Autoratchets; Who is using what?

Time to change a few for the spin sheets. Looking at Ronstan and Harken. Currently I have Harken but was curious if the new Ronstans are better or worse.

I have both but I've only used the Harken. The few times I've gone with Ronstan I've been disappointed. Yeah, I'm a Harken bigot.

Sorry Jeff, I know it's a pretty useless reply but you never call any more, was it something I said?

I use the Ronstan Orbits on my C2 and they work great. I used the Harkens on my N20 and they were fine too.

I've had good service from several sets of Harkens, had one set of Orbits for a short while that worked fine, but they seemed less robust in construction. Definitely lighter though, and I didn't use them long enough to really test durability(sold the boat).

Dave

I'm huge fan of the Ronstan orbit blocks, for both the spinnaker and main sheets. The Ronstan main blocks I had were absolutely awesome even with a cheap line. I have a Harken 10:1 right now and don't know if I hate it because of the extra line or the tragic cleat adjustment.

Same here.I've never seen any reason to sway from Harken. From what I've heard the orbits have a more aggressive "hex" that hold well but will eat sheets. I wore the ratchet pawls out on many of the old Ronstan smart ratchets.

I have one of each on either side of the spin sheet. Harken seems to slide easier and Ronstan's grab harder. I like the combination for my spin.

I have used Ronstan, Harken and Holt.

Holt - failed very early. Waste of money.
Rostan - had a few failures, the later ones are more reliable however you canot adjust the sensitivty
Harken - A little heavier than the others, never had one fail and you can adjust the sensativity of when it engages

Had two Harken autoratchets fail. Both were replaced by Harken.

Harken +1

i had a 8:1 main blocks from harken. after a year i realized the ratchamatic feature wouldn't engage. Called them up.. they suggested a remedy that didn't help (soak in almost boiling water to free up any salts). they told me to ship them back, they would replace (without a receipt, and they didn't care how long i had them)...

BIG UPS for their customer service.

We are rigging the SC15 jib sheets with a Ronstan and a Harken, one in each side. I prefer the Ronstan due to better grip (line suffers more, though), efficient cleat, less weight and lower price. It is early to say anything about durability.
If buying new ones I would use price as the first criteria. You should choose Ronstan if the crew´s hands are not strong (teen, woman, etc.)

Ronstan has one important and vital roll to play on many catamarans...


....the drain plugs!

Always Harken

Harken except for Distance Racing, I use Ronstan 62100 blocks for my outer spin sheet blocks. They grip better (although your sheet will look like beavers chewed it up after a week) and are freekin bullet proof. They are the all aluminum frame ones. Other than that I don't like using Ronstan because of durability issues. They seem to break easier. Plus the Harken logo looks way cooler.

I had a harken 8:1 mainsheet blow up during Tybee, Harken replaced the lower block assembly for free, no questions asked.

I also blew up some ronstan blocks trying to run a 2:1 system on the spinnaker, they weren't auto ratcheting or anything special but simply weren't built to the same toughness of a comparable Harken block (no Harkens in stock at WM).

I've used the harken setup on the N20's and its worked perfectly fine, seems fairly bulletproof. As a tip, its best to at least spray the auto ratchet blocks after sailing in salt water, better to soak them overnight in a bucket of soapy water

Was anyone injured in the explosions?

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on where you were sitting at the time, no one was hurt.. Blow up may be a bit exaggerated, the end caps that prevent the cleat from rotating failed over the course of 3 days-1 day of hard upwind sailing followed by 2 days of hard reaching. In the end the lower set of 3 blocks was no longer attached to the base and was riding at the top of the mainsail. Needless to say these problems made sheeting the main a b$tch and resulted in at least 3 capsizes.

I should mention that a replacement Ronstan lower block assembly was available to us, however the attachment point to the traveler was a whopping 3/16" stainless clevis pin, which I've bent on a Hobie 14 mainsheet system, never mind a 8:1 N20 mainsheet. In the end we used a friends Harken 10:1 system which worked flawlessly for the rest of the race.

I have the Ronstan Orbit auto ratchets on the spin sheets and they work pretty good, came with the boat. The grip is great. They are switchable between full ratchet, auto, and no ratchet, which seems great until you find they will switch themselves from one to the other, mostly from auto to full ratchet. So on jibes when you think the ratchet will disengage it doesn't, which really slows down the kite coming across, especially because they have so much grip.

On all the other boats I sail I use Harken autoratchets and they are dependable and work great. Just set the adjustment all the way out and you're at the perfect setting.

If i was replacing the spin blocks on my Tiger I'd go Harken.