> There's even a paper titled “Improving comfort while hiking in a sailing boat”
Hiking is where you lean backwards over the side of the boat to balance it against the force of the wind. You have a set of toe straps to hook your feet under so you can lean right out without falling out.
The problem, especially with Laser mentioned in the paper, is that you end up with the top of your legs / bottom of your arse cheeks resting on the edge of the of the boat, which is bloody uncomfortable and leads to painful bruising. That and they seem to have made the Laser's toe straps out of sandpaper for some reason.
/mines the Dart 15 owner's manual in the pocket.