Jump to content

Its Cold!


Claws

Recommended Posts

Its Cold, but I still want to go sailing!!

I know many people put their boats into storage during this time of the year, but there are still some good days to be had... problem is, I hate being cold!

Anybody got any ideas on what is the best thing to wear to keep one dry and warm without having to refinance the boat?

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Come sail with us, currently 6 degrees in the sun!

I sail the nacra through winter without too much bother. the two items you need are a wetsuit helmet/hat as most of your heat is lost through the head. A titanium heat vest under your wetsuit is a worth invstment. At 1mm thick it add the equivelent of another 3-5mm of normal wetsuit.

cost of the vest is typically 50-100 at a surf shop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the suggestions, will follow them up in a couple of weeks when we get to a store.

PS...We are north!! (And yes, it does get cold here!) Though we are also west. Mt Isa is on the edge of the desert. The coastal areas are still okay, but for us, who spent the last 18 years on the northern coast of the NT, any temperature below 20 is COLD!!

Happy sailing.

Claws.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Claws,

In winter here in Brisbane I use an Rjays motorcycle over suit. It's essentially a one piece pair of waterproof nylon overalls.

I put it on over my wetsuit, then my harness goes over the top of the Rjays and then life jacket.

Keeps me dry, and fairly warm all day.

You can get them from most Motorcycle apparrel retailers for around the $100 mark. Since I ride a bike also, I figured there's no point buying a second suit just for the boat.

In Brisbane today we've got a gusting westerly blowing 20-30 knotts (blowing offshore). We're taking the Nacra 5.2 out later this afternoon to get some time on the water in these kind of conditions to build up experience.

I've been out in 20-25 knotts before and all was good. So we're putting in at Manly harbour this afternoon and going to sail in the more protected southern part of Waterloo bay as close in to shore as the tide will allow. Taking a waterproof camera (video) with us to hopefully get some footage if we get the chance.

Cheers

Barry

[This message has been edited by BarryK1200LT (edited 09 June 2007).]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep Loose change, you guessed right! When I'm not sailing, I'm out ridding my LT.

Well we took the Nacra 5.2 out in a gusty 25 - 30 knots on Saturday afternoon. Not a clever move, but one where we wanted to gain the kind of experience you can never get any other way.

With 30 knotts of breeze blow'in up ya bum, we found the top of the mast wanted to go much faster than the rest of the boat.

Needless to say we pitch poled the Nacra pretty much straight after getting out of Manly Harbour and into the exposed section of the bay, and in full view of all the people that watched us heading out through the harbour thinking "why are these dick heads doing going out in these conditions?"

Anyway after pitchpoling within 30 seconds of leaving the harbour, the one benefit we found was that 30 knots blowing under your sail makes righting the Nacra real easy. A tug on the righting line and it was up, we even managed to climb up onto the tramp all in the one action.

After that we sailed for about another 3 hours criss crossing the bay at speeds I'd never sailed before, and with rooster tails coming up behind our boat that would make a power boat envious.

I don't know how fast we were going, but it was great fun, even though we had to sail pretty high the whole time. If we dared bare away, we'd just be blown over. So we sailed pretty close to the wind much of the time to keep everything upright.

Tacking was the hardest thing to get right, and most of the time we had to point up and "reverse" back to complete the tack. Not sure if mast rake had something to do with that but the tacks were damn near impossible to pull off, and we were deadset sure that a jibe in that much wind would turn distasterous on us. So we learnt to reverse.

We had on as much mast rake as adjustments would allow, but still nearly pitch poled twice more, managing to steer our way out of trouble, and that allowed the bows to pop up again when we'd point up towards the wind.

Not pleasant sailing by any means, but it gave us the confidence we needed to be abe to handle the Nacra in heavier conditions, so it was well worth the effort, and best of all, nothing more than a shock cord was broken.

Cheers

Barry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I sail right through.

Bourke longjohn wetsuit. EXCELLENT $178 NZ

Ronstan wind smock EXCELLENT $115NZ

with jeanteax polyprop EXCELLENT longsleave. $80NZ

Really cold? Wear thinsulate hat. $10NZ

I have used all of these for over three season and all, while used are still good. Will start replacing soon.

Low temp 5/10 Celcius

Originally posted by Claws:

Its Cold, but I still want to go sailing!!

I know many people put their boats into storage during this time of the year, but there are still some good days to be had... problem is, I hate being cold!

Anybody got any ideas on what is the best thing to wear to keep one dry and warm without having to refinance the boat?

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...