RIB Clothing Guide - How to protect your body

Going afloat means that you will expose your body to an environment in which weather conditions and temperatures can rise and fall much more rapidly than they do on land. The reflection of UV light on the water surface can damage your skin and in case you get exposed to cold water, hypothermia can cause death much more quickly than many people would believe.

The Musto Breathable Offshore Jacket (click image) is a great example of a jacket that will keep you warm in extreme conditions.

In summary, open waters are a special environment for which your body requires to be prepared. The first step in these precautions is appropriate clothing and gear to be worn by your body. The variety of modern clothing is enormous due to the use of modern materials and a number of very recent innovations that compete with traditional sailor's clothing.

Buying sailing clothing these days is a bit like buying gear for camping, fishing or any other outdoor hobby that is hopelessly commercialized: as a beginner, you will hardly find a way to prioritize what you really need and what is redundant. Most things are the latter and pure gimmicks. However, a lot of modern accessories sold these days are overpriced and simply not needed by most RIB enthusiasts.

Checklist of sailing clothes

The best thing you can do is to go on a boat with little gear, talk to people you know that have similar interests and needs with respect to sailing and see for yourself what you would like to have and what you don't really need. However, in terms of clothing there are some general guidelines everybody should consider for the sake of health and safety onboard a RIB.

1) Always expect to get wet - some RIBs, especially bigger ones, will protect you very well and it might be that in most cases you will go back on shore without a single drop of water on you. But in terms of water you should always expect the worst. However, this is not as bad as it sounds, you won't have to wear heavy oil jackets for every little cruise. Modern materials such as Goretex allowed the design of light weight, wind and waterproof jackets that even look nice. They should be your outer layer. The outer or waterproof layer is intended to keep the elements out. These usually have very little or no thermal properties, but are entirely water and windproof. In order to work most efficiently, no matter what type of power boating you do, the fabric should be breathable to allow the moist air that has built up inside the garment to escape.

2) Stay warm - this is mostly common sense, but essentially your comfort on the RIB relies heavily on whether or not you feel warm. Fast drying synthetic fabrics are to be favoured over cotton, which tends to get unpleasantly cold once it gets wet. Wool is a very popular natural material and very traditional, too, but does not offer the same advantages as synthetic cloth. The middle or insulating layer is designed to be worn over a base layer and under an outer layer. Made from synthetic thermal fibres, it assists the movement of moisture to the outer layer. These fibres do not absorb water; they dry quicky and will keep you warmer.

3) Expect changes in the temperature - The base or wicking layer (that should be worn next to the skin) is designed to move moisture away from your skin, keeping you dry and warm after bursts of activity. Wearing layers rather than one piece of clothing is the key to these changes. Again, most modern clothing is designed in a way that you can dismount up to three layers from single jackets. Keep in mind that several thin layers are favourable over a single thick one.

4) If you go hardcore, wear a dry suit - if getting wet is rather the rule than the exception for you, layers and waterproof jackets are not the way to go. You will need a dry suit, like the Musto MPX Gore-Tex One Design Drysuit shown below.

5) Keep a cool head - about 30 percent of the body's heat loss in a cold environment occurs through your head. Keep it protected by wearing appropriate hats. They will also protect you from UV light that can burn you skin. If you have long hair, it will also help you to tie it back and wrap it in order to keep it from getting blown into your view.

6) Think of the UV - many people don't realize how aggressive the sun can be on open waters where it is partly reflected from the water surface and hits your face from more than one direction. Make sure you wear sunglasses with a good UV filter and use strong sunscreen (factor 20 or higher) on all parts of your body that are exposed. Don't believe that cold wind means that the sun will be too mild to harm you; UV light is not temperature dependent.

7) Protect your hands - they will do the most important work for you. It is important to protect them in the manual labor and keep them warm. There is a variety of specialized sailing gloves available for this purpose. Some are open fingered and advisable if you need your fingers for delicate tasks such as the control of electronic devices.

You can of course combine these gloves with thicker, fleece lined ones if you plan on going out in really cold weather. Keep in mind that you need to balance flexibility and freedom with temperature protection according to you specific needs. It is the same issue as with other parts of your clothing, and the golden rule of the layers applies for gloves as much as it does for jackets or trousers.

8) Protect your feet - appropriate shoes will keep your feet safe and warm and at the same time provide you with the grip that you need on a wet and moving boat. We recommend sailing shoes that have flat soles with slip-protecting properties, and no heel. As with other clothing, modern materials have changed the design of footwear a lot and led to a diversification of the products available. Try different ones and keep an eye on your specific needs.

9) Wear a lifejacket - you might leave the RIB before you want to leave the RIB. In that case you should have your buoyancy handy. Once again you will have a choice between a variety of different products. Generally, personal buoyancy should support your body in open water and help to keep your head up. Lifejackets are most commonly used, since they are designed to keep your face above the water surface even if you lose consciousness. Most of them are based on gas inflation.

