Hello gearheads

What brand of blocks and which models have you found to be the most durable?

I have used mostly Harken and they have broken for me now and then due to a host of reasons. Wrong application and overloaded amongst them.

But what other blocks have you tested and found to be durable?

Mix. Depends on the application.

I've got Harken carbo ratchamatics on the F16, F18HT, and Flight Risk, mainsheets and spin sheet blks, and I've not had any problems. I did explode a Ronstan Orbit auto ratchet once, but haven't tried them again since. It could have been one bad blk.

Dave

I haven't had a failure of a block. A friend had some failures but due to wrong size.
However I have failures with Harken cam cleats (broken spring) (downhaul). And I am very dissatisfied with my Harken mainsheet. The cleat is only adjustabe by three settings. The angle between is far to large. I am also totally disapointed by my Harken traveller, which despite extra care and maintenance has far too much friction. I am probably spoiled by the Dart 18 traveller mainsheet combo. Something that simply worked without any mainetencae after 13 years of use in saltwater and storage on the beach.
For those who don't know. The Dart traveller is from I.Y.E.. We had the same system on the T, which still worked after over 30 years. The reason is very simple, it uses wheels instead of small balls.
I have also some parts from Ronstan which are permantely exposed to sunlight (outhaul, spin halyard) which still look as new.

Cheers,

Klaus

Hi Claus,

I have one of those IYE Tornado beams with traveller+car in storage. Might end up on an F16..

Cleats we have gone through quite a lot of. The full metal ones produced in the 70s and scrounged from the scrapheap are the best.

Misalignment breaks blocks. Roller bearings breaks if overloaded. I dont know how many spi halyard blocks we went through on the T..

So far Harken have been mentioned, and Ronstand. How about other brands?

Holt main blocks have an awesome cleat angle adjustment. The ratchet is okay, kinda like the Harken stuff. Durability seemed decent.

Even if the Ronstan orbit block are inferior in quality, their ratchets are awesome and worth a shorter life span. They grip the sheet so well, so well it shows in how much they chew up the sheet. I also like the soft shackle on the spin blocks, it doesn't chew up the gelcoat where the block mounts.

Most of the small Ronstan blocks aren't very good in my opinion, the Harken stuff is way better. Diavana (sp) isn't very good either, but they have a micro block that looks almost identical to the Harken 504.

I prefer the Ronstan cleat mount for the spinnaker halyard, the cleat that comes with it is trash, I swap it out for a Harken cam cleat. The smaller mount that Harken sells will flex allowing the jaws of the cleat to open just enough to release the halyard at the worst time.

AHPC went to Harken travelers over Ronstan. We had some kinks at first, but got smaller balls from Harken and they are way better than the Ronstans now.

Karl,
I've never heard of Diavana. Who carries the line? And which Ronstan cleat mount is the one you like? I have a composite one that seems marginal.

Oops, dyslexia at work.
Viadana. http://www.viadana.it/INDEXENG.htm AHPC boats used to come with some of their blocks.

The Ronstan cleat mount I like is the RS5.


http://www.ronstan.us/marine5/product.asp?ProdNo=RF5

The cleat it comes with doesn't have anything to prevent the line from wearing on the base of the cleat though. That's why I swap out the cleat for the Harken unit, the Harken has a little metal bar embedded in the bottom to prevent the wear. When the Ronstan unit wears, it makes a groove, your halyard then gets caught underneath the jaws and you can't get it out.

Spi halyard? Mounted too high maybe. But you are right, some things should be from metal not from plastic, especially if I consider the price.

It gets mounted upside down from what you see in the picture. Its probably a case of it actually getting mounted too low, so when you're hoisting you're pulling up against the base of the cleat. They don't last long with out that metal piece in there. I did Tradewinds, (3 days), and F16 Nationals last year, and I think it was completely un-usable by day two of nationals. It failed at a horrible time. We were holding Robbie off for two legs, last douse before the last upwind leg it stuck, and Dan (my crew) had the attitude of round up, I'll take care of the front. It was the only time we had an issue doing things that way.


Like I said, a mix for whatever works best. My boat has Harken, Spinlock, Ronstan, and Viadana. There's probably a few left over Holt parts on my boat as well since it was one of the early boats when we switched to Harken. I'm sure there was some stuff that they were burning up, that was laying around.

That's the unit I have on the 22, and we wasted the sheave bearings. I've been trying to get a replacement sheave, without luck so far. Anyone know of a knowledgable Ronstan dealer? I've got a new Harken equivalent complete unit, but the mounting holes are different, and I'm alway resistant to drilling more holes in the mast.
We also trashed the spin hlyd blk above the hounds, a Harken bullet. We're running a tapered 1/4" Flightline halyard, recommendations for this blk? I'm considering one of Ronstan's wire blks, as only the tapered section runs thru the blk. I've used Harken's wire blks, but there's enough slop between the cheeks and the sheave to allow the line to jump the sheave. The Ronstan seems tighter.

I want to try out one of those K Blocks for the halyard block up the mast. Kinda spendy though.

with a 5mm tapered halyard, and most of it being 3mm I use a Harken micro block, I think its a 504.

I have not had any issues with the harken blocks on either of my boats. I did have a problem one time using a plastic cleat on a spin halyard turning block where the line wore through the cleat quickly. Need metal cams in that scenario. I did have a ronstan series 20 block used as spin tack turning block blow up once... But that was an overload.
I have used some Garhauer blocks on my big boat. Seem very well built though maybe a little heavy. One double block I got had somewhat rough rotation though.

Karver blocks are too pricey. I have used a harken 29 mm carbo block for spin halyard block on the mast for several boats and never had a problem.

We have had the spin halyard Harken 29 mm carbo block ruined several times. The same happens occasionally with the main halyard block at the mast base. Usually the halyard eats into the turning part and it gets stuck to the fixed part. Recently went over to a Karver KBO2 for the chute. A really beautiful and well made block!! So far so good...
No problems with Harken ratchets, traveller or cleats. Once blew the becket on the Harken 10:1 base mainsheet block - just tied a dyneema loop through the center of the blocks instead, and it lives on happily in the veteran N20. We tried a couple of Ronstans as turning blocks over the years and were not pleased, so returned to Harkens.