Safety Series: Building a Sun Protection Kit
One of the Red Cross’ preparedness steps is building a kit. All the equipment and gear on a boat, or in a sea bag are examples of kits. Realistically the kit will have several sub kits. One of the 10 essentials is being prepared for sun. This article will take a look at building a sun kit.
Hat -Hats, from ball caps to sou westers have always been worn by sailors. Going beyond the typical ball cap there are products like Tilley hats which provide special UV ray protection. There are also hats that have neck veils that prevent you from becoming a red neck. There are also hats made out of fabrics such as Cool Max that will allow better ventilation of your head. A hat too hot
to wear is the definition of ineffective.
Clothes -You can purchase clothing that is specially made to block out the sun. Such clothing will use a fabric with a tighter weave, and be a darker color.
Sun Glasses -A key factor in chosing sun glasses for being on the water is that they be polarized. Polarized sun glasses essentially block glare off water and UV rays allowing you to see things like shallow spots, and puffs of wind with greater clarity.
Another issue is that sunglasses can be a pricy item. Since they don’t float well something like a Croakie is a small investment to keep your multi-hundred dollar shades on your head.
Sun Screen -When chosing a sun screen, go with one that is least SPF 15. SPF numbers are intended to give people a baseline on how long they can stay in the sun. Everybody’s skin is different so, there is not a one size fits all formula. Here’s an example: say unprotected skin takes 15 minutes to burn. Applying a SPF 15 sunblock could give up to 225 minutes protection. To find
out how a certain SPF will help, take the number of minutes your skin can be exposed without burning and multiply it by the SPF #.
In addition to having enough SPF, sun screen for sailing should be water proof. An example of a water proof sun screen is Bullfrog.
A combination of the above will help protect you from the sun.
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