancy and the closed cell foam type is good from this point of view. If one falls overboard the main concern is to get back aboard as quickly as possible and not to get separated from the boat. This suggests that a safety line could be more important than a buoyancy aid and although I do not have a proper harness I do sometimes remember to arrange a simple safety line attached to the boat, especially when sailing alone.