Looking for some suggestions on gloves for use on a spinnaker boat. (H Tiger)



I've been using Sailing Angles 'Kontrol' gloves, and have been really pleased with the padding in the palm and around the palm as well as their gripping ability, but they kinda don't last very long. I'll be buying my third pair this year.

The weird thing is, it’s the sides of the fingers that blow out. You'd think the palm would wear or rip, but it doesn't.



Is this to be expected when crewing on a spinnaker boat?



I don't tape my hands like I see others do, I just never felt like I needed the extra protection with these gloves, but now I am wondering if it helps to preserve the life of the glove in someway.



Tracie

BTW, I always rinse my gloves out after use, especially when sailing in salt water.

I recently looked into gloves from the aspect of crewing on a spin boat (Tornado) after a test sail using my usual Harken Black Magic gloves left my hands pretty beat up. I was having to take wraps on my hands that left me wanting the padding that the Sailing Angles gloves offered. After talking with the folks at Annapolis Performance Sailing I ended up getting a pair of the new Ronstan Sticky race gloves, three finger. Could not have been happier - the sticky material virtually eliminated the need for taking a wrap in the first place. After trying the Sailing Angles gloves, the padding that I thought I wanted felt like it was going to bunch up, making gripping the line without a wrap real tough, and it did not seem that they had any sticky to them at all. For my usual week night racing the Harken gloves work good, they're sticky enough and I'm not working the chute (good crew, good crew...).



Another thing that may help - we added a pair of auto-ratchets as the turning blocks for the spin sheet ratchet blocks. This meant that holding the chute trim required much less pressure, only trimming under load required real stress on the hands. Really nice on a distance race.

yeah, we've got a similair set-up with the ratchet blocks, it makes holding the spin sheet a breeze.

Interesting about he Ronstan sticky finger gloves, as I had given thought to trying them. I've only seen them in a catalog - are they wrapped around the palm?

Thanks!

Tracie

Hi:



Casey trims the mainsail upwind on our tcat and also the spin downwind. She wears two pairs of gloves - Douglas Gill winter gloves with Harken black magic over them. She's been doing that for a long time and doesn't ever get that total grrl power look of shredded skin hanging off her hands. Spinsheet on our boat turns around one autoratchet.



-Greg

tracie,

I'm definitely a rookie...brand new to sailing, which means it can be kinda tuff on the hands. But, I've been around horses forever....i have been using the same gloves the harness drivers use when they race, they have to be strong enough to hold up around the track, but supple enough to provide a light touch with the lines. They also make them insulated for winter use. My neighbor has a hobie and i like mine better than what he uses...if you're interested i can forward you some info.



davey

Hate to sound like trailer trash, but I've seen quite a few Worrell teams with Home Depot work gloves. They're orange and rough. They cut the fingers down, and apparantly there are quite a few "converts" after the event.

I personally use the Obrien waterski gloves, not so much for the padding, but more for the fact that they have wraps around the wrist that work suprisingly well when you wrap the spin sheet around or on top of the strap. Helps even the load out on the top of your wrist... Odd, I know.

We use double ratchet blocks on our spin, and the girly crew has trouble trimming, but not holding... A set of cam cleats on the shrouds doesn't hurt to "take the load off" momentarily to give the hands a rest, too!



I-20