Like any hobby and sport, it’s important to own good-quality equipment to ensure you are able to make the most out of your dinghy sailing kit. Dinghy sailing as a hobby is a great way to develop your sailing skills, even if you have no experience in water sports. However, skill progression and enjoyment may be slower if you don’t invest in proper equipment, due to weather conditions. You need to feel comfortable and safe.
For example, this can include the clothing you wear, a wetsuit, sailing gloves, boots, the boat itself, and many more. This is particularly important when the weather is more bitter, which can lead to an increased chance of splashing cold water whilst sailing.
Building on this, dinghy sailing boats do not include a keel to keep them upright, therefore it’s highly possible you may end up spending more time in the water, especially when starting out. Have a look below to see the main clothing items you should add to your dinghy sailing kit list:
You should invest in your clothing first, to tackle the cold…
The weather conditions described above mean it’s really important to invest in dinghy sailing kit that’s going to keep you warm and safe. As an overview, these are the clothing items you should own in your dinghy sailing kit collection:
- Base layers
- Wetsuit
- Dinghy sailing tops
- Bottoms/trousers/legs
- Jackets
If you are planning on dinghy sailing in the summer, the one item that could be altered is your wetsuit. You could go for a short arms and legs wetsuit if it’s the summer months, versus a long wetsuit in the winter. The wetsuit price could vary in significance based on these changes since the short wetsuits use less neoprene material. Due to new sailers being more likely to take up the skill during the summer, a short wetsuit may be the best option
Another item that can be altered is your wetsuit gloves. You could choose the option of short or long fingers, based on the water temperature. These can range in price, and if you are an adult or a junior.
You can see, due to the variety of items needed, buying equipment for dinghy sailing can be very expensive, especially when buying from a reputational brand. Building on this, it could even come in more expensive over the boat itself. As a result, it’s important financially to purchase your important clothing items first, before investing in your boat of choice.
Overall
As a takeaway, it’s clear that dinghy sailing kits can be very expensive, based on the range of gear seen on the list above. As a beginner this can be overwhelming, however, over time you shall collect the correct amount of kit as your sailing skills develop.
Remember to focus your initial efforts on purchasing clothing gear, to keep you warm and safe whilst out on the water.