This is part of a series of articles on the subject of sailing safety. These articles will attempt to combine different ideas on safety from sources such as the Red Cross, personal experience, computer programming and other outdoor pursuits.

Cross training, be it lifting weights to improve your ability to grind a winch or gleaning techniques from other sports, is a fine way to up your safety factor while on the water. On the ten essentials list is insulation and we’ll look outside of sailing to find good insulating clothing.

One of the best forms of insulation is thermal underwear made of fabrics such as polartec. A visit to the polartec website shows that Iditarod sled dog racers use polartec. No question, if it will handle the Iditarod it should handle going to sea warmth-wise.

The adage cotton kills applies to thermal underwear, aka the next to skin layer. Cotton neither breathes nor wicks. Fabrics such as Polartec do. It first wicks moisture away from the skin and then breathes, allowing it to escape. The outside of the fabric does the keeping warm part. It even provides a level of sun protection.

Patagonia is also well known for it’s base layer products. They break their products into the following levels: silkweight, light weight, midweight and expedition. Another way to look at this is that silkweight wicks the fastest, light weight is for fair weather, midweight is the most versatile and expedition weight is for extreme conditions. Midweight would likely be appropriate for most sailing conditions, although Patagonia does reccomend expedition weight for water sports.

Taking the above principles: breathing/wicking and appropriate for the conditions you can then look at lines such as Musto, Gill etc.
for a set of thermals. They will typically have a couple of options for thermals. Non sailing outdoor outfitters such as REI, Patagonia and Cabelas, will usually have more options.

No matter the source, a set of thermal underwear is a key safety item. It’s the first step in staying warm and dry. It will cut down on evaporative heat loss (aka sweating). It helps minimize convective heat loss (that is wind etc.) by trapping warm air next to the skin.

A set of thermals can be bought for $ 90 to $ 100 and should always be packed for sailing. As a bonus these can be used for skiing, or just taking a walk in the winter.

Wearing a good base layer will keep you warm and dry which can prevent a myriad of other safety and survival issues.

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