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Allen Laser XD Kicker?
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Xpletive View Drop Down
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Posts: 320 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Xpletive Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Allen Laser XD Kicker?
    Posted: 03 Aug 13 at 4:10pm
Bit confused there, Peter G. When you refer to 'Ronstan' in line 2, do you mean Harken (or Allen)?
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PeterG View Drop Down
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Posts: 822 		Post Options Post Options   Quote PeterG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 13 at 4:39pm
Well spotted, I meant Harken. I've never used an Allen one.
Peter
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deadrock View Drop Down
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Posts: 85 		Post Options Post Options   Quote deadrock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 13 at 5:01pm
The unique benefit from using the Harken vang is that you can adjust (and with a 15:1 setup, micro-adjust) the vang offwind, even when you're hiked out. The Ronstan 'builder-supplied' vang also allows this, but the bottom swivel tends to self-centre. The Harken bottom-swivel stays where it's put, so if you've adjusted it from the windward side, the control stays where you left it. The Ronstan one doesn't.

As to longevity, I bought my first Harken vang in 2002 and it's still going on the boat I sold it with. The other one's nearly new, though at least five years old!
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Xpletive View Drop Down
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Posts: 320 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Xpletive Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 13 at 10:08pm
Deadrock, 

I think you may be confused about the 'labelling' of these systems. There isn't a 'Ronstan' system. There is the original system, and then there is the original system adapted to use blocks instead of rope loop purchases, which in the case of the one I use, supplied by Rooster, uses Ronstan blocks together with the original Laser spec top and bottom blocks. They could, though, be blocks from any manufacturer you wish. And then there are the elaborate, expensive offerings from Harken and Allen.........

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dohertpk View Drop Down
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Posts: 172 		Post Options Post Options   Quote dohertpk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 13 at 11:45pm
I had a go of a Harken kicker today (in a 45 knot squall too). It's a totally different ball game. I'm sold.
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2547 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1151 		Post Options Post Options   Quote 2547 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Aug 13 at 7:45am
Originally posted by dohertpk

I had a go of a Harken kicker today (in a 45 knot squall too). It's a totally different ball game. I'm sold.

45 knot squall, are you sure it wasn't more? See forum wind table ...
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deadrock View Drop Down
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Posts: 85 		Post Options Post Options   Quote deadrock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Aug 13 at 8:48am
Doh! Senior moment, making the same error as the earlier poster, mis-naming the (ex-Holt-Allen) Allen 'builder-supplied' post-2000 system as a Ronstan system. You're right: there are (and have only ever been since about 2000) two class-legal 'builder-supplied' alternative vang systems.

The Rooster solution you describe was designed to meet the needs of the 'Activate Your Laser' programme, the heart of which was to get old Lasers and impecunious young sailors on the water and, hopefully, racing. One aspect of the programme was to design class-legal ways of using low-cost equipment such as the original Laser vang-blocks to improve on the original rope-and-eye-only systems. Steve's system was his answer to building such a low-cost vang system, and it's a vast improvement on the original. And it's entirely class-legal.

However, it is nowhere near as effective as either of the other two systems. For a start, you cannot effectively adjust the vang offwind except in the lightest conditions, and if you can't while everyone else can, you're toast.
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