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Sunglasses

Blue Chip

Member III
This sems to be where folks post questions that don't require some real "boat building" question, so I'll give it a try.
I am always very concerned about sunlight as members of our family have ignored sunglasses for years and are now lining up for catarct removal. I always use sunglasses, but was wondering if folks have found a type, brand style etc that really worksd well on saiklboats. I assume they would be UV tested etc, and are less for LOOKS than for LOOKING?
Anyone have some suggestions in a resonable price range. I guess I'm hoping six people will all say..."Oh, go buy a pair of..." but I doubt that will happen.
 

Ccaptain

Ccaptain
Sun Glasses

Having been a commercial pilot for over 40 years and sailed one designs for years I would recommend polarized sun glasses. Polarized lenses contain a material, either coated on the lens or mixed into the lens material itself, that blocks light waves that have a specific polarization. Unpolarized, or ordinary scattered light, mostly bounces around the obstruction, but the polarized waves coming off the water or sand are stopped. Seen through polarized lenses, the color of the sky may appear to change with a tilt of the head because rotating the lenses allows light waves moving in a different way to get through. One draw back to wearing polarized sunglasses while viewing polarized screens (such as MFDs and cell phone type displays) is that you may have to tilt your head slightly to see everything properly. That being said it is a small price to pay for healthy eyesight.
 

Pat O'Connell

Member III
A topic that is a pet peeve. I had a great pair of LL Bean wrap around polarized sunglasses for a few years that were absolutely terrific. Great in the fog and haze. I think they cost about $30. The crew thought that they looked terrible but the glasses were very relaxing to wear and I could see out the corners of my eyes. Yesterday I was skiing with the "cool" replacement sun glasses picked out by my very respected daughter. Any time I wanted to check the location of skiers around me I had to keep my head on the swivel. grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Best Regards

Pat
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
I use only polarized lenses. While they make it hard to view some electronic displays, the benefits of cutting glare outweigh the issue.

The sun shines most days here and the sugar white sand we have is almost like looking at snow. Mine were prescription wrap arounds purchased at SAMs Club (kind of like your Costco) optical. Recently, I upgraded after many years to a less wrap around but bigger lenses, still polarized.
 

Emerald

Moderator
[snip]. I guess I'm hoping six people will all say..."Oh, go buy a pair of..." but I doubt that will happen.

OK, I'll throw out a "buy" recommendation. :egrin: I love my Harken Sports 2572 glass lens sunglasses http://www.harken.com/productdetail.aspx?id=6667&taxid=637. I specify the glass because if I only had one pair, that would be what I pick They make the same style in polycarbonate, which I also have. It is the Sports 2474 http://www.harken.com/productdetail.aspx?id=6664&taxid=637. The glass (2572) is darker and I wear it most. The polycarbonate 2474 is very nice also, and I prefer it on gray and rainy days. They are not cheap, but I am a stickler on vision and can't stand cheap (poor quality) sunglasses. The field of view in these frames is excellent, and I never have issues of feeling vision being cut off at the periphery. Another sun glass I like very much are Serengeti Drivers. This is a classic driving type sun glass that is darker the higher you go up the lens. I actually wore those many years sailing, and if the frames had not finally met their match (got sat on), I would have them in my rotation still - the darker shading was nice when at dusk and you still had glare in the sky but wanted a lighter lens portion for the horizon view.
 
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supersailor

Contributing Partner
I use polarized prescription sunglasses. Great in fog and haze. The minus is that the chartplotters screen is very difficult to see with them on. :0

Bob Morrison
Terra Nova E-34
 

tenders

Innocent Bystander
I also use polarized prescription glasses exclusively, with a Croakie-style neck strap that attaches with a tube (not a "noose").

Two pair:

More expensive: Ray Bans. These are more like $250 at my local eyeglass store, but they're worth it. With an insurance co-payment I think they were $100 out of pocket, but the insurance is only good for one set a year. I don't often bring these on the boat.

