The company has continued a move towards the use of carbon fibre to give high tensile strength without the use of stainless steel. Much of this development work has been carried out at the company's research and development department in the US. However most of their manufacturing goes on in Italy, especially the winch product range.

Although everyone is being pushed on costs, Ash Vie feels that there are other ways in which costs can be reduced other than by reducing prices.

He cites an example of the design of one of their traveller systems that enables fitting to be carried out by one person from one side. As a result, labour costs can be cut without any compromise of the product's quality.

Like others, Harken has seen strong growth in sales of the powered winches in their range, similarly with many other items of equipment used in short handed sailing, a trend the company feels likely to continue.

Ash Vie also feels the industry could: "look to materials technology from other industries to advance the methods currently in use in this industry."

The result, he feels, could benefit all and could go some way to reducing manufacturing costs.

The company is understandably eager to push its successes in the America's Cup amongst other events in which the winners have used their range, and with business doing well, a number of new staff have been recruited. They feel that, "In the production cruiser market, Harken are now the predominant winch brand, with very large accounts including Beneteau, Jeanneau, Grand Soleil, Elan and Island Packet."

Stainless steel

Nauquip is the UK distributor for the Anderson winch range that is only made in stainless steel which, at first glance, seems to be at odds with the current trends of using aluminium and composite materials. But as the company points out: "many people generalise that stainless steel is heavy."

However, due to its strength, Anderson says you need less wall thickness to build in stainless steel than you do in aluminium, for example. As a result, the product is, at worst, the same weight, but in many cases lighter.

The company supplies the Anderson range with its Power Rib instead of the traditional knurling on the drum. According to Anderson, the Power Rib produces less wear on ropes than conventional grip methods.

It also has the effect of needing less turns of the winch to produce the same results, "ideal when racing and speed is of the essence."

Nauquip's Anderson range also includes the powered Compact Motor, a product that gained a METS DAME Award special mention and which is claimed to be unique in being a variable speed unit that can be fitted either above or below the deck.

Nauquip's marketing manager, Hannah Harrison, told BB: "The development of deck hardware is driven by trying to achieve a balance between competitiveness and quality."

With new production boat prices getting increasingly lower, components have to be kept in line with this. Luckily, at the same time, new technology and improved materials composition enable this balance to be achieved.

For some time now all of the range has been designed with the potential to upgrade with the Modular Power System, acknowledging the trend towards powered winches. It was also interesting to learn that at the last Southampton Boat Show 33% of the yachts on the pontoons were fitted with Anderson winches, according to the Nauquip newsletter.

Lewmar has approached the costs issue with the introduction of a number of initiatives including the streamlining of products. This is designed to allow efficient stock holding and the streamlining of product lines. The company's new traveller range is an example of this with the components being modular, thus allowing for a combination of stock items to be able to satisfy different requirements.

Benefit retailers

The outcome is to benefit retailers, in terms of flexible stock and to offer more margin.

Lewmar's technical advancements, as with many others, include improved moulding with more technical composites, as well as the more sophisticated use of materials as well as tooling and design.

The end result is a design that gives greater strength to weight ratios and improved styling and durability. Lewmar told us: "Much of the technology has fed into the marine trade from the automotive industry using their proven MRT (Metal Replacement Technology)."

The company's highest volume deck products are probably single sheave blocks, especially the 30mm and 40mm range, plus the new cleats that the company is currently in the process of launching.

Other trends include the desire for cleaner deck layouts, so like many modern components, "less is more" is becoming a key design factor.

In addition, line size usage is consolidating the block sizes, since rope has become stronger.

While smaller diameter block can take increasingly large loads, the minimum is set at a minimum hand held diameter.

Matthew Townsend felt that: "Deck hardware also seems to be involved in a packaging war."

Yacht chandlery retailers are becoming more sophisticated and packaging and point of sale material are performing an important function in providing guides and information on block usage".

Online resources are now a mainstay of any information distribution system and Townsend was keen to add: "Lewmar also produces clear guides on loads and sheeting systems on its website."

Although we've looked mainly at winches another item of deck hardware, the wheel, was the focus of Lewmar's attention in late 2003 when the company launched an "off the shelf" version of its folding wheel.

Wide audience

The product was priced to appeal to a wide audience and they cited the problems associated with "conventional wheels acting as a cockpit barrier" as one of the main reasons for its development.

Since its introduction the folding wheel has continued to sell well and is being supplied to many builders, now appearing on the new Oysters.

Within the next few weeks the range will be extended with the addition of a larger wheel that will see the range then up to four sizes from 32" to the new 42".

Lewmar told us it: "Has noticed a divergence between the nature of the volume boatbuilders (whose volumes are getting larger) and the niche boatbuilders (of just a few each year), with a gap widening in between."

The demand in hardware is inevitably reflected in this trend.

Development in the design of internal components is said to help with the upgrades of winches to powered versions. This rationalisation is aimed to make these changes easier and quicker, however sales of the carbon winch with the PowerGrip are high.

Andre Hayward, from Lewmar's marketing department says this is partly to do with the product's price point.

Although winch design and development looks set to continue there could be a number of design changes, alluded to by some of those we spoke to, that could change things further.

Deck layouts, like those used by in innovative design team at the Monaco-based Wally Yachts, could have something of an impact on the equipment used if they were to be implemented on more volume production boats.

On the recent Wally 80, Aori, the flush deck still has four winches but all the ropes are concealed out of site until just before the winch itself. These "technological coamings" house the mainsail "Magic Trim", the blocks for the halyards and sheets as well as many of the instruments. This feature is not unique to the 80 but is used across the range.

Is this the direction in which deck layout will go? If so, what differences will this make to the equipment used? Certainly, it looks like there are many new innovations being brought into play on a number of the deck hardware products currently in production, so further developments could be something of a variation on a current theme.

If, in time, some of the boat design developments and equipment design ideas we've already seen used in the superyacht market begin to filter down to the volume end of the industry, even more radical design elements could become more common place and financially viable.