By Airwaves Writer Paige Hoffman
It’s safe to say that the most difficult aspect of spring sailing in the Northeast is facing the cold. Knowing how to keep yourself warm on frigid days makes all the difference in staying up to speed during practice and competition. Getting uncomfortably cold may seem like an inevitable part of spring sailing, but it certainly doesn’t have to be.
The cold weather has significant effects on your body, which in turn has a big effect on your performance on the water. Cold and stiff muscles are especially harmful when paired with the explosive kind of body kinetics involved in dinghy sailing. All the work you have put in at the gym in the winter offseason is useless if you’re wasting energy shivering and can’t even feel your fingers.
The most important approach to staying warm is having the right clothing. In 2017, sailors have more choices than ever for cold weather gear. Unfortunately, sailing is an expensive sport, and you may be tempted to try to save money on gear. However, if there’s one thing that you should splurge on, it’s having the right kind of equipment to sail efficiently. You wouldn’t go skiing wearing a tshirt and jeans under your pants and jacket, so why sail in the same kind of clothing? Base layers are the most important kind of clothing to invest in. As far as drysuits go, as long as your seals work properly it doesn’t matter what brand of drysuit you wear. Some may be more comfortable than others, but drysuits are designed to keep you dry, not warm. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, literally.When I first started high school sailing my freshman year, I thought I would never be 
able to learn how to stay warm and sail efficiently like the upperclassman could. As a newcomer to spring sailing, I had no idea how to keep myself warm, and it took a lot of trial and error to figure out what worked best for me. I ended up getting frequent colds that kept me out of class and off the water. Over the years I’ve picked up a few techniques that help me stay warm and comfortable while sailing.
I have found my favorite line of base layers to be Patagonia. Although it’s an expensive brand, you really do get what you pay for. At every regatta in March and April, I still wear the Patagonia R1 Pullover I got when I was a freshman sailor. I’ve worn it sailing, skiing and horseback riding, and it’s held up it’s held to the test of time. It’s soft and comfortable on the inside and does wonders keeping me warm.
PATAGONIA MEN’S or WOMEN’S R1® PULLOVER
Patagonia also has the benefit of being very in-style right now, so when you’re not sailing you can wear just about any of your base layers wherever and however you want to. They also have a number of discounts available for high school and college sports teams. Patagonia base layer pants which run between $30 and $60, are an invaluable investment.
Patagonia Women’s Capilene Lightweight Bottoms (my personal favorite for under a drysuit or spray pants.)
Other popular brands, Helly Hansen and Musto, have the same advantage of being focused on multiple sports. While they do make plenty of sailing gear, I have found that the skiing base layers from these brands work best. They’re warm and form-fitting without being restrictive. It’s hard enough to stay flexible in a drysuit alone, so having gear that fits properly is an absolute must.
Musto Active Base Layer Zip-Neck Top, one of my favorite mid-weight base layers.
I prefer wearing one or two thick layers as opposed to many thin ones. Getting dressed for sailing is definitely a quality over quantity situation. It’s much easier to stay mobile on the boat when your joints are not hindered by excessive layers of clothing.
With high performance base layers and a good pair of wool socks you will be much happier and warmer than anybody else on the water. While you may have to spend a bit more money initially, investing in quality clothing will save you money and provide invaluable comfort on the water.
About Paige Hoffman, Northeast/High School Sailing Airwaves Reporter
Paige started sailing at age ten at Duxbury Bay Maritime School. By age twelve, she was competing in Optis and transitioned to 420 sailing when she was fourteen, becoming a member of the Duxbury High School sailing team as a freshman in high school and racing through club programs at Duxbury Bay Maritime school in the fall and summer seasons. In the summer, she works as a Junior Sailing Instructor at Duxbury Bay Maritime School, teaching younger sailors the fundamentals of sailing. In 2016, she helped her team win the Mass Bay League Team Race Championship and was named co-captain of her team for the 2017 spring season.
cold weather sailing
Beating the Cold in the Spring Season
Lydia Whiteford, Airwaves Writer
All photos taken by Tufts Sailing Coach Ken Legler
As hard as it is to believe with the East Coast buried in snow, the spring season for college sailing is only a couple of weeks away. While the spring brings with it the excitement of team racing and the ultimate goal of nationals, it also presents a big weather hurdle for sailors who want to excel. With the first month or more of the spring season being chilly at best and brutally cold at worst, I’ve made a list of things that I have tried to keep in mind after four years of fighting off the frosty New England early spring months.
- Invest in Good Gear: While it is tempting on a college budget to buy the cheapest options in cold weather gear, or to buy the bare minimum you think you will need to stay warm, I sincerely encourage you to do the opposite. Especially if you are an underclassman, the best thing to do is to start out your college sailing career by buying top quality gear that will work and will last you throughout most of your four years.
