203 0 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 harken or ronstan? just wondering what is everyones preferences and why ...or any other brands.. Link to post Share on other sites
w44vi 17 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Never broken or damaged any harken gear, ronstan I have not had the same luck, admittedly I have only had one boat with full harken gear and 4 or 5 with ronstan. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 luke harken is deffenitly the better gear, but your wallet (dads wallet in your case) really hurts afterwards. ronstan is cheaper and i have never had any problems with their stuff but i guess its just a case of you get what you pay for. come round and take what you need off my javelin Link to post Share on other sites
Bimini Babe 0 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 I heard good things about Garhauer - well priced, and 10yr guarantee as well I think? Sounds hard to beat. Only personal experience was on a mate's boat - all Garhauer gear and only problem was we blew out the clutch for the tack after about 2yrs, but it did take a beating, and was still under warranty as far as I know. Link to post Share on other sites
Atom Ant 0 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Garhauer is - well - somewhat agricultural. I bought Garhauer blocks for my runners and they've been fine, but they're heavy, and as they are made of stainless they hurt when they hit your head and can damage paintwork. I bought a Garhauer jammer and it was ok, but big and clunky. A few years later I took it off and replaced all of them with Rutgerson jammers which are physically smaller but smoother to operate and aesthetically more appealing. Also easier to remove for maintenance. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Go see Eddie. The Seldene blocks are good stuff at a great price. I was very impressed. See the add at top right of screen. I don't think I would consider anything else now. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Agree, not only are they advertisers , I spent a few hours there on friday to write something for the home page next week. Not only are they a nice bunch of people who know their stuff, they will give you tecnical specs on the Selden and Rutgerson deck hardware that has it lighter than Harken. Well worth a visit to their new showroom. I'll get hold of Eddie and see if he can give us a comparison here. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 The only gear issues we have had the entire time I've owned this boat has been with Harken, no others only Harken or at least Harken branded. There is Ronstan on the boat with the cheeks fallen off from age, they still work well. Most of the Lewmar, that I think someone stole off the Ark, still going fine, even if a bit of that has started to sh*t itself but then it has to be easy 10yo. No Harken bar 2 winches has lasted more than 1.5 seasons at best, even with much being for boat larger than us. The last batch to blow arse was our bloody pricey mainsheet system in Simrad R3... in 15kts of wind for no apparent reason. Just pop splash all over rover. The new gear has been picked by it's suitability for the job with ZERO input from the brand name on it. As it's panning out the new gear is pretty much a combo of 25% Ronstan and 75% Shelden, Shedon or whatever that name is from Sailutions. Harken gear is running around 0% +/- 2 winches. Just buying on name will probably lead to tears and probably pricey tears. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 As a supplier of Selden blocks I am not going to pick one brand against another but I got a few observations when it comes to block and deck gear in general. We find that boat owners often under-estimate the load on the gear. In many cases the boats that are now 20-30 years old have a much higher load on the gear due to bigger and more efficient sails and maybe higher rigs and more lead below. The Ross 930 is a boat that springs to mind. Always check with the supplier what size block is suitable for the application. Another problem is the never-ending chase of weight savings. The dinghy sailors and multihull guys are worse when it comes to this. In many cases it seems the sailors expect to replace gear every year instead of using a bit heavier but also stronger gear. That is a choice but unfortunately a few still complain that the gear is not good enough. A good block, on a boat that see a lot of use, that is used within its range should last for 10 years or more for most applications. On a boat that often is raced hard and in high winds the life expectancy will be lower. The materials used today, specially for the sheaves, are much better to withstand the UV-light and the salt. If you are interested in the technical stuff Practical Sailors have done a test on 40mm bearing blocks and this is a link to it. http://www.seldenmast.com/attachments/PS0611_BulletBlocks_reprint0611_web.pdf Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Go Ronstan. Harken's off to the army so after-market service is going to be ratsh#t. Link to post Share on other sites