Choosing Foul Weather Gear

Every sailor should be prepared to sail under difficult weather conditions such as storms, rain or strong wind. Manufacturers of sailing accessories produce tons of foul weather gear, which makes it hard to keep an overview. This article will provide you with the general guidelines that you should follow when choosing foul weather gear that matches your needs.

You will probably get wet at times. This can be due to water from above (rain), below (heavy waves, spray) or all over (storms). The most straightforward mean to protect you from getting soaked is protective clothing and accessories collectively called "foul weather gear". Fierce competition and a variety of modern materials made it hard to keep an overview on this ever growing market.

It is time to step back and think of the basics. What do you need to consider when you are choosing foul weather gear in accordance with your personal needs? Generally speaking, protective clothing can be categorized according to the degree of protection it offers.

1) Rain Gear: This is the lightest form of protective clothing and keeps what the name promises; it protects you from rain, is comfortable and generally cheap. This is most commonly rain jackets, trousers and hats or hoods.

Any rain gear should do, modern materials have the wonderful feature that jackets made of them normally come in layers that allow you to shed off parts once the sun is back.

2) Coastal Gear: One degree more protective, this targets sort of the medium foulness of weather. This is essentially everything that is too heavy to go as normal rain gear and too light to be proper heavy rain suit. This can include thin wet suits of the kind that surfers commonly use. They come with or without sleeves and can be supplemented with gloves, shoes and even a hood.

3) Offshore Gear: This is the hardcore protection stuff you only need offshore. Meaning, the clothing that makes you properly seaworthy, as in cruises or longer races under very bad weather conditions. It offers the highest degree of protection. Offshore gear is generally heavy and often uncomfortable, but it aims to keep you warm under any circumstances, which might be lifesaving in certain situations.

It is fairly difficult to say where the border between Coastal and Offshore Gear runs - a practical definition might be that "offshore" starts where you should stop buying stuff that was not specifically designed and manufactured for sailors. Gear for offshore applications needs to be of top quality and you should not compromise on this. Don't be shocked by the high price you'll be charged for them; unfortunately, you won't get around that.

Regardless of the degree of protection, most pieces of foul weather gear share that they are composed of similar sets of materials. The basic, inner layer can be fleece or similar materials from artificial fabrics such as nylon; some manufacturers offer whool, which is more classy than functional (not saying that it isn't functional, too). The outer coatings make a difference: You can discriminate between breathable and non-breathable gear.

Non-breathable foul weather gear is normally made from some or several layers of PVC (polyvinyl-cloride, commonly used for coatings); Polyurethane (a rubber polymer, also commonly used for coatings); and neoprene. Neoprene is the most durable, but also most expensive material used for coatings - popular for offshore gear as well as suits for divers and alike, basically wherever you are getting close to the limits.

To optimize the protective properties of non-breathable foul weather gear, the coatings from these materials are composed of different layers, each of which make the final piece of gear more expensive. Actual wetsuits require a layer of moisture between your body and the suit - obviously, they don't have a basic fleece layer.

Breathable foul weather gear is made of all the many fancy and modern materials that allow water vapor to get away from your skin but no water as such to get on to it. This works because of the microporous structure of the fabrics that create a barrier for liquids, but the body heat makes moisture around you evaporate and leave through them. It's a bit difficult to imagine that, but it works and that's in the end all that counts. Goretex is the most famous and common brand of breathable fabrics.

Not every RIB enthusiast needs arctic clothing

However, the foul weather gear industries build insane numbers of different pieces of gear that all are the best according to them. Keep in mind that you need to match your needs with your gear! The density of a fabric is measured by ounces per square yard. Two to four ounces are standard for sailing, but especially offshore gear goes up to seven - which is probably fine for Antarctica. It's not so much the degree of rain and spray you are expecting, but rather a matter of the temperatures under which you are expecting to sail. Wind is an important factor to keep in mind.

High quality foul weather gear should have drains or netting for water to escape from your body. Stitches in the seams should be sealed with melted plastic materials, much as you might know it from backpacks. The same applies for zips.

Check for strong seals (by pulling strongly, you might shock sales assistants) and reinforcements on exposed parts such as elbows, cuffs or collar. Fleece lining in the bags is a comfort much appreciated on cold days on which you forgot your gloves.

Checking the quality of foul weather gear

The tightness of the gear should be adjustable especially at the wrists and other entry points of cold and water. In terms of safety, reflective stripes are useful.

Regardless of the foul weather gear you eventually choose, we hope that this short general guide and introduction to the materials and their functions will help you. In any case, you should spend a lot of time trying different models and bugging sales assistants with questions. Foul weather gear is crucial for enjoying your RIB and without the right equipment, you will potentially put yourself and others at risk.

A final piece of advice: get more than one opinion from different retailers, define a set of features the gear of your choice should have and then compare prices from different sellers online and in the real World. Prioritize the set of properties your jacket / trousers / overall should have, then look for the cheapest model!