Gear

March 15, 2023

SinC Harken Zircon Blocks 400Harken's 40 mm Zircon blocks are on the shelves and ready to be ordered.

Zircon blocks are the most efficient small boat blocks Harken has ever made. At the core of Zircon performance are industrial ceramic ball bearings mounted inside caged races. The cages keep these bearings apart so they don’t bunch up, touch, and stop each other. The result is a very free-running block with less energy lost to friction than in even our current Carbo blocks. Give an unrigged Zircon block a strong spin, and it spins for an incredibly long time.

Zircon bearings are more than 700% stronger in compression than stainless bearings of the same size. So, they won’t deform if used within the recommended load limits. More importantly, they don’t absorb as much energy before starting to roll. This becomes evident when you need to ease a sail in very light air. You feel even the slightest fluctuations in sheet load. When used expertly, that means better sail shape and more speed.

The 57 mm Zircon blocks will be available in April.

Left: 40 mm Zircon Block / Right: 40 mm Zircon Double Block

SinC Harken Zircon Block 40 400SinC Harken Zircon Block 40 Double 400

Left: 40 mm Zircon Block – Becket / Right: 40 mm Zircon Double Block – Becket

SinC Harken Zircon Block 40 Becket 400SinC Harken Zircon Block 40 Double Becket 400

 

Ucluelet

The European portion of SailGP Season 4 got underway this weekend in Saint-Tropez, France. Having hit record breaking speeds last year on the Côte d’Azur, Phil Robertson and the Canadians were looking forward to this weekend of racing, but things did not turn out as hoped. A penalty in the pre-start of race one was a precursor of what was to come, and it proved difficult for the team to recover.

A collision with Spain early on in race one set the team back and translated into eight penalty points for the event and an additional four penalty points for the season.

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Blue Guard Bilge Pump Switch

From sailing 8-Metres in Port Credit to sailing adventures hither and yon, our pal and occasional foredeck, D Danger Mitchele, is never one to be overheated even now that he’s residing in sunny Spain. He’s also not the kind of guy who would put a dodger on a racing boat. So, here’s the logical solution.

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