Keeping warm when dredging in New Zealand.
Nov 11, 2008 9:38:18 GMT 12
Post by RKC on Nov 11, 2008 9:38:18 GMT 12
G'day,
A means of keeping warm in the water is essential for any Kiwi miner who is serious about their dredging and who intends to dredge a full season. Nearly every professional Kiwi dredger has at some time experimented with using dry suits and all have found dry suits totally unsuitable for production dredging. There must be over a dozen reasons why dry suits are not suitable and I won't repeat them by listing them here. My own experience with a dry suit was when I imported a very expensive American Parkway neoprene dry suit ... and the zipper busted on it after only being used twice! Then, the only use I had for the suit was to cut it up to make use of the neoprene as patches on my wet suits. Many professional Kiwi dredgers have tried dry suits of all makes and styles from the most expensive imported Viking dry suits, to cheap suits bought second hand, and it is now well known and acknowledged among Kiwi dredgers that the only practical way to keep warm enough to be able to put in a full days dredging (6 hours minimum in the water) is to use a hot water system.
Information on constructing a hot water system can be found in the thread titled "CONSTRUCTING A DREDGE HOT WATER SYSTEM" in this forum (Archives).
Regards,
Rob (RKC)
A means of keeping warm in the water is essential for any Kiwi miner who is serious about their dredging and who intends to dredge a full season. Nearly every professional Kiwi dredger has at some time experimented with using dry suits and all have found dry suits totally unsuitable for production dredging. There must be over a dozen reasons why dry suits are not suitable and I won't repeat them by listing them here. My own experience with a dry suit was when I imported a very expensive American Parkway neoprene dry suit ... and the zipper busted on it after only being used twice! Then, the only use I had for the suit was to cut it up to make use of the neoprene as patches on my wet suits. Many professional Kiwi dredgers have tried dry suits of all makes and styles from the most expensive imported Viking dry suits, to cheap suits bought second hand, and it is now well known and acknowledged among Kiwi dredgers that the only practical way to keep warm enough to be able to put in a full days dredging (6 hours minimum in the water) is to use a hot water system.
Information on constructing a hot water system can be found in the thread titled "CONSTRUCTING A DREDGE HOT WATER SYSTEM" in this forum (Archives).
Regards,
Rob (RKC)