Last night we got home from Cadiz, where we just finished our first regatta of the 2011 season. This time I arrived in Cadiz a couple of days before we started training to get some kitesurfing in. The last time I was on the water was back in November so it was awesome to get back kiting again. I had taken a few steps back but had an awesome couple of days.

Then disaster, I got food ... Read More.

This year we are exhibiting on stand C94 in the Great Hall. An Albacore and a Solo will be on display featuring all the latest developments and ideas to fit out racing dinghies using Allen hardware, and our technical experts will be on hand to answer any questions and help with any enquiries.

Visitors with young children taking part in the Treasure Hunt won’t find a pot of gold on ... Read More.

Our second training camp in Cadiz started with us all-getting to the airport on time and catching the flight. Quite an improvement from the first camp already! After a days travelling to Cadiz we headed straight to a little restaurant around the corner from our apartment before hitting the hay.

The focus for camp 2 was similar to the first only this time we had some foreign teams to ... Read More.

So with the World’s team out in Argentina and us having just missed out on a place we decided, along with three other boats, to go out to Spain and compete in the Blanes Regatta over new years. With the regatta starting on 2^nd Jan everyone arrived in Blanes on the evening of the 28^th from the UK, and me and family from Andorra having just had some high altitude ... Read More.

Over the last 10 days we have been out near Cadiz at Puerto Sherry, which is going to be our base for the rest of our winter training. It’s a really nice part of Spain where practically no one speaks English, but there is a lot of great food and the weathers not that bad either.

Dylan’s Dad was nice enough to volunteer/get roped into, driving the 2 49ers (ours and our training ... Read More.

Team Fletcher and Sign recently competed in the test event for the Perth 2011 world championships which is an indicator for selection on who will be going to the 2012 Olympics.

We arrived in Australia with a few weeks before the event was due to start to get our barings of Fremantle. We were staying in the Esplanade hotel which was a 15 minute walk to the sailing club. We were ... Read More.

We had done it. Against all the odds we had got our new carbon rig ready for the first race of the last event of the season: the 49er inlands. The mast went up, and with it our spirits; we had got the boat ready on time, we were a little rushed, but there was nothing to prevent us making the first race and doing the best we possibly could. That was when we noticed the long, shiny bit of D12 ... Read More.

I first started sailing 20 years ago whilst at school, at a sailing centre supported by the Johnny Johnson Trust, called Youth Afloat. This is where I was introduced to racing as a young boy in Toppers. It was there that my passion for racing started and grew to what it is today.

During those early years, I cycled to my local sailing club and crewed in a Merlin Rocket. I was fortunate ... Read More.

Well the last few weeks have been pretty busy for us, especially after having a few weeks off. We have hit our winter training programme hard this year, with lots of time on the water and in the gym. Most of our time on the water has been spent boat handling which takes quite a dip when we stop sailing for a month. It has been great to get back on the water but its not been easy. The last time ... Read More.

So it was time for the second world's selector at Highcliffe SC for the 420 fleet with my new crew Peter Alton. After the first selector we were lying in 9th open position which we were keen to improve after having had brilliant first day but ... Read More.

The First national ranking event was held in Weymouth on the 18th & 19th September, kicking off the winter season for the 49ers. The race committee set a course out in the bay, and 10 boats left the shore in light breeze. The racing was very good, with all the top boats racing around close together. Team Pink Peacock put in a solid consistent performance, scoring 2,2,2 on day one, not ... Read More.

Pwhelli, Wales, the 15th of August. Most of the fleet have their boats polished and rigged, ready for a few practice hours on the water. Ours is upside down on the trolley, we're already tired thanks to the lengthy drive this morning, and I'm having an argument via text with my sister about who put the juicy oyster scratches on the bottom of the boat after lending it to her for a couple of ... Read More.

The 470 Worlds this year were held in a place called Scheveningen, Holland which many of the 470 fleet had trouble pronouncing (including myself). The venue promised to give challenging racing mainly due to the huge tide which can turn 15 knots wind against tide into a massive day on the water!! This year the Worlds attracted 119 men teams and 61 women teams. The qualification rounds over the ... Read More.

