Fittings - which are the best

Having  hammered through  harken ronstan and holt ball bearing blocks on the 14 the biggest lesson  I learnt is to go for the best  block for  the job ie  harken or ronstan high load blocks on the kite halyard  rather than the standard ball bearing blocks and check it reguarly. Rachets   holt are okay if  they work but i have heard to many problems  of them not working   but when one failed on my wife's new  200   i  just told the dealer and got a replacement next day  no quibbles. For high load wire or  dyneema  (shrouds  or jib halyards) holt or proctor wire blocks were definetly  the only  blocks I used.

as for why smods  use holt it  was normally due to them being cheaper  and  at least supporting   some british industry. 

For the orginal  question  which was for a  phantom  my recomandation  is  for the main sheet  harken carbo  blocks and ronstan rachet. kicker  block at boom holt wire block   rest of system harken 16mm air blocks. Out haul and cunningham, harken airs as them are the lightest.  adjustable shrouds  holt or proctor. Cleats harken or spinlock depending on   set up of your controls

The  best   thing is to go to a class open meeting and look at the top boats and speak to  the sailors  to see if they  have made any mods  to the standard option and ask  for that.

p.s  due to the weak dollar  at one stage rs were  willing to do a harken fit out  for the same price

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spinnaker halyard blocks on high performance boats have a hard life, they have to cope with running fast on the hoists and drops, some times under high load when things get stuck.
Then there is the shock loads when the kite flogs not to mention doing this full of mud and sand after you have stuck the mast in the mud.

some seem to cope much better than others.

On sheet loads if you cut the weight of the boat you cut the loads(keeping sail area the same)




Edited by Granite

Originally posted by glewis Must watch my copy of Smack Down Under again!   Would anyone who works for these manufacturers care to respond?

I watched it the other night and noticed it, somewhere near the beginning I think where they are introducing the team

There's no doubt that fittings do vary in quality but I would never say one supplier is better than another. I might say supplier one's XXX is better than supplier two's , but supplier two's YYY may well be better than supplier one's.

Its also fair to say that some jobs seem to exceed what most suppliers kit can cope with. I used to find that Cherub masthead kite halyard blocks were very short lived and I slaughtered some Harkens in that application. I can't remember what the best option was now, but frequent replacement was wise. The suppliers would probably spec some enormous solid thing to take the loads and speed, but who would want that at the masthead?

I have good evidence that the old Holt black and white blocks were shorter lived than Harkens in moderate load conditions, and at half the price that was fair enough.
The latest Holt blocks are an entirely different design and look pretty good: it would be foolish to assume that the same applies.

Must watch my copy of Smack Down Under again!

 

Would anyone who works for these manufacturers care to respond?