Battened Hiking Pants?

rhetthatfield

New Member
Coming out of a Laser, where many sailors are wearing stiff battened hiking pants/wetsuits, especially in colder climates, I am wondering what Sunfish sailors are wearing for hiking pants and if stiff battens are a help or hinderance?
 
None of the sailors in our fleet wears the battened hiking pants. Some of us have wetsuits that we wear when the weather calls for it. My favorite hiking shorts are nylon shorts with a built in nylon web belt that I got last year at Bass Pro. They dry quickly when you get them wet and they stay up when you hike. In windier and colder weather, I wear my breathable foul weather bibs over the shorts. I wonder if the battened hiking pants would be a problem with tacking since you have to duck lower in a Sunfish than you do in a Laser. I don't know.
 
I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I sail 30 miles North of Cincinnati on Acton Lake at Hueston Woods State Park near Oxford, Ohio.
 
A bunch of sailors in our fleet wear battened hiking pants. I wear padded shorts that dry quickly, the battened hiking pants were a little expensive at the time, but I know of a bunch of people that wear them.
 
Get the battened pants. Most all the top sailors wear them. Just as in a Laser, they make a big difference. Sailing Angles and Magic marine pants are popular in the Sunfish class.

BB
 
Hey Beldar. How do the battened pants "make a big difference?" I've never worn them before.
 
Does anyone know the advantage to battened pants? Do they just keep your butt from getting sore or are there other advantages?
 
The battened pants do two things: First, they prevent the edge of the deck from digging into your behind - in effect they make sure you are always on a flat surface. SEcond, they help cantilever you out a bit and provide a bit of support as you hike. So you end up sitting out a bit farther with a bit less effort and less pain :) They are not cheap, so be sure you will sail in a good breeze often enough to make the $100 or so worth it. If you do not need to hike really hard, they don't provide much benefit.

BB
 
I've had a problem with slippery shorts on the deck....do the battened pants have a coarse weave so as to avoid that problem?
 
I've had a problem with slippery shorts on the deck....do the battened pants have a coarse weave so as to avoid that problem?
I wouldn't say they do. When racing you need to be able to move really rapidly, so they are made more to slide than not to slide. The base of the pants is neoprene with cloth on the inside and outside which doesn't do much if anything to stop sliding.

Maybe you could look for padded Camet sailing pants. APS used to sell them, but with APS out of business I don't know who offers them now.
 
thanks for that advice. I'm an old guy more into cruising than racing....so stability beats speed of movement for me. Can't wait to get out on the water for the new season!
 
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Alcort used to sell shorts with suede on the butt, called them Scuttlebutts. Holy Grail of Alcort collecting, we almost scored a pair a few years back.
 

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