The only, and rather lame, reason these days to have women's buttons on the left side of their clothing and men's buttons on the right is to differentiate between men's shirts and women's shirts. And who cares any more?

If buttons had just recently been invented, they probably would be on the right side of ALL shirts and blouses. Why should women be inconvenienced by having a left-handed buttoning system?

Zippers, on the other hand, ARE a relatively recent invention, so what conceivable reason could there be for having left-side zipper cars except for left-handed people or for children's clothing, where they are being dressed by others?

My conclusion from all this is that zipper cars on sailing foul weather jackets should be on the right side for the convenience of both men and women. It is obvious that a left-side zipper car indicates that the jacket belongs to a child or to a woman or to a man who needs help zipping his jacket.

And I now can understand the concern of the man who complained about his zipper car being on the left. But this is not just a male issue. It should be of concern to men and women sailors everywhere.

The foul weather jackets we have been discussing here are from some of the most prestigious jacket providers in the sailing world. We need to get the message to them that we all want our zipper cars on the right.