Spain, and my first international event. A far cry from the concrete shores of Weymouth, but with sun, wind, and sandy beaches forecast, I wasn't going to complain. As we stepped off the plane we were met with that smell of the continent which meant it was going to be a good week. Following a friend's directions - which consisted of one text message - we somehow made our way from Girona ... Read More.

So last week Alain and I were out in Gydnia, Poland for the 49er Europeans. We had no idea what to expect before we got there other than it took us a long time to get there from Kiel and the roads are rubbish!

We arrived on thursday with the racing starting on monday, just to give us enough time to get a bit of sailing in and the boat through measurement. The sailing we did in the lead ... Read More.

Glamour location... personally I didn’t expect it, but it’s a nice place and really clean. The locals we have met seem friendly and happy to help. The event is being held in Gdynia, Poland, but we are staying in Sopot which has a great square and loads of nice bars and ice cream shops, and is just generally quite a nice place to hang out.

The sailing has been good, not all that much ... Read More.

Dear Allen,

We have sponsored a boat PIRAT and we won the first race with Allen hardware.

This race called ... Read More.

Last weekend we had a great little open meeting down in Weymouth. There was a good turn-out of 11 British boats and some champagne sailing conditions out in Weymouth bay. The racing was run by Skandia Team GBR coaches Harvey Hillary and Ian Barker, who actually turned out to be better than half the Olympic race committee's! With the first start at 12 we were in by 3 after 4 good races. The ... Read More.

We had far from a normal weeks training last week, in fact the first 2 days we had about 40-50 flim crew for a Skandia Ad. So Skandia have decided to do an advert that involves the 49er squad which was quite cool. On the first day there was a helicopter buzzing around us filming and trying to chop the top off the mast sometimes. Had some great tight racing with 6 49ers zooming around the short ... Read More.

Due to the Volcanic eruption in Iceland, Hyeres preparation this year was quite a bit different to the usual! Following Palma regatta a few weeks earlier we decided to fly home and then fly back a week later to pick up the boats, and to drive them over to Hyeres. The day I was supposed to travel the British air space was closed due to the eruption. This then lead to 4 days of rebooking and ... Read More.

For Team Taylor/Parker-Mowbray this was the last selector in the series for the Worlds and Junior Europeans teams. After a poor start to the season we were out to show that we could get in the mix at the front of the fleet.

The Saturday was spent sunbathing on the beach in the sun as there was no wind and after 6 hours of waiting around the race officer finally decided that enough was ... Read More.

Last week Alain and I were down in Costa del Weymouth for a week of intense tuning and testing with fellow Allen team sailors Pink/Peacock. With the rest of Skandia Team GBR over in France for a regatta it was unusually empty at the sailing academy, but at least it meant we had loads of room on the water. Our focus for the week was testing our equipment and tuning our rig up - because you’re a ... Read More.

This event presented a couple of problems before it even began. The pressure was on, after our not particularly impressive last open meeting at Rutland, which provided all we didn't like about pond sailing, to prove that on the salty waters of Brightlingsea (our home club) we actually had some sort of quality as 29er sailors. Unfortunately, we had already promised a bed - and with it a bit of ... Read More.

Spring ’10 has been a very busy period for us and the rest of the British Sailing Team. Following our success in back in December out in Palamos, we knew we would have to knuckle down in the early stages of this year to keep the momentum going. As it turned out, January wasn’t meant for sailing! The snow meant that it was almost impossible and fairly pointless to trudge down to Weymouth for ... Read More.

The Big drive down to Palma always makes us feel like the start of the new season! Although this year has been a bit backwards, as we have already done the worlds, there is still plenty more events. The first of which is Princess Sofia Regatta, In Majorca, which is where we have been training for the last week.

It has been a good week of training, just doing some speed work. We have ... Read More.

Last week we were down in Weymouth whilst some of the squad were in Palma. Lets just say on the first day we were wondering why we stayed in the UK. Luckily we had a really good solid week on the water and did not miss any planned training days.

