What type of hiking style?

What hiking style?

  • Straight legged

    Votes: 43 48.9%
  • Bent legged

    Votes: 17 19.3%
  • I dont hike (LOL)

    Votes: 2 2.3%
  • Both

    Votes: 26 29.5%

  • Total voters
    88
i only hike straight legged because I would drag through the water with bent legging. It also feels the most comfortable for me. Also if you hike with straight legs and you start to get tired you always have the option of relaxing your legs slightly which I don't find you can do with bent legging
 
people who sail in light wind areas dont hike jackson, mmm, but, i cant recall the last time it was light enough not to hike
 
Yeah, obviously... but I don't think many people would classify themselves as 'non-hikers' The last time that I couldn't hike was at Albert Park Lake a couple of weeks ago, now when people walking along the footpaths are moving faster than you i think they should cancel a race.
 
but then you get a slight breeze, start hiking then it dies automatically and it pisses you off even more cause now your soaked and not moving :)
 
Mmm, but you were still hiking, the way I take that question is whether people hike, straight or bent legged, or they don't, ie cant be bothered to hike so just sit on the side of the boat. thats just my take on the question, & i think it is jackson's take on the question as well. Ohh & jackson, sailing on albert park, with light shifty (should be s*****) winds has got to be one of the hardest places to sail, mm, can remember sailin up there in da sabot, what a pain in the arse place to sail durin the winter, either little wind or shit loads of wind. I know a few of my mates who have cartwheeled their sabots on albert park LOL.
 
don't you think the vote for no-hiking was maybe a joke ?? seems your taking it all a bit seriously.
 
ha ha ha, i was bullshittin as well, i was just seein what someone would say ha ha ha, gotcha all ohh man, u think im serious, jeesus, never take me seriously, ha ha ha ha : :p but some of the stuff i said was true, mm, can remember albert park, what a shit place to sail! never gonna go back there!
 
Crewmembers still hang from the side of the boat with one arm while the skipper has his spare arm wrapped around the crews waist? I would have thought that with the introduction of hiking harnesses in the Star class, this old technique would no longer be necessary.
 
mm, they "hike" bent legged, mmm, with their arses against the side of the boat, etchells don't use anything to hike out on though, well, no toe straps/harnesses.
 
JacksonAUS said:
Crewmembers still hang from the side of the boat with one arm while the skipper has his spare arm wrapped around the crews waist?
Not so much... but honestly, it's a bit difficult to pick out that level of detail from the photo...

JacksonAUS said:
I would have thought that with the introduction of hiking harnesses in the Star class, this old technique would no longer be necessary.
Quite correct, but from a distance it looks pretty much the same as in the 40's... Still hard on the knees, too...
FWIW, crewing on a Star is the only sailing situation where I've been too light...

Geoff Sobering
DN US-5156/Laser 145234/Renegade 510
Crew, Star 6700 - '90-'95 (two green chevrons!)
 
i am an etchell sailor and if your the crew then you just wrap your legs around the jib or main sheet. while the skipper leans out on the tiller becuase if the skipper needs to hike then there is enough wether helm to keep him out.

heheheh
 
wow thats kind of a stupid question! straight legged is way better because first of all if your legs are bent im in the water. you should be adjusting the main so your boat is flat. and its just better when your legs are straight because your out farther so its like being bigger!
 
but not everyone can hold their legs straight for 20 mins at a time gavin.

and by bent legged, it doesnt mean a huge bend in the knees just so you can see daylight between the deck and the underside of the knee.

so its not really a stupid question, you just mis-understood it
 
sailordude said:
wow thats kind of a stupid question! straight legged is way better because first of all if your legs are bent im in the water. you should be adjusting the main so your boat is flat. and its just better when your legs are straight because your out farther so its like being bigger!
You must not be aware that Ben Ainsle didn't use the straight leg style in the Laser (check out his book since you are looking for something to read). I don't think he felt he was disadvantaged against the straight leggers like Blackburn.

You gotta go with what works for you. For some people it's straight legged, others bent. Some hike off their toes with a tight strap (the new definition of straight legged hiking), while others go off their instep with a looser strap (the bent leg style)
 
yeah but when you go off your toes you get out farther so it stays flatter in higher winds and you dont have to be ajusting your main as much. your right though its what ever works for you.
 
i hike with my strap very tight i am going to loosen it this weekend & try it loose for this weeks race i am also short 154 CM so i need to hike harder & i can not go up to radial from 4.7 because i can not get enough leverage to keep the boat flat even though i am 65 KG. i was thinking about puting a ajustable system on my strap but that would be a nother thing to ajust @ the top mark lol :)
 
I'm 160-175lbs depending on the day, 6' even. I tend to like the strap fairly tight, and go straight leg, but not so much just getting out as far as you can. I've found that the pressure you apply to the deck is more important than the distance you are out. Being half an inch farther in and being able to put more force into the strap helps my speed up wind in breeze more than about 18kts. You are more tied into the boat this way and can deal with swells and chop much better, and I feel that if anything I am able to keep the boat more flat than if I were just all the way out on the tips of my toes with a straight back, its mostly just retaining the ability to move and adjust to each puff and wave.
 
you are a fool for hiking with a tight toe strap. what you need to do is have it adjustable so that upwind you have the looset setting you can (which is equal pressure on both your calves and hamstrings) and then when you round the top mark you can pull it to its tighest setting (barely moveable) so that it braces your body in the boat. Hiking with a too tight toestrap makes life significantly harder, especially for a short person. Im only 183 and it works well.
 
hang on schmidty i have it the other way around tight upwind, loose downwind so that if i capsize then my legs dont get caught when i try to go over the side. and i find it a lot easier to hike on the upwind with a tight strap i find the pressure more even. ohh well does anyone else have that problem when capsizing?

asho
 
"you are a fool for hiking with a tight toe strap."

Wow, that's a bit of an arrogant call from a guy who gets silver fleet in the nationals, isn't it?
 
should hike straight legs. read in quite a lot of articles that hiking with bent legs damage your knees because of the unequal distribution of weight as compared to hiking with straight legs.
 
SteveV said:
don't you think the vote for no-hiking was maybe a joke ?? seems your taking it all a bit seriously.
.......hmmmmm--try 6'3",,,205 lbs--they call it fatn'happy--once you've got the sailing skills the only time it really hurts is in marginal planing conditions.
 
On my lightning, i generally droop-- on my laser, since the water is a lot closer, i straight leg, but i usually weigh enough to just sit on the 'high' side of the boat and lean my weight forward. For the same reason, i like a very tight strap on a laser, and a very very loose strap on my lightning.
 

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