Cheap: Zenni.com (Chinese) frame 220421. With the lenses they were about $100 without any insurance involvement. The Zenni lenses are excellent, in my experience, as good as the local shop that made the Ray Ban lenses. The Zenni frames are, perhaps, untrendy and, perhaps, a little chintzy - nothing special in the way of plastic, and actually somewhat brittle compared to the Ray Bans. But here's the thing: I bought two extra pairs of frames with my order, without lenses. My receipt from last November shows I paid $6.50 per frame, which is less than drugstore glasses. For some reason they're showing now on the website at $12.95, but I think they get discounted at checkout. These are my boat and yardwork glasses, and if they fall overboard I will not be tempted to jump in after them. If they break, the lenses can be popped out and put into new frames in less time that it takes to find a pair of misplaced glasses.
 

msFootrope

Moderator
Moderator
Julbo Sunglasses

I've had very good luck with the Julbo brand of sunglasses (http://www.julbousa.com/sailing-sunglasses/) when sailing. I agree with the comments about polarized sunglasses. I wouldn't go any other way!! I've owned two pairs of these sunglasses and each has cost me in the $80-120 range. Well worth it!!! And they fit my head very well, to the point that I have NOT needed chums to keep them in place.
 

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Maui Jims are the only thing that goes over my eyes.

I asked around to a lot of eye doctors. (The doctor ones, not the other ones), and all of them told me the same thing. Maui Jims. I have two pairs. I like the older style that I can't get anymore.

I was somewhat disappointment that the previous set only lasted 15 years. :) So when I do the amaratization for them it looks like they cost less than 15 dollars per year!

I found another set of them on Ebay that was in the box, and bought them. I have been wearing them for an additional 4 years at this point.

Guy
:)
 

Pat O'Connell

Member III
Respected Sailors... Very interesting thread. I just checked the LL Bean website and they don't have anything in sunglasses under $70. When I get another pair I'll be spending enough $$$ to make the advice here very valuable. The "head on a swivel" polarized sunglasses that I have now feel much better heheh.

Thanks!

Pat
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I've been going with Costco polarized shades at about $30 the last few years. Sort of mid-way between dime-store and expensive brand-name ones. But they only have one or two styles at any given time to choose from.

I did have Maui Jim's for a few years. On a trip to San Diego, it became clear that the cheap plastic ones that suffice in the PNW were completely useless in the Sun's back yard. But I have a sort of propensity for losing and/or breaking sunglasses that makes me sort of reluctant to drop $200 on a pair. I also can't count the number of times that I've dove off a boat and suddenly realized in mid-air that I forgot to remove my sunglasses.:rolleyes: I think I broke the first pair, sent them away for repair, lost those, then bought a second pair, which is somewhere in the depths of my closet, broken.

I will say this for expensive glasses. For some reason, I am one of those people born with awkward looks that nobody takes seriously. When I started looking into buying a house, I'd go to "open houses" and events, and couldn't get anyone to give me the time of day. Once, at an open house for a new sub-division, one of the agents did give me a double take and said, "Say... are those Maui Jim's?" Why... yes. Yes they are. Then he actually took a look at my business card, and suddenly I was getting a personal tour of all the models. So there's that.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Break them, sit on them, step on them, scratch them, lose them, find them, leave them in restaurants. Maui Jims? I might as well just give you the $200.
 

Guy Stevens

Moderator
Moderator
Chicken or egg

Break them, sit on them, step on them, scratch them, lose them, find them, leave them in restaurants. Maui Jims? I might as well just give you the $200.

Is that because you are prone to doing that with things, or only because you think; "why pay that much attention after all they were only $5.00?"

I have wondered this sine some people have asked me about my Maui Jim's and said the same thing.

