Hands

[<Ano>]

Hello, I have been sailing quite some time but my hands always suffer. I seem to get blister more often than other sailors. I tried glove but I get cramp fast - how about some idea how I can cure this?

[ulfp]

Some possible reasons:

The harness lines are not adjusted correctly.  
Could be either that the lines are too long or too short, or not placed correct on the boom. When the harness lines are adjusted properly, you should be able to let go of either hand and balance the sail with the other (in reasonable water/wave conditions you should be able to sail one-handed some distance). The harness balance is somewhat related to how you trim your sail (and even more to which sail you use), so always be prepared to make small adjustments.

You are not using the harness enough.
By first ensuring that the lines are adjusted correctly (see above), focus on sailing without using excessive force on your hands, i.e. rest your hands on the boom - don’t pull.

Short reaches / many starts.  
Every time you gybe you need to get out of the harness, and dependent on how smooth your transitions are (i.e. how gentle you grab and pull on the boom during your transitions) your hands may suffer more or less. If you fall and you don’t use water-starts, the “sail pulling” will punish your hands even more...

Personally, I find poor adjustments of the harness lines to be the main reason why my hands take a beating, but the number by gybes/transitions are also a significant factor.

[sukhdev]

Ano,

excellent points by Ulf. Some others:
- front hand should be palm up, back hand palm down. On the back hand try to grip with thumb and fingers on top of the boom.
- Check your arms; if  you are sailing with very bent arms then you are taking the rig load on your hands/arms - as Ulf said use your harness lines more.
- If you have small hands, consider getting a narrow grip boom. I have fairly large hands and even for me I find a lot of difference in comfort with narrow grip booms.

Last but not least take care of your hands. Its not very macho sounding but make sure you use a good moisturizer to keep the skin on the calluses soft. I slap on Aloe vera gel at night on my palms after every sailing session. If the calluses dry out then you have a big chance of a blister forming. If the calluses get too thick use an emery board or a pumice stone. I stick to this, havent had a blister in many many years.

[<Ano>]

Thanks for the helpful answer but if I can ask something ignorant, what is a narrow grip boom??

[sukhdev]

Booms come in 2 diameters generally. The traditional diameter is 32mm (1.25"). Over the last few years the narrow grip booms have become more popular; these are 29mm (1.125"). The narrow grip booms are much less tiring to hold on to, allowing the fingers to grip better. Most modern booms are 29mm but you will find that large aluminium booms (such as 220 to 260 length) are 32mm to retain stiffness.

As Ulf mentions, frequent transitions such as in wave sailing/jumping put more stress on the hands, this is where the easy grip of the narrower booms becomes very apparent.

[Rich]

I have found a solution for blistered hands and complaining wife -  there is a hair cream from Japan FOLLOW ME..in white tube and blue cap.. cost S$2.50 at Shop and Save.   It is very effective and works immediately.   Try it ! Your wife/girlfriend will appreciate it esp if you want both.. sailing and love      

[MennoB]

I can only second that the best way to avoid blisters is well-tuned gear:
-Downhaul (70-80% use under-downhauled sails)
-Boom height
-Harness line position AND length

But IF those blisters are already there, you can apply superglue (loctice etc) to your blisters. Hard to believe, but I've seen it done, and it helps. The blister is "closed off", the superglue doesn't come off (like "second skin" products).

[sukhdev]

MennoB, thanks for being brave enough to post the superglue tip; when I first heard of it I thought "nuts" but it really does work.

[<Supperman>]

Dear Mr Reekn,

If I may enquire, does the cream work on any complaining wives or just windsurfing complaining wives? If it works on any wives then the male race should grant you saintly status for this discovery.

Also, how do you apply the cream to the wife or is it too private to ask in an open forum?

Yours sincerely

Supperman

[<Juri Munkki>]

I almost never have problems with blisters, but that's not why I'm posting.

I mostly sail front hand palm side up. Last summer, I read (in one of those UK windsurfing magazines that we get) that one should hold the boom palm side down when jibing. For me, it helped my jibing a lot - now I just have to remember to change my grip when jibing.

[ulfp]

quote:
Juri Munkki:
I mostly sail front hand palm side up. Last summer, I read (in one of those UK windsurfing magazines that we get) that one should hold the boom palm side down when jibing. For me, it helped my jibing a lot - now I just have to remember to change my grip when jibing.

I have always thought that palm down on front hand was a "must" if you want to gybe "boom to boom" without intermediate grips (and without breaking your arms/wrist). I personally start "boom to boom" gybe (just like you)with "palm down" and grab other boom side "under crossing arm" with "palm up".

Your post got me thinking though. Perhaps it could be possible (if the boom is not too high) to start "palm up" and grab other boom side "over crossing arm" with "palm down". If this works out, it would be great as an alternative for situations when unhooked with "palm up" grip and want to do a quick gybe.

Shukdev, got any comment on this (even though it got little to do with the original topic). You probably know people using all variants...

[sukhdev]

Generally palm side up for front hand while sailing and then switch to palm down for gybing. However, its possible to gybe keeping hand palm side down, I do this sometimes if its a sudden gybe.

For boom to boom, if you start the gybe by switching your hand palm side down, you cross your back hand under the front arm. If you are forced to gybe while still sailing front hand palm up, then for boom to boom you need to cross your back hand over the front arm. I should do a picture of this I guess, would make it clearer.

Whichever the case, one very key thing is to slide the front hand close to the mast before the sail flip, this way the rig will rotate in front of your face. One of the most common mistakes is not to do this, you then end up scooping the rig, causing you to bend over and killing any chance of exiting on the plane.
 
 [ 09. February 2003, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: sukhdev ]

[<gybe learner>]

I always hold the mast when I gybe. That means when I let go my back hand I use it to hold the mast during the sail flip. Any idea how I can stop this habit?

[<Chris>]

why? Isit bad?
I think that as long as you can power thru your gybes, that is impt!
Every sailor, will have derived their best way to flip the sail, some may find it better to hold the mast, some dun. in competitions, if you have to hold the mast to save that gybe, so be it.
Havent answered your question? Go and learn the duck then...
My two cents
Chris
(a saturday and i gota work...sheesh!)

[sukhdev]

It is bad. For those of you who remember Sam Connelly who used to coach at manamana, he pointed out that the hand transition was the key reason many sailors end up scooping the rig. This means the mast leans too much to the outside of the turn, causing the sailor to bend over to pull it back. His boom to boom teaching technique helped quite a few people realize that keeping the mast vertical and in front of the face makes a huge difference in not getting off the plane as well as being able to catch the boom and power up fast on the new heading. Another thing to put into pictures one day..