What part of your hands are swollen? I'm a front of the boat guy and pull all the strings, what I find is that it's not the main and spinnaker that jack my hands up. The super small diameter stuff that is used for the cunningham, outhaul, rotator, spin halyard, etc that causes problems.

I’ve never understood it, but none of the glove manufacturers put “leather” across the back of their gloves. This is where I always get the most beat up. I keep a piece of mole foam stuck in the back of my gloves. If I can’t find the foam when I need it, a double layer of mole skin works well. Once the breeze gets up to 15-20, I start taping my fingers and hands. Past 25, I double glove and use the orange box handlers gloves over my sailing gloves.

The boat I’m on is crazy over powered. Last year during a 2 ½ hour distance race, I destroyed a brand new pair of Harken Black Magic gloves. I burned so many holes in them that they looked like swiss cheese. Even with that kind of abuse, I don’t remember my hands being in bad shape at the end of the day. I have however switched glove brands since then…