We are currently cruising in Australia and were in New Zealand late last year.

Both there and in Tasmania we observed that dinghy sailors routinely wore wet
suits and dry suits when racing. They also wore PFD's.

On a rough Tasman Sea crossing, winds around 50 knots sustained for several
days and temperature around 40 degrees; it was very cold. I decided to try a
wetsuit rather than wet weather gear to see if it was warmer and easier to move
around in. My wet suit is a metric 8mm, which I think is about 5/16 inches
thick, and initially found that it was great. It had really good antiskid
properties and it was much less bulky than Mustos and much easier to move
around and work the boat. But after a while it just became far too hot and
sweaty. It became really uncomfortable, even though the wind chill must have
been close to freezing.

I have not tried a dry suit but this might be a better option.

However, if I ever have to abandon ship then I would don my wetsuit plus a PFD.

Hypothermia kills more people than drowning and I would try to maximise our
survival odds.

Graeme
sv Leonidas