Front or Rear Drysuit ??

Rear zip - without question. Less bulky and she'll have her helm to help zip up when a changing room peg is inconveniently positioned. the trident link above looks good to me.

whilst I personally find a wetsuit best nowadays, there have been times when crewing a trap boat when frankly i've been spending far too long in the water in winter- that is when a dry suit is a good idea. plenty of MPS national champions have worn them and despite what iGRF may say, they're not a bunch of nancy boys. Besides there's no point scaring off a teenage girl and telling her to 'man up' is there? & £300 sounds like a cheap way to numb the moaning & whinging from the back of the car on the way home every Sunday.

Just get her a good wetsuit. It's much more flexible so she'll be able to sail the boat better and be a lot more comfortable. It's a much more versatile option too, if you get a 3mm wetsuit then you can layer up and make it perform however you want. For instance, if it's a really, really cold day then she can stick some polypro leggings and a top on, with something like the rooster hot top over that and then the wetsuit. Failing that, get a 4mm surfing wetsuit and that will do the job perfectly. I genuinely don't see why anyone still wears a drysuit for dinghy sailing. There's no need for it at all.

Blimey... I agree with Podmonkey. I'm sure this will cause a catoclismic solar event, but hey there we have it.

The reason I'm suggesting Trident is there suits are very good vale for money and the will extend the suits arms, legs and body if the youth grows for very reasonable cost.

Originally posted by pondmonkey they're not a bunch of nancy boys.

You have proof of this?

As to wet or dry, long periods on the surface in spray inclement weather = drysuit

Long periods in the actual water = wetsuit

I once had a very very bad experience in a dry suit at Queen Mary when my board blew away mid race and I had to wait to be picked up, in the middle of winter. You get hyperthermia very quickly even with base layers when the water is very cold, which is where a wetsuit providing its 5mil or better is superior at resisting that bit longer and easier to swim in.

I have both a 5 mil winter suit and a Typhoon. No question Typhoon make the best dry suits, they invented the concept in the first place and still have industrial and military grade contracts to back their R&D last time I looked. Having said that this latest front loader I have which I believe is similar to Wing Wangs, I find difficult to get in and out of, whereas back loaders are just a question of finding a coat hanger to attach oneself to and swing from.

That said they're still potential death bags all of them if you are not fully aware of their pitfalls.

Edited by iGRF - 01 Nov 12 at 10:35am

Originally posted by Puddlebuster For what its worth I have just reverted to drysuit for the winter.  The thing I find most difficult is getting the layering right under the drysuit.  For the worst /coldest weather I now wear a 2mm long john wetsuit under my dry suit which was suggested on here some time ago.  Works really well.

That sounds like a good idea, bit of the best of both worlds, I'd been thinking about using Polypro as a back up to a standard snowboard fleece base layer I usually use.