Frostbite sailing in January requires a bit of know-how. Read how Ted Hood prepares for a day racing with Newport’s Laser Fleet 413.
“Looking at the weather Sunday morning, it seemed like we were heading for another cancelation for the third week in a row with expected temp around 24-25 deg and winds 15-20 – a daunting combination. But with Fleet 413 you can’t assume anything, so I prepared my gear accordingly, wondering how the heck I was going to keep my toes and fingers warm. Sunday was all about staying warm if you wanted to have any chance of being functional let alone competitive. I’ve found over the years from cold weather skiing and sailing that it really pays to over-dress your core as well as arms and legs to some extent which produces extra heat that wants to escape through your head, fingers and toes. Hard to do with a wetsuit, so Sunday was really a day for drysuits (preferably with built-in socks to keep feet dry) so you can layer up accordingly underneath – I know Mike Z was happy he dragged his out of the closet. I piled it on with two thin tech layers, two fleece layers and a thin vest, with thermal weight long johns and hiking pants over legs, and skull cap and balaclava doubled up above.
Heading out for pre-race my fingers numbed up pretty quickly with neoprene sailing gloves being wet so before the first race I pulled the fingers out to make a fist inside for 1-2 minutes to thaw them out – a common freeze/thaw cycle that usually works well. Just had to do it a second time after first race then I was feeling pretty toasty the rest of the day. Ice on deck made it challenging when gybing – almost slid off the deck one race, and frozen lines and tackles made it interesting in what was the coldest day of sailing I can remember the past 35 years. Big thanks to Moose, Kelly and Cushing for running the races in what turned out to be a great, fun day of sailing – since the breeze kept us moving, I reckon we were warmer than them!”
-Ted Hood
