WHAT TO WEAR WHEN SAILING...

Ali Wood explores clothing options for dinghies to day boats and offshore cruisers

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Keeping warm on the water is essential. As soon as a crewmember, and especially a child, is cold it's game over for your meticulously planned sailing trip, and it'll be far harder to persuade them to come again.

As a parent and a junior safety boat helper, I've had many an argument with children who insist they're fine in their boardshorts or shorty wetsuit... until they're not, and there's still two hours to go until we're back ashore. These days, I take extra clothing in a dry bag, and have learned to be firm when it comes to keeping warm. A warm crew is a happy crew, and it means we can all spend longer on the water.

But selecting the right clothes for the boat and conditions isn't straightforward. Oilskins might be ideal for a yacht, but what about a keelboat? Would a wetsuit be better, or even a drysuit? And what about summer dinghy sailing, when it's so hot the idea of thick neoprene is unthinkable...

Like with regular clothing, different seasons call for different garments, and when you're jumping around one minute and static the next, you have to be prepared to add or remove layers religiously, and anticipate when your body temperature is likely to go up or down. As a dinghy sailor, you're much closer to the water and exposed to spray as well as the possibility of a capsize. Because of this, you'll need a wetsuit that's stretchy and comfortable both wet and dry. Even if you aim to spend the session in dry clothing, you still need to layer-up as you would on a sailing boat.