The British weather did a good job and most of the week we had plus 15 knots, exactly what we needed to blow the cobwebs away and get back ... Read More.

We are very pleased to be celebrating our 2^nd year of successful trading with our own brand of high quality dinghy fittings. With the onslaught of the recession in 2009 much of the marine industry began to feel the strain. However, during this time Allen has forged some excellent new business relationships and seems to have emerged out of the gloom, stronger and more excited for the ... Read More.

The week before Christmas saw the 3 Skandia Team GBR Development Squad Men’s 470’s travel to Palamos, Spain for the annual Christmas Regatta. As in previous years a full range of weather and wind conditions were thrown at the fleet.

Day 1 of the regatta was sailed in ‘classic’ Palamos conditions, anything from 0-15 knots off the land with huge differences in wind speed and direction ... Read More.

So it's the time of year for the Rutland Challenge Tiger Trophy to raise money for the John Merricks sailing trust. With over 160 entrants it was looking to be a good year with a lot of competition.

With an early start on Saturday morning we drove the two hour journey to Rutland Sailing Club. As we got closer the temperature started to drop to 0 degrees compared to the moderate 5 ... Read More.

We did not have a great first day despite winning the first race. Then it picked up until we were lying 3rd overall going into the last day but dropped to 6th before the medal race, then had an ok medal putting us into 5th overall! We made a lot of mistakes and it was a whole new learning curve being in that position in the fleet. So now we have a load more to work on in time for the Europeans ... Read More.

Allen previewed two high performance rudder stocks for Wayfarer and Fireball at this years leading industry trade show METS in November. The stunning design certainly caught the eye of the visitors on the stand and created a real buzz of interest.

The designs are based on cleverly interlocking precision machined components, and do away with the ... Read More.

The summer has proved to be a turbulent time for my Olympic Sailing Campaign. Within Skandia Team GBR there have been countless crew changes in the Men’s and Women’s Squads. A number of old partnerships have broken down, new ones have formed, people have left the programme and new faces have joined. I know within the men’s Development Squad, this has been due to the fierce competition to meet ... Read More.

In June 2009, Allen Brothers, leaders in high performance sailing hardware, brought out the new EZI-TI Block Range. These are amongst the smallest and lightest range of tie on blocks available. The Allen design team were able to create a compact, resilient, weight and money saving block, with line friendly contours and Allen’s pioneering work in ‘Dynamic BearingTechnology’ at its core for ... Read More.

420 newcomers James Parker-Mowbray and Chris Taylor finished 10^th at the Lymington Youths. This being only the 2^nd competition they have taken part in together since commencing their 420 sailing was a pleasing result and as Chris puts it “ the conditions were horrible, with more tide than wind for half the time, so our counting results of a 9,9,9 were consistent! ... Read More.

The Merlin Rocket Nationals took place at Whitstable Yacht Club from the 16^th – 21^st August. Mark Barnes kept us up-to-date with very exciting daily reports from the event and lovely photos courtesy of Nick Champion. By all accounts they had a fantastic week, with great weather conditions and good social and the racing was very keen and close.

With one point ... Read More.

Last week saw the UK Cherub class head down to Babbacombe Corinthian Sailing Club in sunny Devon. Racing was scheduled from Wednesday 12th to Saturday 15th but a large proportion of the fleet decided to head down early and test the water before the championships began. Monday and Tuesday were sunny and winds were light which allowed for plenty of bimbling, tanning and ice cream eating for the ... Read More.

Dear Kim and the team at Allen Brothers

On behalf of HiTechsailing I would like to extend our gratitude for all the custom work undertaken by your company on our behalf.

As you are aware, the Olympic Finn, like other classes requires a certain amount of “custom” products to make everything work properly. Whether you are producing a product for the potential Olympian or for fun ... Read More.

British pair Rick Peacock and John Pink took silver after a superb final day at the 49er World Championship in Riva del Garda, Italy, on Sunday.

Winning duo Tim and Chris do it again in style...

