Personal Gear & Apparel

Garmin recently released a new-age-looking boat-data display that will certainly appeal to technophiles and racing sailors. The portable, hands-free Nautix In-view Display attaches to the users glasses, making the data always visible out of the corner of the users eye while leaving him or her free to choreograph a race start or monitor the depth.

A night-time man-overboard (MOB) scenario is the stuff of sailor nightmares. Darkness adds to the difficulty of locating a person in the water, a concern that has produced many types of MOB lights and strobes (see PS, February 2016 online) over the years to better the MOBs odds. Spinlocks recently released Lume-On takes a new approach to making an MOB more visible at night by turning an inflatable life jacket into the equivalent of a floating glowworm.

With Mothers Day and Fathers Day looming, we dug through our Chandlery items to find things that would make good gifts for sailing moms and dads. Landlubbers got it easy: Dad gets a new shirt and tie; Mom gets flowers (no carnations!). But thats not fitting for our nautical moms and dads. Unless their gift has some practical onboard use, it will shortly find its way to the senior-center flea market. Most of these gifts would be well received by either Mom or Dad, but if you end up missing the mark, you can always reclaim the gift and use it for your own offshore adventures.

After teeth-chattering his way through some brutal winters sailing beach cats on Chesapeake Bay-protected only by a 3/16-inch neoprene suit that made the cold water safe, but not pleasant-Practical Sailor tester Drew Frye decided to upgrade and invested in the Ocean Rodeo Soul dry suit in the fall of 2013, and his winters have been much better.

I purchased West Marine Third Reef foul-weather gear in 2008 at the Miami Beach boat show. The jackets inner liner started shedding, leaving white snowflakes everywhere. Ive been putting up with this for quite a few years as I havent been using the foul-weather gear regularly. But this past April, I departed for French Polynesia and started using the gear regularly. After almost six months of cruising, I sent West Marine corporate (www.westmarine.com) an email about my issue, fully expecting the too old, too long ago, too whatever response. To my very pleasant surprise, I received a reply from Glenna in customer service, who had found my receipt in their computer; she gave me instructions to take the foul-weather gear to the local store for replacement or credit. The Honolulu store manager was super nice and helpful. I now have a new set of Third Reef foul-weather gear! Thanks and kudos to West Marine!

Binoculars can be an expensive piece of kit, but they are essential safety gear for the mariner. Being able to clearly identify any object that comes within range of your boat-be it a ship, raft, flotsam, navigational marker, or a nearby shoreline-makes for a safer passage. Steiner Optics recent release of its Model 575, an affordably priced 7x50 marine binocular (without compass), prompted us to revisit our past binocular tests to see how the newcomer compares to our reigning top picks.

Plastic or rubber coating that protects the binocular from dents and dings, provides a sure grip, and makes them easy to clean. A must for binoculars used in the marine environment.

Looking for gift ideas for the sailors on your holiday gift list (or to add to your wishlist)? Here are some that will please a variety of budgets and sailors.

Each fall, Practical Sailor editors sort through the best test products of the past year to pick those deserving of a spot on our PS Editors Choice roster. To be named to the list, products must earn the Best Choice rating among their respective peers and clearly stand out above others in their field.

Our Editors Choice roster would not be complete without the top performers in our semiannual bottom paints tests (PS October 2014 and April 2015). The most recent test looked at 55 different paints from Blue Water Paints, Interlux, Epaint, Pettit, and Sea Hawk. This years hard paint standouts were Interluxs Micron Extra with Biolux and West Marines Bottomshield. Made by Pettit, the West Marine-branded PCA Gold was the top ablative paint. Micron Extra and PCA Gold tied for best performance of the bunch.