Marshy 30 Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 There has been massive development in the sails we are hanging off our boats, the material they are made of, the design, and also the strings we tie them on with. This all leads to sails and gear that holds its shape through the range better, also meaning we hold bigger gear higher through the range as it "Still looks good" and cus we can. Invariably loading up our deckgear alot more than we used to with Stretchy sails, softer rope etc. We have blown a few blocks out on Mercenary but everytime we have i have looked at it and laughed thinking "mmm that blew a foo foo. Little 26footer must handle a bit of grunt these days!" And i am one of those running light deckgear, big winches and big sails and replacing regularly. Its expensive but its fast!! Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Is it just me and this useless web browser I'm saddled with, or is the Sailutions web site online shopping not working? Sorry, just thought I'd go have a perv at some of the Selden gear being talked about and all I get is an error message from the Shop Online section of the website. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Saturday Night Special Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 as an Ex harken Tech .My new boat will be covered in Harken kit .although there has been some interesting statements made on here there are a couple of interesting points 1. Harken are very good at standing behind their product 2. Ronstan product although quite good don't actuall have much of an interest in serviceing or warrantying theirs I dont actually know why MM your comemts are very true .we now have reverted to the concept of almost brute force and ignorance( please dont shot me MM) with the way we are sailing as everything is improving with control of sails righting moment and handling equipment gear is failing because generally the loadings calculated are underspeced as they were for the original std boats we are able to hang onto the grunt longer and know one feathers their boats to weather overpowered they just grunt them and let them stagger this increases loads even further. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Just worked for me. Link to post Share on other sites
Grinna 2 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Ah .... must be useless IE8 then. As you were. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Just so you don't think I'm bagging Harken see here for the story on Harkin (what's an "e" between fiends?): viewtopic.php?f=45&t=17517 Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Another interesting thing to note is that with the modern style of lashed on blocks, the lashing setup can really make a big difference to how the block handles the loads. I have seen so many blocks setup wrong and wearing out fast, breaking or jumping the sheave. With the traditional shackled on block there was very little that could go wrong but now there are some other variables. I remember when genuine risk lost its rig a while back, thgat was because the runner block was lashed incorrectly. It was actually lashed right but with too many lashings so when it loaded to max the lashings forced the block apart! On maximus we noticed that when using a block near its max load the bearings would wear out very quick. It was strong enough but especially if it was in a high speed application (kite sheets or kte halyards that are run at high speed) we would need to put higher spec blocks on. I have also seen people lube ball bearing blocks, this is not a good idea as the balls or nedle bearings will slide instead of roling and once even a small flat spot is created, its terminal. A frashwater washdown is all they need. Salt buildup is the worst thing for them, wet salt water is ok but dry salt crystals are bad news. This is all just based on personal experence so some of the points could be wrong. Link to post Share on other sites
Atom Ant 0 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Is it just me and this useless web browser I'm saddled with, or is the Sailutions web site online shopping not working? Sorry, just thought I'd go have a perv at some of the Selden gear being talked about and all I get is an error message from the Shop Online section of the website. I'm getting error messages too Grinna - I'm on Google Chrome & or I.E 8 Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 as an Ex harken Tech .My new boat will be covered in Harken kit Probably some sharper pricing in that decision also But hey, why the hell knot if you have the opportunity. 2. Ronstan product although quite good don't actuall have much of an interest in serviceing or warrantying theirs I dont actually know why I've always had no worries but then that could very much depend on which of the apparent 637 'exclusive Ronstan NZ Agents' you deal with. It seems everyone in the country is bar us My boat is 30ft long, 26-27 years old with the original tiny sail plan. The Harken blocks I got were new designs only a couple for short years ago and supposedly good for 40fters when used in the same situation that I used them in. They still crapped out quickly and in lite weather. Absolutely no newer 'bigger better faster' angle in there. But I have a theory, as I often do. Fecking Dyneema/Vectran/Zylon/etc ropes. Back in the day if you did something silly the ropes used back them would have just snapped or had a level of elongation which would absorb some of the load, which may just be enuff to stop a nasty spike at the block/attached gear. These days the ropes stop dead and that must put more load thru the gear it's on. I have a plan to check that, it could be interesting. So until Harken and the rest get their excrement together just use good quality Chineema ropes, they will stop fast....... after the 500mm of stretch is done Chineema??? Chinese made Dyneema knock-off. No it's nowhere new as good as the real McCoy. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Grinna and AA. The website should work in all browsers. I will have a look tomorrow and if that fails maybe mothership can help out. Link to post Share on other sites
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