Sailors place high demands on their kit bags © Rooster Sailing
Sailors place high demands on their kit bags. They need to be home, holiday, car and yacht friendly. They need a place to put damp or dirty kit and a place for smarter après sail clothes too. Whether you need a bag for all your kit for a weekend or for a holiday abroad, this buyers guide should guide you through your options:
What Makes a Perfect Kit Bag?
Our original, and perhaps the most iconic Kit Bag, was the 90L Rooster Carry All. No one ever moaned about its carrying capacity, its dry pocket was appreciated and its durability was legendary. This product became so popular that we had to add a name tag on the outside to avoid confusion in the changing room.
Our New Range of Carry Alls have built on the strengths of this original bag, but we now also offer a 60L and 35L options as well as colour variants too – a loud red and a stealthy black.
A Perfect Holiday Bag or Week Sailing Kit Bag
The 90L Carry All is a very large bag, ideal if you are packing for a holiday abroad and you want a distinctive bag to spot on the conveyer belt. Would I take one to the sailing club? Well yes, as my "super carry everything I might need" bag, but I might be inclined to use the Mesh Bag to decant what I plan to wear once I have checked the conditions at the venue.
The Mesh bag story
This has been my favourite bag for sailing for a number of years. It enables me to take dry kit to the changing rooms and then secure my clothes and towel ready for after racing. Then it becomes my wet bag that helps take my kit home.
The great thing about the mesh design is that it dries easily overnight so my new toasty dry sailing kit is ready to be loaded into it the next day. If you shower in your kit – then you might have to hang it up to drain before you carry it to your car.
Week Travel Bag or Single Use Sailing Kit Bag
If you want one bag for your daily sailing kit, or perhaps a bag for your travel clothes for a week, then the 60L Carry All comfortably accommodates it. Both the main and dry pockets have YKK zippers which are super durable.
We would rather the fabric of the bag wore out before the zip. The new colour is a definite bonus in a three person sailing family – day clothes and sailing kit can be sorted with colour and size.
YKK zippers – standard on Rooster Carry Alls!
A House, Car or Yacht Friendly Bag
All of the bags have been designed to be house, car or yacht friendly. Using quality fabrics that stand up to harsh use, we did not need extra reinforcement patches or rivets to reinforce the bags. Even the base liner is made from a pliable PU foam that will not chip off the paint from your doorway or companionway.
We have once again built on our experience of the original Carry All in selecting a quality 600D polyester fabric with super strong handles that wrap around the whole bag – also doubling as ruck sack style handles. With 4 mesh pockets, one each side, so there is an ideal place to put your damp sailing gloves.
Ideal Bag for Small Sailors or Overnight Bag
For smaller sailors who struggle to carry their bags into the changing rooms, the 35L Carry All is ideal. Believe it or not, this much kit fits easily into the 35L bag. Is it a TARDIS?
The 35L fits all this in!
My personal 35L Carry All is ideal for my sports kit or as a weekend overnight clothes bag.
Watch out though, once you have one, everyone will want to borrow it.