The boom is extruded from 6082 aluminium, which gives durability, strength and stiffness whilst being able to resist the marine environment.
The extruded profile features rounded bottom corners to ensure any head scraping moments do not cause serious injury! The rounded profile also limits the damage done to the deck when the boom is inevitably dropped when packing away. The rounded profile does not make the boom any bendier than others available on the market.
The new OK boom features 3 mainsheet positions to suit different fit-outs. The three holes are drilled through a neutral axis to resist bending forces and then fitted with aluminium through bushes to allow for soft attachment of blocks.
The Allen Sailing, OK Nationals were hosted by Herne Bay SC from the 14-17th of June. With a few notable OK regulars absent, the National Championship was setting up to be a very open event with several potential winners. This was indeed the case, with lots of different faces at the front of the fleet and a different race winner each time.
Thursday dawned with a light 5kt NNE breeze. A quick 1 lap practice race took place, to get the race team and mark layers ready to rumble – with the light forecast for the weekend there was plenty of action for the race team – who did a brilliant job in challenging conditions!
R1 started with some pin bias and a late arrival – Luke Gower. He timed his arrival to perfection, cruising up the start, winning the pin and crossing the fleet on port. Paul Childs worked up the left and Russ Clark the right. Both boats came in closely together at the top, with Russ sailing off for a comfortable win, followed by Childs and Alex Scoles 3rd.
R2, the wind swung 75 degrees to the right as the Sea Breeze arrived. With the tide turning it was a short beat. The breeze built to 12kts and a frantic 4-lap race ensued. Jim Downer in his home-built Leech showed fantastic pace – especially downwind to take the win, followed by Ben Harden from sponsor Allen. Alex Scoles completed the top 3.
Jim Downer led the day on 6pts on countback from Alex Scoles with Russ Clark and Patric Mure (our local Swedish friend) and Ben Harden all joint on 8pints.
After a tight first day, the fleet headed back to shore to enjoy some top hospitality from the kind members of Herne Bay a great BBQ and keeping the bar open until the fleet had had their fill of local Ale.
Unfortunately for day 2, the wind did not play ball however the ice cream and swimming in the sea was delightful. The class dinner that evening gave the fleet a great chance to catch up, hold their AGM and regale each other with old stores and drink more local ale – something the OK fleet is especially good at!
Saturday, was a day to be remembered! Champagne sailing, blue skies and 3 long races.
It left some sailors battered and bruised – the ‘Rudder Sweep’ may not be a good dance move in the nightclubs but has left most sailors with a black and blue bicep to remember Herne by.
Introducing the TiiTAN Block, the latest high-performance sailing pulley from Allen. The TiiTAN is a further development of the industry-leading XHL block range and is charting new territory for the small pulley market.
“Titan – A thing of very great strength” – Oxford Dictionary definition.
Weighing in at only 28 grams makes the TiiTAN the lightest, strongest 30mm ball-bearing pulley available on the market. This is an incredible 30% weight reduction when compared to the groundbreaking 30mm XHL block.
Shustoke SC is on a Severn Trent reservoir covering just over 100 acres. The Shustoke Reservoir website refers to it as ‘a haven of tranquillity for nature lovers, hikers and water enthusiasts, Shustoke Reservoirs are famous for their impressive wildflower displays.’
I hadn’t sailed at Shustoke previously so being able to attend a new venue is something I always look forward to. The forecast was almost perfect, 10kts – 15kts and 23 – 25˚C, the wind direction, however, was going to be directly across the lake so certainly not ideal.
This probably meant the day would contain swirling wind directions at some of the windward marks, short beats and very close racing.
With two events being on consecutive weekends, and the Nationals being only a week away, I was hoping for a good turnout. A very strong home fleet were out in force and on a day where local knowledge could play a factor this was shaping up to be a greats days sailing.
After the obligatory bacon sandwich, we gathered in the sunshine to hear the briefing from the Race Officer for today, John Dransfield. John explained that due to the notorious starting of the Solo fleet, not sure where he got that idea from, he was going to go with the ‘I’ flag (indicates that Rule 30.1 (the around-the-ends rule) is in effect) from the outset.
Carsington Water was the latest venue for the Allen sponsored Solo Midland Area Series. This open was a joint event with the Northern Series so the cream of both series came to compete Sims, Brown, Honnor & Davenport to name a few. Ben Harden from Allen also joined the 25-strong fleet.
With a strong wind forecast, competitors arrived to a good Force 4, with the occasional stronger gust. The race officer for the day explained how he’d heard of the enthusiasm Solos have on start lines, so would be using the U flag from the off. Not wishing to disappoint, the start of the first race was a general recall, resulting in black flags for the rest of the day.
Introducing the new range of DB Deck Organisers designed to lead or divert control lines and halyards with minimal friction.
The Allen DB deck organiser range is available in 20, 30 and 40mm sheave sizes. All feature two lightweight aluminium cheeks, three dynamic bearing sheaves, a becket and nuts and bolts.
The 20mm DB deck organiser is the smallest ball bearing deck organiser available on the market, making it perfect for use in areas where size and weight limitations are a factor.
Easily stacked and with three sheaves and one becket, the DB deck organisers allow for a wide range of rigging options. When stacked the upper organiser is rated to two-thirds of the max working and breaking load. The becket can also be used as a plain bearing sheave, ideal for higher loading static lines.
The Solent Forts Race is a long-distance event held in the Eastern Solent, run by Hayling Ferry SC from their base at the entrance to Langstone Harbour on the southwestern corner of Hayling Island. It is one of the founding events of the Allen Endurance Series, and is open to qualifying multihulls and monohulls. The event is sponsored by Allen, Nacra and GP Sails.
For the first time in its ten-year history, high winds forecast for Sunday forced the Race Officer to pull the event forward to Saturday, holding it on 25th June in place of the usual practice race.
