I have a Fladen and a Mullion, both good one piece suits, both slightly restrictive for movement but toasty warm even nearly all the way to Antarctica
- I usually just wear a T shirt under mine even in mid winter. If the air temp gets over about 15 C you cook inside it. I'd say the Fladen was slightly warmer.
I do not go in the water and have no intention of, otherwise a dry suit would be essential, if I can't launch and recover the boat in wellies I'm doing it wrong, and in this part of the world unless you're going diving or going in for the mid winter swim you don't generally pop in for a dip as your face will fall off - water is about 4 C. If you are out in the sort of conditions where wind driven spray from wave is coming over the side and hitting you in the face, there is a bit of water ingress around the face/neck area, but only a trickle, and generally if it's like that I wouldn't go out anyway. I think like most garments they will lose waterproofing if washed.
Easy purchase decision for me, think the Fladen cost about £80 vs at least 5 times as much for a drysuit, the Mullion was from a local supplier so a little more but still only just over £100. Although a bit of wriggling and swearing is involved to fit all the pies in the suit, it's nothing like as much as putting on the sort of survival drysuit the oil industry require you to wear to get into a helicopter, if that's anything like putting on a normal drysuit. I'd still like a drysuit, but a flotation suit is good value for a lot of general purpose use. I suppose it depends on how much you like to push your luck; I tend not to, as there's no lifeboat service in this neck of the woods and with the prevailing wind the next stop is either South Africa or the west coast of Chile so as far as ejection from the boat is concerned, prevention is better than cure!
We're off in a week, which is a shame, 'coz I'd much rather be spending my money getting cold and piss wet through being smashed about in a rib at this time of year. 
BLACK PIG
Piglet
