Harken Blocks – we look at the options

Harken Blocks

Harken offer a range of sailing hardware for your boat, everything from shackles, pulleys/blocks, cleats, traveller systems and much more.

Shop for your Harken kit at Sailing Chandlery.

In this article we are going to take a look at the various Harken Blocks available and their possible uses across many sailing dinghies.

16mm Harken Blocks

16mm is the smallest of the blocks available from Harken. They are popular for small control lines across a range of boats. The blocks have a ball bearing system which uses stainless steel balls held in by the metal block casing. The 16mm blocks have a maximum working load of 113kgs.

Available options:

• Normal block with o ring
• Block with becket
• Cheek block
• Forkhead block
• Narrow ferrule head block
• Block with eyestrap
• Block with swivel top
• Block with hook attached
• Double block
• Double block with becket
• Flip flop block (moves side to side)
• Triple block
• In deck blocks

Harken 16mm Blocks

18mm Harken Blocks

The 18mm blocks are reasonably new and are all attached using dyneema rope rather than shackles or other fittings. This allows them to be tied, spliced or lashed anywhere on your boat.

These 18mm soft attach blocks are lightweight, the single 18mm is only 7.2 grams.

Available options:

• Single block
• Single block with a narrow head
• Double block

22mm Harken Blocks

22mm blocks give you an option that is compact but also still lightweight. Ideal for windsurfers, smaller dinghies and control lines which have lower loads.

The 22mm block range have metal casing similar to the 16mm blocks.

Available options:

• Single block
• Single block with becket
• Single block with becket and shackle
• Single block with eye strap
• Double block
• Triple block
• Triple block with cam cleat attached

Harken 22mm Blocks

25mm Harken Blocks

25mm blocks are all high strength wire blocks, designed for the ultimate performance and loads. The single 25mm block has a safe working load of 454kgs but weighs only 28 grams.

Available options:

• Single block
• Through deck block

29mm Harken Blocks

All of Harkens 29mm blocks are carbo air blocks, they are designed to be lightweight, strong, reliable and most importantly affordable.

Carbo Air blocks are made from tough reinforced composite material. The material is also UV stabilised to protect it from the sun and elements.

Available options:

• Single block
• Single soft attach block
• Cheek block
• Stand up block
• Block with swivel
• Block with swivel and becket
• Double block
• Double traveller block (two blocks attached at a 90 degree angle)
• Crew block (two blocks attached using a metal ring)
• Pivoting lead block with Cam cleat attached

Harken 29mm Blocks

38mm Harken Blocks

38mm are the same as the 25mm block range, high strength and designed for wire, although Dyneema can be used too.

Available options:

• Single block
• Single block with becket
• In deck block

40mm Harken Blocks

40mm blocks are available as Carbo Air blocks and as soft attach blocks. This is the first size where ratchets are introduced into the blocks, ideal for sheeting systems on smaller dinghies.

Available options:

• Single block
• Cheek block
• Single block with swivel
• T2 Loop block
• Double traveller block
• Carbo ratchet block
• Automatic ratchet T2 soft attach block
• Pivoting lead block
• Fiddle block with swivel and a cam cleat

Harken 40mm Blocks

57mm Harken Blocks

57mm blocks are also available as Carbo Air blocks and as soft attach blocks. The 57mm range are more popular for sheets and purchase systems.

For Harkens 50th year (2017) the 57mm block has been launched with a red sheave in three models, the manual ratchet, automatic ratchet and soft attach block. These look stunning and have been very popular throughout 2017.

Available options:

• Cheek block
• T2 Loop block
• T2 soft attach block
• Fiddle block with swivel
• Carbo ratchet block
• T2 soft attach ratchet
• Ratchamatic block (automatic ratchet block)
• Carbo quad block (4 in a row for mainsheet 8:1 systems)
• Carbo 5 sheave block (5 in a row for mainsheet 10:1 systems)
• Triple carbo ratchet with cam cleat (for cleating on a 8:1 mainsheet system)
• Carbo ratchet block with side 40 blocks (for cleating on a 10:1 mainsheet system)

Harken 57mm Blocks

75mm Harken Blocks

The 75mm tends to be less popular for our customers because we are dinghy focused. However a 75mm block can offer less load if used correctly and we’ve sold these to high performance catamaran sailors in the past, especially those sailing mixed.

Available options:

• 75mm carbo ratchet block
• 75mm ratchamatic block (automatic ratchet block)

Questions?

If you’ve got any questions about any of the Harken Blocks in stock at Sailing Chandlery then please feel free to give us a call.