Allen, who design and produce all their precision engineered boat fittings in their Southminster factory, sponsor double winning Feva partnership Tim Gratton and Chris Taylor. Tim and Chris successfully defended their 2008 title to become RS Feva 2009 Nationals Champions at Weymouth over the Bank Holiday ... Read More.

Allen Brothers has moved purposefully forward in the past 12 months; since parting company with Holt early last year Allen's focus has been on investing in new technology to produce high quality products designed specifically for the needs of its core market. These are athletic, demanding, competitive sailors at the top of their sport, who expect the highest standards of both functionality and ... Read More.

The Allen team were thrilled to be exhibiting in their own right at the Dinghy Show for the first time this year. It was an opportunity for them to show that the business is thriving, and producing the same precision engineered products and performance hardware from their factory in Essex as they have done for more than 50 years.

Saturday was absolutely buzzing and the atmosphere was ... Read More.

http://rsyouthsailing.org/rsfeva/

Andy Budgen reports on the performance of their Allen hardware during the JJ World Championships in Sydney Australia.

The Allen A2160 60mm switchable ratchet blocks have proved to be strong and hard-wearing with great holding power - They're perfect for those tight 3-sail reaches in the 18.

The 30mm dynamic is a great running, all round block. We use these everywhere on 'The ... Read More.

From Yachts and Yachting website

Britain’s 49er sailing coach Harvey Hillary says he is buoyed by his squad’s dominant display at the World Championship in Freeport, Bahamas, even though Skandia Team GBR’s crews ended the regatta on Saturday empty-handed.

There was no silverware this time round for the British crews, who’ve won medals ... Read More.

The British Gold and Dutch Silver medal winning Yngling boats were built during 2008 by Petticrows of Burnham-on-Crouch. Allen Brothers were delighted to work with Petticrows supplying the custom fittings for the boats and are thrilled at the success of the whole of GBR’s sailing team - a fantastic achievement.

....Read More.

Pictures tell a thousand words!
This is a great video of the 29ers racing on Lake Garda a week ago. Our sponsored sailors Lily Carlisle and Becky Wallbank were amongst them, as was Allens' Liz's son Tom Adams and helm Ben Harden - we wont mention their results - the conditions and competition were testing to say the least and they all did extremely well considering.

The low profile 'Stealth' folding deck cleat has been designed for safety and protection of the crew as well as its aesthetic sleek design.

Installation of the 'Stealth' cleat is simple and allows for fast fitting by the boat builder. As the product is surface mounted it is not necessary to provide drainage and the associated below deck works. However for a smooth look on moulded ... Read More.

For more than 50 years Allen Brothers have supported our British Olympic sailors with supply of bespoke high performance sailing fittings.

Our latest innovation is this spinnaker halyard top block developed for the 49er.

A critical time for the 49er crew is the hoist of the spinnaker, the last thing they need after the last windward mark rounding is for the halyard to seize in ... Read More.

Allen launch their exciting new Ezi-Ti block range

Whilst the concept of lashing blocks is one of the oldest traditions in sailing history, the Allen design team have taken a new look and applied the latest line technology and design thinking to an age old technique.

The new Ezi-Ti block range consistS of a 20, 30 and 40mm sheave size. In common with Allen's current dynamic ... Read More.

Allen Brothers, one of the leading names in the design and manufacture of sailboat fittings, is to sponsor the first event of the season in the UK Mirror Class Association’s Nationwide Series, the Eastern Championships this weekend at Burnham on Crouch.

Around 40 Mirror dinghies, the classic ... Read More.

Allen Brothers, which recently took the move to market its Holt Allen product range under the Allen brand, now has its Essex based warehouse fully stocked and orders are flowing in from around the world.

With Pro-Boat appointed as UK, Ireland and Channel Island distributor to chandleries for the range, and boatbuilders being able to purchase direct from Allen Brothers, the company is ... Read More.

The question of what will make a vessel sail faster without increasing the risk of capsizing is one that has pre-occupied mankind for thousands of years, making sailing one of the longest and most developed activities of modern times.

In the contemporary era, the advent of dinghy sailing has become widely popular and amongst many a very competitive sport. Since the dawn of the 1950s, ... Read More.