Barton Marine is one of the UK's best known manufacturers of sail control hardware and it has upgraded its range of blocks for yachts up to 16m and are the largest high load cruiser blocks in the range.

Able to control ropes up to 14mm in diameter, they are designed to be ideal for both cruising and racing yachts.

Made with glass filled nylon side plates and stainless steel load carrying components, the upgraded versions are said to be stronger at handling high loads, as the stainless steel load carrying components have been modified to offer even more strength and security.

"Boats are getting larger and the demands on blocks are increasing, " said Paul Botterill, a director of Barton Marine.

"We have upgraded our Size 7 block range whilst maintaining the prices from the previous range to ensure that we meet these demands and continue to offer competitive prices."

Lewmar has had its fair share of upheaval over the last few months and Peter O'Connell has come in from the US as the new managing director to get things back on track with the result that the in-house marketing department is now a thing of the past.

However, under the headline of "Small is Beautiful" Lewmar has introduced what it says is the world's smallest self-tailing winch as well as the world's smallest electric winch. The L28 is, they say, the smallest twospeed, two-gear self-tailing winch available today and was developed for the pocket cruiser, defined as boats between 7.5 - 8.5m. It's aimed at owners who had previously no option other than to purchase a larger, more expensive winch, to achieve true two-speed selftailing control.

The L28 is part of Lewmar's new stretch winch range which has had its gears re-engineered as part of the development process. Another scaled-down winch from the range is the L34, which Lewmar says is the world's smallest electric winch.

Designed for use on sailing boats in the 9.75 - 12.20m range, the L34 has reengineered gear ratios, centre stem-bolting configuration and drum finish option to give owners and yards choice when it comes to fulfilling customer requirements.

Nauquip has been the UK importer for Andersen products for something like 25 years now and the product range remains as popular as ever.

The recent introduction of the Andersen Compact Motor would seem to have met with great success.

Two versions It comes as a variable speed unit in two versions: below deck, with smaller built-in dimensions than a standard motor, and above deck, which features the winch directly mounted onto the motor. This motor has a high line speed and good traction and is, not surprisingly, said to be compatible with the Andersen Modular Power System.

The motor, gears and power supply feature an all-in-one design and there are no extra control boxes and only three cables out of the unit, resulting in the smallest dimensions available in a motor. The unit itself consists of two compartments, with the motor compartment completely sealed and water-resistant and the gear compartment specially adapted to meet service needs.

The motor is built on an entirely new commutator principle using no carbon brushes, resulting in the virtual elimination of wear and tear. This new approach to motors also provides other advantages, including power consumption 30-50% lower than that of a normal electric unit and the weight reduced by approx 50% of a standard electric unit.

Holt is well known for its performance sailing hardware and, until now, the predominant market for this equipment has been the dinghy and sportsboat market.

However the launch of a new range will see its entry into the yacht and motorboat hardware market.

The new range includes H2O ball race blocks range available in 39, 57 and 75mm with optional aluminium sheave on roller bearings for higher loads.

H2O ratchet blocks with ball bearing ratchet block and aluminium sheave. CNC machined runner blocks. Maxi blocks, offshore Blocks and a range of 316 stainless steel fittings and rigging accessories.

There is also the Ocean Master bottlescrew range in stainless steel with bronze inserts and a range of marine grade LM5 anodized aluminium fittings for yachts and powerboats. Finally, there are the H2O winches, whose design is said to maximise comfort by reducing deck space and weight.

Holt has supplied deck hardware to the Volvo Extreme 40 Basilica, which recently won the Rio Grande Prix VX40 Regatta. The package included equipment from all technical areas including some of their new big boat blocks - deck H2O offshore blocks with web attachments. Basilica also uses H2O winches that are lighter and smaller in volume so that deck space is reduced and weight on this 40ft carbon catamaran is kept to a minimum.

The concept of more automation to provide more assistance with sail handling would not seem to have been lost on Bamar. The company has not only continued to develop powered winches, like most others, but has also introduced the BPC product and have taken electric furling further.

John Channon, of Bamar UK is naturally very enthusiastic about BPC. The unit, which is fitted inside the boom, is a tackle system that works on a "push and pull" hydraulic cylinder principle and is used to control the mainsheet. The 4:1 ratio of the unit allows it to stow four times more line than the stroke of the cylinder.

Flat tackle The BPC is electrically powered and there is also a flat tackle cylinder version, which sounds odd but works on the same way as the boom unit.

Wally yachts has, over the years, pioneered the uncluttered deck look and the flat tackle system allows owners to retrofit equipment that will allow them to emulate this design feature.

Bamar's range of electric furlers remain very successful with sales staying very strong, a further indication of the levels of assistance buyers are now demanding. RollGen continues to be popular with sales increasing and to accompany it the company has introduced MEJ, magic electric foresail reefing and furling system.

Developed from previous systems the MEJ is being promoted along with the Boxtron electronic control system to provide both radio and wired control of the furler.

For anyone who has bought a large (15m+) yacht, and found the furling of sails to be a handful, there is also the RMEJ - Retrofit MEJ.

This replaces the drum and drive of the existing furler with the powered MEJ equipment.

This has proved very popular with clients and marries up with the conversions currently available from manual winches to electrically powered ones.

Harken continues to be a major name in the field of winches and sail handling. The 2003 Dame Award winning Harken switch track batten car system, which was originally designed for Mirabella V, has now been downsized for smaller yachts, with 32mm, 26mm and an upcoming 22mm versions on the way. This now means the range covers boats from 12m up to the largest sailing yachts around.

The system uses a switch track that allows alternate cars to be stacked on two parallel tracks at the bottom of the mast to cut the stack height in half. This switch track is said to be unique as it has no moving parts.

More recently a DAME Award was received for the PCRX pivoting mainsheet traveller where it took the 2005 Sailboat Hardware top prize.

The main feature of this car is that the hinged track can pivot to align fully with the mainsheet load, meaning the car can be lighter, and also maximising the free-rolling ability of the captive Torlon roller bearings.

The CRX car uses rollers to provide more surface contact per bearing than ball bearings, and hence reduce the number of bearings and reduce the size and weight of the car. For an America's Cup boat, the car has a required SWL of 7250kg and a weight of only 2.75kg.

The equivalent ball bearing car would weigh around 6kg, says Harken.

New materials Research into new materials to construct existing products, and make them lighter, stronger or at a reduced cost, is also part of the development process. An example of this is Harken's new carbon racing foil, a headsail foil designed to offer improved design and significant materials advances over the PVC products commonly used in similar racing foils.

The specially researched material used in this product range is very low friction to provide fast and smooth hoists and drops, with improved resistance to line wear and impact damage.

The lightweight nylon resin sideplates used in these units are densely packed with long glass fibres aligned with the block contours. This new material allowed Harken to build their blocks 30% lighter and 60% stronger than the classic blocks.

The range has now been expanded to cover 29mm, 40mm, 57mm and 75mm and includes ratchet and Ratchamatic blocks.

The company continues to be successful in the competitive sailing area using carbon fibre technology and lamination techniques to allow winch systems to be lighter, stronger and, we are told, more reliable.

Winch drums and pedestals are manufactured from space age pre-preg, autoclave-cured carbon fibre laminates for strength and minimum weight.

Systems like these are currently onboard the leading three boats in the Volvo Ocean Race. ABN AMRO 1, ABN AMRO 2 and movistar.