Advertorials. Hate them. Sadly they are a necessary evil of magazine survival in the modern age but I passionately believe that they don’t deserve space online - especially not on the one of the world’s biggest sporting (not just sailing) blogs - #9 and rising on the global Substack rankings.
Readers hate them. Writers hate writing them, but engaging with the sailing industry is both important and relevant, mainly because the equipment being supplied to the top sailors gives an indication of the health of our sport and the innovation and investment being applied.
I get asked to do all sorts of advertorial things that feel uneasy to me. I turn 90% of them down. Writing patsy copy is, as you know, not what I do. I would rather spend my own money on a product and review it independently than be paid to write. I am not being paid to write what follows.
You will remember earlier in the summer the remarkable feat of Jazz Turner sailing solo, unaided, around Great Britain and Ireland. Henri-Lloyd sponsored her alongside all the great and good of the yachting industry and people like Ian Walker of North Sails got involved to give her the very best chance of success. I applaud that. I applaud our industry whenever they go beyond the obvious and outside of conventional thinking.
In the lead-up to that circumnavigation, Henri-Lloyd’s highly proficient press team sent out very good press releases and I was keen to name-check the sponsors as much as I could as I believed their support of Jazz was a health-check on the sport. Jazz was pretty much an unknown, and it was a leap into the dark for her sponsors. I really admire that so I name-checked as many as I could and then Alice Driscoll from Henri-Lloyd came back to me and did that rare thing of ‘thanking’ me for the acknowledgement.
Long story short, Henri-Lloyd ended up sending me a pair of their new Dri-Pro Salopettes and a Dri-Pro smock top to try for the season, and whether I liked them or not, I could review independently, say what I really felt and there would be no copy-editing. I like that. A company sure in its product, potentially playing with fire, but more than willing to take the rough with the smooth. The gear arrived just before the Round the Island Race where I was due to take a quarter-tonner around but with a horrible forecast I managed to jump ship, courtesy of the awesome 87-year-old Peter Cunningham, and join the MOD70 Powerplay Zoulou for the lap of my life.
Now, sailing a MOD70 is about as much fun as you can have with your Henri-Lloyds on. It’s very wet, and there’s a ton of running around from tramp to tramp with a bit of energetic grinding in-between. If you were designing a full suit of oilies for this, they would need to be non-constrictive and light, whilst being durable and dry. My first impression was: “am I actually wearing foul-weather gear.” The Dri-Pro’s are so light that you actually mentally doubt whether they will work. Upwind through the Solent, the MOD70 is relatively dry, but turn the corner at the Needles onto a beam reach at 34 knots and spray is hitting like bullets. Standing at the back of the cockpit I was drenched relentlessly for the 16 minutes it took to get to St Catherine’s (yes you read that correctly), and onboard you have no idea whether you are dry underneath.
In actual fact, it’s a toss-up between sweat and the briny. It was sweat mainly so long as I kept the seal of the smock top fully closed, and that sweat wicked-away remarkably quickly. I do however find latex dry suit seals to be better, but the stretch laminated collar was fine for short bursts in soaking conditions - this was my one gripe overall about the Dynamic Smock and it’s purely personal as I find being restricted around the neck quite discomforting and can never get it right. The flappy gusset catches on the zip and then the faux-latex seal restricts. A dry-suit seal for some reason feels better, and if I were buying it myself, I would now go for the Dynamic Dry Top.
That thought also came to bear when I ventured to Scotland to sail a very tricked-up Sigma 33 ‘White Lightning’ around the Scottish Isles on the Round Mull Race. We set off from Oban beneath bruised skies and by the time we got to the first stop at Tobermory it was monsoon conditions.
The salopettes were epic. Completely dry underneath and working around a tight cockpit, jumping out on the rail (well as ‘jumping’ as I can do), the flexibility in the 100% recycled nylon fabric was a game-changer. I genuinely felt like the salopettes were a ‘second-skin’ something that I have never felt whilst wearing my usual Musto Gore-Tex MPX which when I sail with now, feel like I’m carrying the weight of the world around with me. Henri Lloyd Dri-Pros are what every inshore active sailor should be buying. I’m happy to say that.
But the seals both at the cuff and the neck, in total monsoon conditions, leaked. Not a lot, but enough to have that creeping sensation of damp on the HL baselayer. Not a biggy by any means, and almost 100% down to me not doing them up tight enough but if I was to offer one word of advice - go for the Dynamic Dry Top if you don’t mind latex. You’d be totally dry.
