I would not have reviewed these boots if I had not been asked. Please bear in mind that I am a typically grumpy old Solo sailor, a creature of habit and once an item finds its way into my sailing bag it will get replaced like for like year in year!

I purchased these boots because I was scrunching my toes in soggy Gill Pro zip boots and thought that the laced sides might provide better support and hold my foot back.

To be fair to the Rooster boot it probably retains less water after launching, it maybe supports my feet slightly better, doing up ones laces is less of a faff than I thought that it would be and the wide gusset makes it easy to get the boots on and off.

In the boat the boots are light and grippy under foot and feel like they give good support when hiking.

The negatives are that the excess of gusset and lacing can get scrunched up and dig into your ankle, also despite double knotting and hiding the laces behind the Velcro ankle straps there is still a fair amount of lace to catch on stuff in the bottom of the boat.

I shall reserve judgement on the sole, it is thinner than the Gill and I used to wear through the soles of Rooster standard boots at a fair old rate so I await to see how these survive Winder non-slip and our concrete slipway.

I am going to stick with them for a bit longer, it will be interesting to see how they survive our championships in Marazion, or the year of use that I usually get out of the Gills, at £ 87.50 I hope so!

Finally,…