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- Boat and Yacht Transport Part 1: Trucking
- Boat and Yacht Transport Part 2: Delivery Skippers
- Boat and Yacht Transport Part 3: Overseas Shipping
- Dinghy - Make Your Own
- Electrolysis 101
- Engine - Diesel
- Engine - Diesel - Scheduled Maintenance
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- Navigation - Celestial
- Navigation Aids - US
- Navigation of Boats
- Pets on the Boat
- Polycarbonate (Lexan) - Restore Your Own
- Safety Req. US
- Sails - Cleaning Sails
- Weatherfax - Make Your Own
- Wet weather tips
- WiFi Boosting with the Bowltenna
Wet weather tips
Forum Topic
When you're cruising for longer than a weekend, what's your way of dealing with lots of wet raingear at the end of the day? I mean, assuming you don't have a second head that can be put out of commission by filling it with dripping bibs and jackets for 3 people.
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Under the rain-catcher
When we stop for the night we usually put up our boom-tent/rain-catcher, then the wet gear gets hung under the boom (or inside while we sleep). If we can't put up the rain-catcher then we usually bear with all the foulies in the head - it is oh so nice to rub up against it in the middle of the night
I usually have about 3 dry-z-air things in the head so this helps to keep things dry, well it helps.
Dry-z-air
what's that?
Dri-Z-Air
It's just this thing that removes excess moisture from air, you put these pellets in it.
You can also get the pellets from another source in bulk. We did this once when we left the boat for the winter. Put the crystals in a sack suspended over a pickle bucket. Came back 5 months later to a pretty dry boat!
Calcium Chloride
The pellets are Calcium Chloride. Dow's product is Peladow, and is sold as a de-icer (at a fraction of the cost of dri-z-air refills).
CC
Good to know. I have to pick up some calcium chloride for my sidewalk anyway...too icy already.
Any sage advice on choosing a boat heater? I'm going to have to get one next spring.
A friend's boat had a diesel unit, seemed to work well--and we sailed through a snow squall before basking in the cabin heat when we finally reached harbour. I'm hoping to sail as late into next winter as I can stand it, so this matters.
Big Topic
Heaters might deserve its own topic -- the subject of a lot of hot air.
SD
Breathable!
We found, in the great wet north, that the gore-tex type stuff dries MUCH faster than the non-breathables. I much prefer a good waterproof/breathable hiking shell (with articulated hood and pit zips) to ANYTHING I've tried on at the chandler's. Built for moving around, much more comfortable, easy to store, and they're made to dry fast.
We'd usually shake off and then wipe the outside with a towel, under the dodger, and then hang the foulies inside with the heat cranked. They dry out fairly well in an hour or two (as opposed to several hours with the non-breathable). This is good, since nothing really dries in our head -- it just grows slightly less moist and slightly more alive.
Also. most raingear has water "resistance," Which means the water beads off of it. After a while, this wears off or gets coated with salt and gunk, and while the gear is still water "proof" (it keeps you dry), it's no longer beading water off, and therefore it holds more water - taking longer to dry. Most companies recommend a spray (like scotchguard) to rejuvenate the "resistance," which means you can then shake most of the water off of your foulies before you bring them in.
Breathable
Good input. In the good ol' days, breathables were not recommended for salt environment because the salt (or any other pollutant) shattered the natural tension of a water drop, enabling the smaller droplets to leak through the pores. It was okay if you were able to wash the gear frequently and reapply the DWR (Durable Water Repellency--e.g. scotchguard), but poor for multi day use. It sounds like your experience has been much better than that, which suggests the technology has improved since I last bought any. Thanks for that.
Repellent
Oops, yup, "repellent" is the term. A lot of people did say that the lightweight breathables would gunk up with salt (and they do), but it's only affected the breathability and that "outer wetness" in my case. I figure if it can handle the sweat, dirt, cooking grease, campfire smoke and ash, bug spray, etc. you generally encounter out in the bush, a little salt is nothing!
Yacht pal
conrad well i want to thank you folks for this new to me site. So far so good,some great tips. I am trying to figure out how to navigate but as any new location should become more comfortable with practice and use. thanks again!
Have some silica on hand
Have some silica on hand (keep it recharged by drying out in the oven on low). It is good for keeping moisture out of all your electronics that you can keep in cases or bags. Get the stuff in bulk and put it in a clean old sock - then pop it in with your camera, gps, laptop, ipod, etc.
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