I don't buy them so I get noticed in open houses. (Although that is a great story!). I buy them because nothing protects my eyes as well. And well my eyes..... :)

Guy
:)
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
It's some sort of inherent psychic trait. I lose sunglasses but I find pocket knives. One of my best friends finds sunglasses but loses pocket knives. It sort of works out.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
The problem for some of us is that sunglasses are always a decision, whereas a wallet or reading glasses (around my neck on a string) or keeping track of both shoes isn't. Men pat their butts 57.4 times a day to make sure of the wallet, it's an unconscious obsession. I am unable to reduce sunglasses to such a habitual continuity because of the fractionalized usage pattern. For English speakers, what I mean is that If I wear sunglasses into a restaurant while it's light outside, it often isnt when I leave, and the memory prompt is erased. However, even with expendable glasses I am not spared driving my friends, guests and spendthrift daughters back at closing time so they can go through the lost and found while looking suspiciously at everybody who works there. This is why busboys do not wear Maui Jims. They know they would be chased by women in white Mercedes all the way home.

But, yeah, I do see it as a moral failing. Good glasses are really a treat. I have tried to get better at keeping them. They are much, much better than the $15 drugstore models that decorate my puss and cast weird reflections and actually flash opaque if you look into the sun. I once wore big expensive heavy Raybans, and never had as strong a nose since. I had a pair of aviation sunglasses invented by a member of the Lear family that affixed to your face with monofilament. You had to put them on with two hands, but there were no tempels to hurt under headphones. I have tried sunglasses with reader pasties, sunglasses around the neck, sunglasses attached to the brim of hats, and sunglasses kept always in a roof compartment of the car. In each case, something went wrong with the system, the plan, the concept and the execution.

After many years of contemplation I figured out what the problme was.

Me.

And two years ago my last pair of Maui Jims broke in half when I took them out of my parka pocket at the top of Mammoth Mountain at 10F.
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
Prescriptions is the key?

I've been wearing glasses (and contacts on stage) since I was 10. Those years with the Von Trapp Family were brutal, but I digress.....

Being that I need glasses to see, I long ago overcame the "left behind" scenario. My 20/20 buddies, lose theirs all the time. They can replace them inexpensively while scripts cost more and therefore are more painful to forget on the table.....:0
 

supersailor

Contributing Partner
My glasses and I always had a hate-hate relationship. I tried to destroy them and they tried to hide from me. When I moved up to Port Angeles, I worked out a surefire method of keeping track of them. Now I always have my glasses but my coffee cups disappear every time I turn around. I guess you could say I need to have something missing. Its a guy thing? :rolleyes:

Bob Morrison
Terra Nova
 

steven

Sustaining Member
science has long sought the secret of the alien technology that permeates paperclips and rubber bands wherein each turns into the other depending on what you are not looking for. Wonder if sunglasses, pocket knives and coffee cups also have this trait.

I have found that Serengeti glass lenses (driver and aviator styles) are optically excellent - but the frames are truly crummy. Have a drawer full of lenses (can't bear to throw them away) with busted frames. Have also had bad luck with Maui frames - frame loosens, lens falls out, shatters or goes over the side. It's cheaper to have broken Serengeties. I find that Bolle polycarbs are not bad; I play tennis with them because it's safer than glass (I think) if you get a ball in the face. I haven't tries the polarized or marine variants.

I once had a chart that compared optical specs of many popular brands - distortion, chromatic aberration, and other lens statistics. But I can't find it.

--Steve
 

Blue Chip

Member III
science has long sought the secret of the alien technology that permeates paperclips and rubber bands wherein each turns into the other depending on what you are not looking for. Wonder if sunglasses, pocket knives and coffee cups also have this trait.

I
I once had a chart that compared optical specs of many popular brands - distortion, chromatic aberration, and other lens statistics. But I can't find it.

--Steve

Now you've done it...every guy on this thread is looking for a chart now!!! Any suggestions anyone????
 

Emerald

Moderator
Maybe 5+ years back Practical Sailor did a big comparison on sunglasses and I believe they had such a chart - that's what put me on to the Harken - they were tops on optical clarity. I'll see if I can locate the issue and post back this evening with more details. Also, check the Harken links I posted and there is detail including a not bad video clip on the glasses - more to it than just applying a polarized coating.
 
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