Kit Guides

From a first glance, you may not notice too much difference between our Aquafleece® Robe and the Aquafleece® Rigging Jacket. And that’s totally understandable, after all they’re made from the same iconic Aquafleece® material, are available in the same colourways and just look like two long coats. But we’ve been listening to our customers as we’ve been meeting them at shows in the UK this year, and we feel as though they deserve a comparison spotlight so you can make the right choice. Similar they may seem, but let’s take a closer look at what makes these two coats completely different, and find out which one is the best match for you and your lifestyle. We’ll compare the fit, the price and the technical features and function of the two to help you decide. Size Getting the right size for your equipment and gear is essential for experiencing the ultimate enjoyment from your day. Learning the difference between the sizing options of our Aquafleece® Robe and Aquafleece® Rigging Jacket could be the difference between why you purchase one from the other. Robe: One size fits all (Junior available). This gives everyone room to have the option to use the robe as a changing tool. Wear the robe over your wetsuit, zip yourself in and remove your arms to comfortably get changed wherever you need. Adjust the cuffs to suit your arm length when worn as normal. Rigging Jacket: Comes in sizes; Junior, XS/S, M/L, XL/XXL and XXXL/XXXXL and is designed to be ever so slightly oversized, so you can fit your buoyancy aid under when transitioning from rigging to sailing. If you’re looking for more of a day-to-day style, this one might be a better option for you. The Rigging Jacket should come to your mid-thigh and the adjustable cuffs allow you to tailor the wrists to your arm length. Length & Shape We’ve thought very carefully into the shapes of our Aquafleece® Robe and our Aquafleece® Rigging Jacket. Their unique functions and uses mean the lengths are slightly different and here’s why. Robe: The ‘one-size for all’ fit means the robe is much longer in the body than the Rigging Jacket. The robe will come to your mid-calf, or your ankle at the very most. The length is designed to allow you to feel comfortable getting changed, and for keeping the elements off from your whole body after you have been fully submerged in the water. The Aquafleece® outer shell will keep the wind off you whilst getting changed too. Rigging Jacket: The coat should come to your mid-thigh at the front, and it has been designed with a lower tiered back to protect you and your clothing from wet surfaces when you sit down or lean. The longer back also allows for rain and spray to run away from your core, keeping you warm and dry for the rest of the day. Lining It’s the inside that counts the most, and that is certainly true if you’re comparing these two garments. It’s the lining of these coats that truly set them apart in design and purpose, and ultimately complete preference to the customer. Robe: The robe includes a fleece terry lining, which is fully removable. The lining is extremely warm and cosy in very cold weather and exposed elements, but acts double as a soft towelling material to dry you as you change. The lining can be removed completely, including the arms and hood, to allow you to wash the inside of your jacket, so you can freshen up your robe for your next adventure. This is the first changing robe on the market to have this ability. Rigging Jacket: Like our other Aquafleece® range, the Rigging Jacket has a soft and smooth ‘short’ fleece lining throughout, including the pockets. This makes the jacket more lightweight, but with the Aquafleece® windproof shell, this is still a great option for you if you’re prone to feeling the cold, but manoeuvrability is required.  Hoods Not the most obvious comparison to make on coats, especially when made by the same manufacturer, but the hood could be the reason you pick one coat over the other if you’re looking at costs and technicality. Robe: The robe has a spacious hood. Just like the rest of the robe lining, the inside of the hood has a terry lining to aid drying your head and hair. The hood has a soft Aquafleece® shell which keeps the wind off your head. Rigging Jacket: The hood of the rigging jacket is much more structured than the robe, and includes a peaked cap to protect your face from elements such as rain and spray or as a block shield from the sun.* The Rigging Jacket also has a reflective patch on the top of the hood, which is visible when you wear it down, a great safety feature for off-shore sailing and walking in low visibility.  Cost Comparing the cost between the two is an important part of piecing together the aesthetically set apart differences. The features listed indicate that the Rigging Jacket is in fact a more technical product and this is reflected fairly in the price point. Robe: £165 A competitive price for a high tech changing robe, the first on the market with the ability to remove the lining for the purpose of keeping your robe hygienic. The Aquafleece® material has a Polyurethane coating on the outside for water resistance, durability and flexibility. The Aquafleece® Robe being our largest Aquafleece® product, you would assume that it would be the most expensive in the range.  