How to repair torn sailing gloves?

mee168

New Member
Hi all,

A few months back, I got my Neilpryde sailing gloves. Within one or two months of usage, the material on the middle finger tips (on both gloves) showed signs of wear&tear. And just a couple more use, the holes become bigger and bigger.

Sooner or later, my middle fingers are just going to slip out halfway when sailing. It had happened to my previous pair of gloves. :mad:

Anyone has any idea what sort of material can I use to patch the holes on my gloves? Any good stitching method to follow?

My gloves are still very new on the other parts..

Hope to hear good advices for you all.

Thanks,
mee
 
mee168 said:
Sooner or later, my middle fingers are just going to slip out halfway when sailing. It had happened to my previous pair of gloves. :mad:

,
mee

Gee, Mee, just what are you doing with your middle fingers that wears out the gloves there? :eek:
 
mee168 said:
Hey, I didn't point my middle finger at any other sailors... It just got torn over there... :(

Oh, Mee, I never thought you did. I was just teasing you. :eek: Besides, how could pointing that finger tear the gloves? ;)

As for a solution, I take it these are full fingered gloves? I might cut off the torn part and stitch them at the edge so they don't tear more. It seems like it would be very difficult to get stitches through the narrow finger. I'm wondering if the fingers were too long to begin with and this might have contributed to their tearing, like getting caught on something?

If you really don't want to cut off the ends, then maybe look for some really good synthetic upholstery material. Shops in America usually sell remnants of all kinds of fabric. Maybe yours do too. Then you could use the strong upholstery needles to sew some polyester thread. Run some beeswax over the thread, then use a basic in/out running stitch. It seems to me you'd have to turn the finger inside out with each stitch to get the needle through and pull the stitch tight. If you perfect that, then with the next pair of gloves, reinforce them before you ever use them since you do seem to have some repetitive use habit that tears them. Good luck!
 
mee168,

I stopped buying $25/pair sailing gloves. They don't grip well for long, and then when one part wears out (mine is always the pinky since I also haul halyards and do bow on big boats) they are toast.

I recently starting buying Atlas gloves. The blue 300 "Fit" line are apparently the best. This answer came to me from doing some internet research fromother dinghy sailors. Apparently all the catamaran guys have been wearing these forever.

If you buy them by the dozen they are about $2.20/pair...when they wear out (mine usually last two or three weekends of sailing) you throw them away and pull out a new pair. They are full finger so you can keep them that way or nip off the ends if you choose.

I bought the Atlas Fit 300 - the cheapest I found them was from www.palmflex.com - no frills or instructions...they show up in a plastic bag. If you are allergic to latex rubber, get the Nitrile coated style.

I also spent $12 on a pair of the rubber coated Atlas kevlar gloves, thinking the kevlar glove would be more durable than the cotton 'liner' of the Fit line, but haven't even worn them yet because I like the Fit 300's so much. They are awesome and help with hand fatigue of failing sailing gloves.

I've found the Atlas Fit's to be cheap, durable in the short term and grippy! If you don't like them, you've wasted no more money than you would have on one pair of regular sailing gloves anyway, and you've got 11 pairs left to burn, or sell to your friends for a few cent profit. I even read a rumor somewhere (unconfirmed) that someone pretty high up in the Atlas glove company is a dinghy sailor!

A couple more notes...the generic rubber/nitrile coated gardening gloves at your local Lowe's or Home Depot are NOT the same thing. I wasted $7 on two pairs of those to test them out. I have also bought the yellow Gill gloves which are advertised as "gloves for sailors that say they go thru any pair in a weekend"...and they are very durable...however, you sacrifice grip for durability. They slipped right down the stripped halyards when doing mast after a few days of sailing.

(edited to add more info...)
 
I bet. If you contact customer support and told them that you've been a customer for ...some time. This particular pair of gloves seem to be defective. They would send you a new pair to keep your future business.

Thus no re-stitching necessary
 
The answer is not in better sailing gloves. The answer resides in simple correct life choices.

Sailing gloves on a Laser mean one thing. You are not sailing enough!!

I have no idea what you are doing with the rest of your life that causes you to sail so little your callouses keep fading away but, I can assure you, the non sailing wasted part of your life is being improperly spent.

Please, before more of your limited time on this planet is consumed, take some of it to inventory your behavior patterns. Try to find moments when your are neither sailing nor reading this Forum. Evaluate those lost minutes.
example: Are those minutes wisely spent admiring superlative incarnations of the opposite sex? Or are those minutes wasted on W*O*R*K??

Adjust your life. Sail more. Callouses will grow and your sailing gloves problems will be only a distant memory of a poorly managed past part of your life.
 
yah i personally use the ronstan falf finger gloves if it is real heavy but otherwise you just get weird looks and have to explain to everyone who asks (which is alot) about your weird tanlines. i do the same with boots but latley i dont wear boots at all cause i lost them. plus the boot tanline looks weird if all you wear are sandals.
 
I get weird tan lines from the gloves, that's for sure. I don't like having callouses, it reduces sensitivity for delicate tasks and it is not aesthetically pleasing. That's how I feel about them for myself. Manly men with callouses are just fine!
 

Back
Top