Cool Rigging Bits You May Not Know About….

After the Newport and Annapolis boat shows, we have talked to a TON of people in the last month. One thing that we found is that there are a lot of products that we talked to cruisers and racers alike about, and they were not aware of them. They were not only suprised that they had not heard about them, but they were really excited about how they could help them on their boat. So, here is a short list of products we think the sailing community could use to know are out there. As always, feel free to contact us for more information, ryans@westmarine.com .

• Antal Friction Rings – We have found an endless number of applications for these simple ferruled fittings. They are really only limited by your imagination. Some examples of use include lead re-directs, hockle prevention, cascades, block replacement, soft padeyes and lashing terminations.

• Harken McLube One-Drop – This simple product helps the operation and protection of ball bearing systems, such as genoa tracks and travelers. Simply clean the balls and the track, and then apply.

• Soft Shackles – Replaces all stainless hardware and metal shackles from D-Shackles to trigger shackles. Weight for weight Dyneema, the material they are made out of, is 15x stronger than stainless steel. Another product that is only limited by your imagination. We have used them for applications such as sheets, halyards, block attachment and gates.

• Spinlock PXR Cleats – Something we like to refer to as clutch technology in a cam cleat application. These come in multiple versions, including vertical attachment and swivel bases. Creates a much more positive lock when engaged than a standard cam cleat.

• Harken T2 Blocks – Harken’s newest soft attachment block series. They come in multiple sizes, as well as in a loop attachment , soft shackle and lashing attachment version. These are a really slick and light replacement for their Ti-Lites.

• Top Down Furling – Pictured above are Karver and Ronstan’s version of this revolutionary product. These furlers have a seperate swivel on the top of the drum in which your asymetrical spinnaker attaches to. Between the bottom drum, and the top swivel, separate from your sails luff, is an anti-torsion cable, which is made to not twist. As you ease your sheet and pull the continuous furler line on the drum, the drum, cable and top swivel all turn together. This keeps your tack stationary as the body of the sail furls, from the top first on down. This technology was developed for the racing market, and is on big raceboats, including some Volvo 70’s. However, it has a HUGE trickle down affect into cruising boats. Gone are the days of fighting spinnaker socks, or hoisting and dousing a sail as we know it. You can simply hoist the furled “tube” and unfurl at your comfortable time. Looking to take the spinnaker down, simply furl back into the “tube shape”, and slowly lower the whole assembly either onto the deck or right down the hatch. We have included two videos of this below…