Immersion suits

[Steve Laume]

Does anyone have any experience with or suggestions for immersion (survival) suits?

I helped out a friend bring his boat home and I must have talked about a survival suit at some time during the trip. He sent me a thank you card and a rather generous gift for helping him out. The note mentioned how I might put it towards a survival suit or some other good use. I might never have gotten around to buying a suit but now feel I should honor his gift and his concern for my well being.

I don't foresee the purchase of a life raft and I am usually single handing (sometimes in cold water) so an immersion suit along with an EPIB and hand hekd VHF seem like they might be a good combination if the absolute worst were to happen. Although it may not be a fun experience I believe this combination would give you a very good chance to tell about it.

Do you go for the full Gumby suit or would a dry suit work? The dry suit would be harder to get into quickly and would require additional clothes under the shell. It would be nice to have for cold water kayaking and maybe even sailing at times. If you were to put it on early in a potential sinking situation you could still work at saving the boat where it seems like an immersion suit would pretty much immobilize you so would only be a last resort.

If going with a full immersion suit, are there better brands? Hamilton Marine sells a SOLAS model for $310.00 and it seems like they should know what people need. A dry suit would be more money but would be far more useful get more general use.

This is one of those things you hope you never need but could literally be a life saver if you did, Steve.

[NateHanson]

I don't have 1st hand experience with the Gumby suits, but I do know a fair bit about drysuits. You're right that drysuits are only as warm as what's under them, so you'd need to plan to have a heavy fleece liner stored in your ditch bag with your drysuit. I would not say that a drysuit takes longer to put on. I can get in my drysuit in under a minute without hurrying.

A drysuit will keep you dry. The $300 immersion survival suits will insulate you, but I don't think they really seal 100% around the face or neck, so if your head gets immersed, you'll get some seepage into the suit. http://www.landfallnavigation.com/immersionsuits.html My understanding is that the more expensive suits (like those used for cold-water rescue) have neck gaskets like a drysuit.

I think you're right that a gore-tex drysuit will offer infinitely more mobility than a 5mm neoprene survival suit, and if you see yourself working/sailing/kayaking or whatever in a very wet, cold environment, there's absolutely nothing better. The latex seals require inspection, periodic treatment with a rubber-protectant (like 303), and occasional replacement. If this is a survival item, you'll want to know that the seals are not going to tear when you don the suit on a sinking vessel, so you may want to specify one with the thicker "USCG" seals, and replace them at the first signs of deterioration. (with minimal use, and good storage that might be a few years. With heavy use, or poor storage, it can be less than a year). Replacement can be done for you, for about $100, or you can buy the gasket and do it yourself for about $40.

Once you get used to the neck gasket, wearing a good drysuit is nearly as comfortable as wearing your fleece pajamas (which you may in fact be wearing underneath the suit). Dingy racers wear these, and they're a great way to stay warm in a very wet environment. If wearing one for many full days back to back, I do start to get an uncomfortable rash on my neck.

If you go with a drysuit, and plan to use it as more than an abandon-ship garment, I'd strongly recommend the Kokatat GFER suit (Goretex with booties and relief zipper) http://kokatat.com/products/dry-suits/g ... r-men.html. This company makes the Coast Guard's suits, and they are absolutely top notch. You'll spend about $800 though.

In a disaster scenario, I suspect a drysuit might be more easily torn if you got snagged on a sharp bit of rigging on deck. This would not be good with either suit.

Nate

[Jim Buck]

Steve,

Never used a drysuit but am eying a Kokatat for kayaking in the fall and early spring. I did however spend a summer on a research vessel "cruising" around the Anderson Archipelago in southeast Alaska. We were required to practice putting on the USCG approved gumby suit in 60 seconds. May seem like a long time but they are very difficult get into. I doubt that I could have achieved the minute threshold were there any impediments other than the flat floor upon which we practiced. Ours contained an automatic strobe but other than the difficulty of putting it on, I don't remember too much about it. I know were I to sail in Icy Straits or other northern waters, I would not be without one or perhaps that Kokatat drysuit. The handheld VHF and EPIRB sound like a good idea. Just another $0,02.

[sharkbait]

If you are an all round sportsman and do many other things beside sailing I would suggest a PLB instead of a EPIRB. The PLB is much more portable and can be used in the mountains, woods, snow, river or anyone's boat.

