A 71-ft commercial fishing boat sank in rough weather off Cape May,NJ yesterday. One survivor and 2 dead and 4 missing. The boat sank around 5 am but a search didn't begin until 7:30 am and search aircraft didn't arrive on the scene until about 8:30 am. The one survivor said all the men had time to put on neoprene survival suits. It is not clear from the story that the men did in fact do that. Water temp 40 oF and waves 10-15 ft. Such commercial fishermen are unlikely to routinely wear drysuits. USCG search and rescue personnel do wear such outfits on the water. They came and showed off their gear at our cold water workshop in Norwalk, CT at the end of January this year. There are all kinds of wetsuits out there for windsurfers, Kiteboarders, sea kayakers etc. Flatwater racers still refuse to wear any such gear as far as I know. So here is a question. What is the best wetsuit of any material that might be worn routinely by working personnel on boats at sea or by racers that are training hard, that would at least give them some edge against the shock of sudden immersion in cold water. Such an outfit would ideally give them enough time to do effective things to lengthen survival times and get emergency messages out. What is the nature of the "Chill cheaters" material? Chuck Sutherland Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Mar 25 2009 - 07:19:50 PDT
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