The Best Nail Polish Colours to Match Your Sailing Adventures
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There’s no faster way to sabotage yourself on a boat than showing up with freshly painted nails. Even before the polish dries, your fate is sealed — because everything onboard seems designed to chip, crack, or gouge a manicure. But you know what’s worse?
The side-eye.
That look from the guy on the dock, who clocks your tangerine fingertips and assumes you’re just here for IG, not hoist sails.
Abso-bloody-lootly WRONG!
And that loud refutement™ is EXACTLY what I expressed to the Tesla driving boomer with a diesel glugging gin palace who insinuated my nail colour had sapped all sailoriness and marine experience.
What I would have liked to have done was say ‘hold my beer’ and dock my hates-reversing-double-ender in a 30 knot cross breeze solo. Just. Like. That *snaps flamingo pink fingers*
But back to the facts.
If you love sailing, and you like nail polish, then you’ll also likely take your life into your own hands daily (I most certainly do) and persist with the lacquer layering because like me — you weren’t born a quitter.
So we’re going to cover the best way to make your nail polish last longer, so you can give a delightfully bright and extended middle-finger to anyone with outdated assumptions. After all if Cole Brauer sailing solo, nonstop in the round-the-world race Global Solo Challenge can have some ‘me time’, it’s good enough for us.
Cole Brauer rocks red nails during her gruelling round the world racing | Photo © Elizabeth Tucker
Cole made history on the 7th of March 2024 when she became the first American woman to race solo around the world | Photo © James Tomlinson
Getting nail polish to last is all about the prep work
Like any good brightwork — those gleaming varnished bits on deck — it’s all about the prep. You’ll need a tin of sealant, fifty million coats, and a dry time longer than a marina shower line. By the time you’re done, you’ll be in a bowls club sitting with the purple-rinse posse at a well-stocked "refreshments" table (who, frankly, seem to be having the most fun anyway).
But will we be skipping the base coat? No siree. That’s as foul a proposition as skipping butter and going straight for jam on plain toast. HEATHENS.
You’ve gotta do the right coats to make it tasty last
Here’s how we layer up for maximum polish survival:
Base coat
As a foundation coat, this protects the nail, strengthens it, and extends the wear of your colour.
Colour coat
Layer 2 or 3 thin coats with a decent length of dry time between each. This will build the colour slowly giving good coverage and depth of pigment (Side note — pigment’s such an agricultural sounding word that REALLY needs to roll back to it’s Latin roots of pingere meaning ‘to paint’ — which is way more boujee.)Top coat
The top coat is your last layer of defence against being sniped. Opening hatches, rummaging in the toolbox, unclipping the sail cover, doing a jerry can run to the wharf — all prime examples of Nail Polish Hitmen.
Some days are good days for nail polish and sailing life…
I do actually love going au natural but there’s nothing like a pop of colour to make my short practical nails feel a little bit fancy and boost my mood.
All fun and games living the dream
Other days it’s all hands on deck with grease, grot and hard work…
If I know I’m going to be working on the boat, I tend to go polish free (which is about 90% of the time given #boatlife). I’ve had my share of bumps and nail scrapes — the worst was definitely a nail biting run in with the windlass!
And inevitably chips and accidents happen
So, why bother if they’re going to chip anyway?
I mean it’s a valid question. But why bother bobbing about in a fishing boat for hours waiting for the big one but only getting nibbles all day?
Why bother cutting grass when it’s just going to grow back in a few days? (Actually I’m conflicted over this one — half of me wants wild weedy gardens for all the insects and wildlife to flourish in, and the other half appreciates a finely manicured lawn)
Are we pissing into the wind with our human habits?
Nay! Some of the greatest pleasures in life come from small actions: being outdoors (even if the fish ain’t biting), smelling lawn clippings and admiring a job well done, and enjoying a moment of self-decoration. In my experience living on a boat, painting my nails is such an easy way to treat myself — and when space is at a premium, storing tiny bottles of colour is an easy way to do that.
That’s not to say there aren’t times you’ll have to concede defeat. Some weeks nail polish is just never going to survive. I’ve tested it when scraping barnacles off the hull, or pulling a winch apart to clean layers of grease off with diesel, and there’s only one winner there.
But there IS room in this sailing space for all parts of us — the grubby, rank and salty, AND the clean, polished and washed that delights in colour and cares about #aesthetics
One of life’s funnest decisions: What colour to choose?
Personally I love bright colours and pastels, depending on my mood. And with a few photoshoots recently with some of my favourite Helly Hansen gear (I LOVE this colour jacket) — I thought it would be fun to share some inspo drawn from colourful wet weather jackets. Because if we need to brighten up any days in particular, it’s the wet and gloomy ones!
Here are 5 bright wet weather jackets to suit your vibe matched with an O.P.I shade
Have fun with these and enjoy your brightwork! And I’ve thrown in my ‘unofficial’ colour swatch hex codes too.
In Terracotta | Newport Regatta Jacket by Helly Hansen
Women’s Newport Regatta Jacket by Helly Hansen in Terracotta
In Washed Lime | Pier 4.0 Jacket by Helly Hansen
Women’s Pier 4.0 Jacket by Helly Hansen in Washed Lime
In Cyan | Crew Midlayer Jacket by Helly Hansen
Women’s Crew Midlayer Jacket by Helly Hansen in Cyan
In Meta Pink | Pier 4.0 Jacket by Helly Hansen
Women’s Pier 4.0 Jacket by Helly Hansen in Meta Pink
In Red | Coastal Jacket by Gill
Women’s Coastal Jacket by Gill in Red
In summary
Spend time doing what makes you happy and if nail polish brightens your mood too, do your best! And if anyone raises an eyebrow at your perfectly primed cuticles while you buy new boat gear or service the outboard — let your skills do the talking. Painted nails don’t make you less of a sailor, they just mean you do it in style.
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