[Steve Laume]

On my trip last year, I was in very warm waters most of the time. What got me to thinking about exposure protection, this year, is a planned trip to Nova Scotia. The water stays pretty cold up that way and even with an EPIRB and PFD you might not hold up too well until help arrived.

I hadn't considered using a dry suit for a survival situation until very recently. I don't think you could do better than a Gumby suit once you were in the water. That is unless you wanted to swim over to collect any other supplies that might float up and you had not secured to yourself before the boat went under. You would don the survival suit when you knew all was lost and sinking was imminent. You could dress up and put on a dry suit when you were still actively working to prevent a sinking. This would allow you to work comfortably, warm and dry. It would allow you to keep working up until the point you were overcome. You would also be ready should things stabilize somewhat and then turn rapidly worse. Say a situation where you were holding your own and then took a large wave.

I have an old dry suit that is not Gore Tex and it wouldn't matter much for this application. There is also no relief zipper and that is the reason I have not used it much for kayaking. Again this would not be a useful feature once immersed. I would love to have a new Gore Tex dry suit for kayaking but maybe the one I have would work for a survival situation. I would still need to put on booties, gloves and a hood. I suppose these could all be gathered in a mesh bag and tied to the suit. It sure would be nice to have a new Gore dry suit with a relief zipper.

Although I do some winter sea kayaking I already have a nice EPIRB with GPS on Raven so I don't see myself buying a PLB. I am never that far from shore with the kayak that I would worry too much about a failed search effort for lack of an EPRIB signal. A hand held VHF and a reasonable description of where you are should bring help if needed. If you were sailing with a crew the PLB might also be of use but that is rarely my situation.

It might be time to take a look at the gaskets on my old dry suit. Booties instead of ankle gaskets would be really nice. I have replaced those latex gaskets on paddling jackets and a dry suit. It seems pretty straight forward but is a PIA to get them right. If all else failed, I suppose there is always duct tape, Steve.

[Sea Hunt Video]

I do not have familiarity with "immersion suits". I am very familiar with drysuits. Generally, from what I have seen drysuits are more expensive than immersion suits. However, with drysuits you get total and complete mobility of arms, legs, head, etc. I have done a lot of delicate underwater video wearing a DUI drysuit. Drysuits are also a lot more compact than an immersion suit - presumably a consideration in terms of storage aboard.

DUI drysuits http://www.dui-online.com/ and Viking drysuits http://protective.ansell.com/en/Products/Viking/ are two of the best in the industry.

If you select a drysuit make sure it is a "front entry" style that has a zipper in front going from the shoulder to the opposite hip/waist. Many drysuits have a zipper across the back of the shoulder that requires another person to assist with "donning/doffing". They also now have drysuits with built in "hard" boots that have pretty good traction soles.

[NateHanson]

If you are going to use your drysuit for an emergency garment, I would definitely replace the gaskets. If you have ankle gaskets (aka ankle hair pluckers) replace them with latex socks, or even dive boots. Check out OS Systems on the web for boot options. Kayak Academy on the web has all manner of replacement gaskets and tools.

[Klem]

I have used both (well the gumby suit was only in a controlled environment) and I would recommend getting a gumby suit for what you are talking about. Dry suits are great for kayaking or sailing in the southern ocean (no personal experience with the latter) but I would personally wear my Grundens foulies just about any other time. I find that thermal regulation is too difficult in a drysuit so I would not wear it most of the time. Also, the clothes that I would wear with it would be insufficient if I ended up in the water for an extended period.

One important difference is buoyancy. Drysuits are burped so that no air is in them any you have almost no extra buoyancy. A gumby suit is designed so that you float nice and horizontally.

Another thing to keep in mind is how quickly you can put it on. With either one you need to practice regularly but most people can put a gumby suit on with a sloped or pitching deck in under a minute. With a drysuit, I would be quite worried about destroying a gasket just at the worst time.

In my opinion, gumby suits are critical to survival in cold water for even short periods of time. If you gave me a choice of one of these and a liferaft with 40 degree water, I would take the gumby suit. The liferaft would be preferable in extended duration rescues in warmer water. Commercial fisherman have shown just how well these suits work.