The best of the best in sailing outerwear to me means a Kokatat dry-suit, rubber boots instead of neoprene ones (originally made best by Aigle, now made by Sperry), and a sturdy pair of gloves (the best cold-weather ones are ones that have a little thickness, but will also allow you to bend your fingers and retain your grip.) Dry-suits are the pinnacle in cold-weather gear, and although they are a hefty investment, having a good one will make sure you stay happy when the water and wind temperatures are barely above freezing. The Kokatat option is most popular with college sailors, because of the excellent quality and lifetime warranty. While it is the most expensive of dry-suit options, Kokatat will also repair or replace your dry-suit for close to free if it starts to wear out.
The best under layers, in my opinion, are made by Patagonia. With most schools offering access to a killer discount, there isn’t a reason not to invest in some of their cold-weather clothing, especially when it works well. My favorite layering options in my sailing bag are my R1 pullover, and Capilene 1 shirts and pants. While Patagonia also makes excellent socks, my favorite socks are made by Smartwool to keep my feet toasty…or at least not frostbitten.
- Know the Tricks: While you can have the most expensive and best looking gear on the water, it is still important to know all the tricks of how to use it in order to keep yourself warm and in peak performing condition.
No matter how good your dry-suit is, there is always going to be exposed skin that needs to be kept warm and dry too. For my head, I like to wear a baseball cap with an ear-warmer or winter beanie overtop of it. This keeps a little extra warmth locked onto the top of your head, and if the hat on the outside gets splashed your head will still stay dry. I try to stay away from hats that are pure wool or fleece, because if they get wet around your ears it becomes very hard to hear. Instead, I opt for synthetic warm hats made by Under Armor or Patagonia, because a lot of them are more waterproof. To keep my hands warm, my favorite glove option (when its unbearably cold) is fleece-running gloves under waterproof dishwashing gloves. Under Armor makes a great pair of these too, they’re light enough that you can move your hands but stay dry so they can provide extra warmth.
It is equally important to know how to dress under your dry-suit. The most important lesson I’ve learned is, when it comes to layers, go for quality not quantity. This is especially important for socks. Putting on too many socks will actually restrict the blood flow to your feet, because they become too tight inside of your boots. Instead, find one pair of socks you really trust and put a foot-warmer on the bottom, like you would for skiing. Just make sure the foot-warmer is inside your dry-suit bootie, because they cannot get wet. I use this same approach when putting on other layers, opting for just one pair of fleece-lined spandex pants and two layers on top, one thin and one thicker. The best way to add another layer, if you need it, is to wear a thin, down or fleece vest over your top layers. This will heat up your core to spread more blood to your extremities, but will keep the amount on your arms thinner so they are easier to move.
- Toughen Yourself Up: Okay, I know this sounds obvious, but stick with me! Half of the battle against the cold is mental, and if you keep yourself physically fit to beat the elements then the mental part is easier to master. It is crucial to try to be one step ahead of the cold at all times so that you don’t find yourself getting beat by it with no more ways to fight back.
There are a couple of techniques I use to try and keep myself in the game, and I’m sure that most of them help more mentally than physically. The first, and my favorite, is the extremely popular “crew shuffle.” It is a fact that crews get more wet than skippers do, just because of our boat-handling and positioning so close to the bow, so it is important to know how to stave off the creeping chill that comes with being constantly soaked. The “crew shuffle” goes like this. Stand up in your boat, jump up and down a few times to force blood into your toes, wave your arms back and forth like a penguin trying to fly, and repeat. This is an excellent tool between sets or races to get your heart rate up slightly and the blood moving around to freezing extremities. Another way to keep the cold away during down time on the water is to stick your hands inside your lifejacket. Your core will be the warmest part of you, and a lot of lifejackets have secret fleece-lines pockets for your poor, shriveled up hands. Will either of these actually make you significantly warmer? Probably not, but mentally the little boost of relief they bring will seem like a saving grace.
Staying sharp in terms of knowing how to keep yourself as warm as possible is also important. I always keep multiple headbands, hats and neck-warmers in my bag so that if one gets wet I can replace it quickly. Sometimes, I will even change all of my under layers during a lunch break or an offset just to mentally feel like I will be warmer with different gear. Odds are, the temperature outside is not going to change, so it is important to know how to make the best of it by constantly replacing wet, worn-out, or broken gear throughout the day. Any off time that you have, try and be in a warm place (i.e. the famous head-warmers in the bathrooms at Navy) or ask your coach to blast the heat in the van for a few minutes. If you are an alternate, stay warmed up as best as you can because you never know when you will need to go in.
These are all of the tricks that I’ve learned throughout my college sailing career, and, while it is still not fun to have your fingers and toes go numb while you endlessly shiver, it is fun to know that you are strong enough to take it. As with any sport, athletes are expected to tough it out, and the more you can tough it out over everyone else, the better chance you have at winning. So, college sailors everywhere, dig out your dry-suits, find all of your layers, and pray for the ice to thaw so we can all get out there and start racing!