Rigging Jacket: £172.50 The Rigging Jacket price attracts plenty of questions when we compare the two coats. If the Rigging Jacket is smaller in size and length, then why does it cost more over the heavier and larger Robe? The Rigging Jacket may have lighter properties at first glance, but when we take a closer look at the structured hood, this explains the slight price increase as the hood is much more technical than the Aquafleece® Robe’s.  Use Depending on what it is you’re most likely to be doing, taking a closer look at how these coats were designed to serve the customer, the ergonomics that have gone into the process are fit for purpose. But depending on what that purpose is will be the decider.  Robe: Primarily designed for the on-the-go, quick changing, watersports mad individual, the concept of the changing robe has stretched beyond the boat park in the UK. Customers are tending to use them for day-to-day errands such as commuting, walking the dog and even going to the shops. It’s hardly a surprise whilst our winters seem to get colder every year. The robe was created to give the option to change in the most convenient way, and giving the ability to wash this after use, but you can use it how you wish! Rigging Jacket: Rigging by name, rigging by nature. The rigging jacket was created to keep you warm and dry whilst you get ready for your day out on the water. It's also perfect for coaches out on the rib all day long. But like the robe it has transferring powers taking you from the boat park and beyond into everyday activities due to its lightweight feel but weather battling qualities.   photo credit: AASailing We hope that looking into more detail, we've have helped you understand the differences between the two, and have given you food for thought when choosing which one is better suited to you. If you’re still struggling to decide, then please feel free to get in touch with our friendly customer service team if you’re still not sure. *Please don’t use the peak of the Rigging Jacket to protect your eyes from the sun alone, we advise you use proper UVA/UVB protection sunglasses

I was born with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and I'm at more extreme end of scale with daily challenges. The Zebra has been adopted as EDS mascot as its rare, May is EDS awareness month. Sailing is my Therapy, was back on the water a week after being discharged from 3 weeks in hospital last May, I can't be treated / cured and best therapy for me is sailing. In September I was discharged at 18:00 on Friday night and on the water at 10am next day. Instructors at Nene Outdoors in Peterborough are amazing, just adapt as and when needed. They make it so normal that when I'm on the water I'm just another sailor and that feeling is simply amazing, I learnt to sail for first time on 15th April 2021, I get a huge kick out of the feeling when in irons and wind fills the sail and I'm off, such an amazing high. I'm usually first on and last off the water even in wet, freezing conditions and because I'm sitting, staying warm is purely down to my clothing and I'm always toasty. I've been a Rooster® customer for just over a year and a I'm a big fan of Rooster products both on/off the water. As a disabled sailor and a wheelchair user it's sometimes harder to find the right kit that not only does the job but accommodates some of my differences, keeping warm on/off the water is really important and I get cold in winter on windy platforms. Best kit I've found is my rooster gilet and jacket and sometimes if really cold wear the hooded soft shell. The characteristics of the products with thumb holes and better wearing material around wrists are exceptionally good products for an active wheelchair user, plus equally great shoreside.I mostly sail challenger trimaran dinghy and thanks to the diamond buoyancy aid I've not needed a cushion as gives me plenty of support for my back and means I can enjoy more time out on the water than might otherwise not be possible.I've sailed through the winter with sailing club and I always seem to be the warmest person on the water thanks to the Pro Aquafeece Top.I wanted to share a photo with you, a different idea for Joey Bottle Holder, my first one arrived last week and I've been busy testing it since on my commutes to London, it's been so good I've ordered a second. Whilst I do intend to use on the boat, they also make an excellent bottle holder on my front bars as just the right length. I'm off on my first voyage on S.V Tenacious in July, will be getting good use out of my Superlite Hybrid Jacket at night. - David Bainbridge     

