Glasses needed...

[LauraleeG]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Last year met a 83 yr old sailing around w/his wife (full time live aboard). He was a little weebly/wobbly, but functional and still out there enjoying sailing. That was hopeful to have a couple of more decades out there!

Good for him...I hope thats moi! Glasses notwithstanding...

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Last year met a 83 yr old sailing around w/his wife (full time live aboard). He was a little weebly/wobbly, but functional and still out there enjoying sailing. That was hopeful to have a couple of more decades out there!

Well, at 82 I hope to be sailing for a bit longer...

And lets see... around 15 years ago I began having some vision issues in one eye. 'Twas diagnosed as a central serous retinopathy and was untreatable. that eventually morphed into macular degeneration with all the unpleasant intraocular injections needed to treat that condition, with the result that vision in that eye was pretty well compromised. And then cataracts developed in both eyes... bugger! But, I've been able to continue sailing through all of this. I use binoculars more than I used to, and some light conditions were uncomfortable for me, but I never felt the need to quit. And just lately I've had the cataracts removed... wow, big improvement, still not settled down, but I reckon it will keep me going a while longer.

So, to me just needing glasses seems a small handicap. Take spares, use a retaining strap and don't worry about this relatively benign flaw!

Jim

[Tin Tin]

I carry two types of glasses with adjustable head straps (sometimes you need to stand on your head to service something in the bilge), one set for helming in daylight (polaroid) the other for regular use and night helming, mine were multifocal for long range medium and short. When you are alternating between chart plotter and distant marker buoys I found these very good. If the frames are made from Titanium with stainless hinges they wont rust, or bust when you sit on them. Been sailing both race and cruise with them for last 20 years.

[BugzyCan]

On my last trip out, a fly landed on the side of my eye and I quickly swatted it off by instinct, and guess where my glasses ended up?
Luckily I had a second pair. If you go with glasses, get the neck straps to go with them, and always bring at least one extra pair. I will be bringing two extra pairs next time.
Glasses aren't really a big deal IMO, certainly not a reason to stop sailing.

[a64pilot]

I learned this year that I have macular degeneration in my left eye, we haven’t done anymore testing, but I think it came from a hard fall on the left side of my head at Talledega.
But it may be age. I noticed it as when I look at the full moon, I see a round section cut out of it at the 5 O’clock position, but it doesn’t show up any other time, just when I look at the full moon.

This sux to me as I always had way better than 20/20. I tested at 30/20 and that’s as high as they could test. Now that I’m old I need glasses, and my knees are way beyond gone, so arthritic I need them replaced bad, but not this year with the virus.

[Bill O]

Jim you are more inspiration that we will all keep sailing for a long time and you might be my new definition of "perseverance"

[IslandInfedel]

What about contacts or laser surgery?

Even without sailing good eyesight makes life more enjoyable

[El Pinguino]

I'm 74 and cross-eyed... I manage....

Long range was always very good... about 20 or so years ago started wearing reading glasses good out to about 27 inches or so beyond the end of my nose.....

Then... maybe 10 years ago getting very minor double vision.... eye doc said I was crosseyed... she had a fancy word.... and had probably always been crosseyed but it was very slight and up until then the eye muscles were coping with sorting it out.

So now have long range glasses good down to about 18 inches.... they have that fancy glass that darkens... makes you look a bit like a spiv when you go from bright sunlight into a shop..... but good at sea.

I would not have bifocals in a purple fit.....

Bit of a pest when on the helm while going to windward in the rain but who would do such a thing....

Make sure when buying binoculars that they have what Nikon call 'Multi-setting click stop eyecups'....

[fivecapes]

Make sure you have spares in the liferaft and grab bag.

[Yofy]

Well I'm in the same boat so to say 🤣. Just found out I need glasses for distance. I already wear reading glasses and would be lost without them.

My question is would you recommend bifocals or regular distance glasses and just change between the two? How are distance glasses for reading chart plotters and compass headings?

I know I will need to get perscription lenses for my sunglasses as well. 🤔

Any personal recomendations welcome.
Robyn

[Shrew]

I've worn glasses my entire life. In the past few years I've moved into progressive lenses. I can also read a book fine, unless I'm wearing corrective lenses.

I wear contacts and sunglasses. I wear reading glasses if I need to read while wearing contacts.

I have a pair of polarized, progressive sunglasses.

What you're afraid of is a non-issue. Whether you go back into sailing or not....go to an optomistrist and get some glasses. You're going to need them to drive soon.

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by IslandInfedel

What about contacts or laser surgery?

Even without sailing good eyesight makes life more enjoyable

Plus one for contacts - I've worn them for years and they're wonderful on the boat; glasses are fine if I have to.

I'm over 60, but my eyesight is correctable to 20/20 with either (well, except I now need reading glasses for close work). And you want nearsighted? My correction is -13 diopters.

(Don't know anything about laser surgery but the concept scares me. Probably irrational but there you are.)

[TrentePieds]

Capalfie/Yofy:

I've been monocular all my life. Had a detached retina some 40 years ago - in the good eye. They stuck it back on. Glaucoma began to develop. Big joke that "that'll help hold the retina in place". Cataracts came on ten or twelve years ago. Very insidious, sort of like the proverbial frog in a pot of water being brought to the boil. Put up with all the jokes about my "parking by ear" and "navigating by bouncing off the buoys", let alone "doing chick-checks by Braille". My local ophthalmologist "kicked me upstairs" muttering about the job being "above his pay grade". So they did me two years ago. Under local anesthetic. Best ophthalmic surgeon in Vancouver and his apprentice. Totally fascinating lying there listening to the Sorcerer explaining to his apprentice just what he was doing and why.

When the bandage came off a coupla days later I could actually read the shop signs on the far side of the street, and I could see colours that I hadn't seen for forty years.

I'm of an age with Jim C and, like him, I intend to sail for another forty years.

Remember that while you DO have to see (some), you don't have to have things in perfect focus to navigate. Just use your wits. If you see a biggish, blurry lump on the horizon off Snake Island, you DON'T need to read the words "Coastal Celebration" emblazoned on it to know that it's a twenty thousand ton ferry going twenty knots. Common sense tells you that.

When you know that blindness is your probable fate, you train yourself to live in the dark. As I did, back then. You learn that everything must have a place and that everything must BE in its place. As Mommy told you: "PUT IT BACK!"

Now, could there be a better dictum for living aboard :-)?

So don't get all fassed abaaht something as trivial as spectacles. Just train yourself to do what you have to do with what you have to do it with! And leave your specs below when you go on deck!

All the best,

TrentePieds

[mlydon]

I went for lasik - I don’t recommend it.....I now have a slight double image of bright things at night (road markings seem to ‘lift off’ the road 50 yards out, and see slightly overlapped moons).

It also wears off - 6 years later I need reading glasses.

Progressives work well, nicer experience than bifocals. I have ones called “occupational” - reading prescription for most off the lens, tapering off to mid-distance (10 ft or so) at the tops....avoids needing to look over the glasses when talking to someone

Matt

[skyhawk]

consider lasik

I always had very much better than 20/20 vision...could spot things most others couldn't and could read very small print easily too.
then in my 40's my arms started getting shorter...and I was reading a lot of architectural drawings, tons of fine print...and my eyes were getting tired.
I was tired of keeping track of over the counter readers so i went to get some clear-on-top progressives made....well of course they put in a minor correction for distance too... which over several years got stronger and stronger.
to the point I couldn't tell my kids at the beach from somebody else's without my glasses....
Result is not quite as good as my younger days...and I still need the readers for close up...but I can see distances pretty good...checks about 20/20. I'm very glad I did it.