My next epic adventure in a great summer of sailing was taking Dani A. Pich, the blind sailor from Catalonia, around the Isle of Wight solo, unaided, in a Patí Català catamaran with no rudder, boom or tiller. We chose a benign north-westerly for the 13 hour trip. I didn’t touch my foul weather gear for nine of those hours as it was scorching hot but come Culver Down, everything changed. Evening was drawing in, it was getting cold, the wind was getting up and in the stretch to Bembridge Ledge it was hairy in a 4.8 Metre RIB acting as Dani’s eyes on the water and calling the shots. The full HL gear went on and this time it was fully zipped up and sealed. Thank goodness.
On the south side of Bembridge Ledge it was hell on earth. A vicious chop kicked up and the RIB pump was on full chat as we got completely soaked, drenched through. I’ll be honest, I was the only dry one. The waterproofs did exactly what they said on the tin and I was able to function at the highest level, just when it mattered when others were cold, wet and getting miserable. That’s quite a difference and something that racing sailors should think about. We got round and Dani made history. It was a remarkable feat and a pleasure to be a part of it all. My HL gear did its bit.
As a working journalist, I spent a lot of the summer reporting on the water either at the sublime Royal Thames 250th Regatta, the Admiral’s Cup, the Rolex Fastnet, even the Stock Exchange Regatta, and various other lead-up events and regattas. I only have a small RIB so getting wet is an occupational hazard and every time I was more than happy, no matter what conditions, to be wearing Henri-Lloyd.
For Cowes Week in my new Flying Fifteen I confess that I wore a three-year-old Gore-Tex HL drysuit smock top which definitely doesn’t offer the same flexibility as the new Dri-Pro gear but was 100% waterproof and breathable. I will continue to take the Dri Pro gear around the world at the various regattas on the horizon, starting with Genoa next week before going stateside.
So overall, I have been impressed. The Dri-Pro full suit is a pricey game-changer. On the website, the Dynamic Salopettes retail at £395, whilst the Dynamic Smock is £375. That’s quite an investment in comfort but what price to be dry if you sail regularly in wet boats, especially when you have to be highly active? There’s a ton of nice detailing around both products with heavy-duty hanging hooks, durable zippers, non-catching/non scratchy velcro fastenings, easy access pockets, reflective panels, taped seams etc, and it’s clear that Henri Lloyd has been designed by sailors for sailors.
I spoke to the affable Knut Frostad, Executive Chairman of Henri Lloyd, and it’s clear that the Dri-Pro range was something he was proud of and he also let slip that the offshore range is very close to coming out having been tested by ‘offshore ambassadors’ this summer. That could be the default for offshore gear going forward and one of the most illuminating things that Knut said was around the proprietary material that HL developed for the Dri-Pro range:
“We worked with a Japanese supplier because we wanted to take it further than Gore-Tex currently does on the sustainability side with all these new requirements of being chlorine and chemical free, PCAs and PCBs and all these different categories. We realised that no one had the product yet. We've gone through so many iterations to make sure it has the performance that you would expect from that kind of gear and it's been difficult. It's not something any other brand can just do overnight, because there's very few suppliers. Gore-Tex is American so they're not in a rush to meet European sustainability standards.”
The Times of London recently reported that: “The European Union's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) mandate eco-friendly designs, energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials, impacting sports clothing by setting standards for circularity and reducing carbon footprints.”
And it’s these regulations that Henri-Lloyd are well ahead of the pack on. Gore-Tex products were the gold standard for years but as racing sailors, how many times have we splashed the cash, enjoyed the water repellence for a couple of races and then been ultimately disappointed long-term?
I can hand on heart say that after a full-on season, I’m still impressed and have complete faith in the reliability of Henri-Lloyd’s Dri Pro range. Wash them down with fresh water afterwards (they do take a smidge longer to dry if truth be told) and they’re good to go the next day. Comfortable, stretchy, they feel like a second skin and 100% waterproof if you do the seals up tight.
I’ll be spending my own money on a Dynamic Dry Top for 2026, but I’m intrigued to see the offshore range when it launches. Great gear. Well worth considering. I hope I haven’t bored you…
Magnus Wheatley