The Rooster® Trapeze Harness is fully compliant with the new weight rules and has positive buoyancy as per requirements in the 2021-2024 new World sailing rules. The weight when dry is about 1.2kg, and 1.75kg when wet - based on a size XL/2XL. At Rooster we’re focused on getting people on/in the water and enjoying all that the elements can deliver, we work to ensure that our kit is versatile through comfort, durability, adaptivity and performance, whilst retailing at a fair price.Our research and development phase take both personal experiences and the experiences of super users. These might be high performance sailors to those who manage sailing schools, that way we have a broad understanding of all the design features that are needed.The development of the Rooster Harness was a fun process and it was the first project I was tasked with when joining the team in 2017… no pressure! Harnesses are such a personal thing and so trying to make a ‘one design fits all’ solution was a challenge. Testing and fitting were made easier as we are lucky that most of the team at Rooster HQ are sailors, with approximately 50% regular users of trapeze harness’s, so we had a good testing base across a range of sizes and abilities at close hand. The core aim was to produce a harness that could combine comfort, performance and affordability, whilst being versatile to allow maximum adjustability. We know that appeals to family members who want to share the harness as well as high performance sailors to adjust to the perfect fit.During the development process, we think about the lifetime of the product to not only minimise the environmental footprint but also as the user doesn’t want the ‘agro’ of having to keep buying new kit.We also look ahead at material/technology trends and developments as well as safety regulations to ensure that when the release date comes around, we are up to date or even ahead of the curve. The next stage in the development calls for initial prototyping to determine fit and form. For technical products, such as the harness, these are rough and ready samples, and often not pretty! We made the first prototype in house to quickly translate our ideas, establish a working panel layout, locate stress points, select appropriate materials and see how the features will work in practise. Usually the testing/fitting for an initial prototype will be done solely at Rooster HQ, but we did also take the first harness prototype to the water to double check how it worked with unusual movements performed on the water – these are often hard to mimic on land.The first prototype was far from the final design but provided a good base to move forward with.With the hard work done, it then comes to making a comprehensive technical spec pack so that we can translate our concept to our factory for them to produce a working test sample.The spec pack has to be technically accurate and is the platform we use to communicate all parts of the design including a technical drawing, colour visualisation, panel layout, features/trims, logos/labels and fabrics. The more accurate and detailed the spec pack, the better the sample will be, so we try to make it as thorough as possible. It also means that sample rounds can be minimised, which saves time, money and environmental impact.It can take 2-3 months for such a technical product sample to process in our factory and be delivered to us; by this time, we can hardly contain our eagerness to try it out. As soon as the first sample arrived at our office, full of excitement, we were straight out to test it using our test rig. All the hard work we put into our initial prototype and spec pack paid off as our first sample was not far from how the harness is today. There were a few parts that required further refining which took a couple of further sample rounds as we refined the construction around the crotch, material/inner foam distribution and fit/shaping. We used 2 different densities of our MISRA foam on the inside the harness, which lends itself to fitting well around the body because of its deflection properties; a softer foam support around the hips, with a denser foam used on the back for extra support.It was also really important to us to get the fit right so that it could fit to different body shapes, so we worked hard to make sure that the tensioning of the side ‘flaps’ allowed for adjustment down the back, across the middle and up through the bum. On the crotch, we tried to get the right stretch vs support ratio so that it would be comfortable whilst supporting through the bum and up to the bar, which led to test several different constructions to perfect this. Once we (and chief tester/bossman Steve) were happy with the features, construction and fit, we then put out a couple of the samples to Rooster ambassadors and dealers for further testing/feedback. This is another important stage, as when working so close to the product, it can be easy to miss something. In the case of the harness, all the feedback was excellent.Then just came the waiting game for production, which takes about 6 months including shipping. The project took just under 2 years in total, from start to finish, ahead of its official launch at the 2019 RYA Dinghy Show.   The full information of the ins and outs of the Rooster® Trapeze Harness: