December Racing in Texas
- Thread starter Bill19233
- Start date
Garhauer are have stainless side plates and aluminum handles. I have the three original 31 year old clutches port (double + single) and a new triple on starboard. They have never given any trouble or damaged any line by snags or teeth or slippage. elegance, i see the following
Garhauer triple $144 line size 5/16" to 9/16" 72 oz.
Lewmar triple $193 line size 3/8" t 7/16" ? oz.
Spinlock triple $240 line size 1/4" to 1/2" 23.5 oz.
$144 looks pretty elegant to me! And my 31 year old clutches look almost as good and the new one. Garhauer has told me that if one of their clutches ever fails, I can send it to them for repair for a minimal charge.
I do not know about other skippers but that curvy shape and saving a couple of pounds does not float my boat but $100 sure does.
OK. This IS posted in a racing forum, so I'll address it from that point of view. And note I did say I like the stuff.
The hallmark of a good race boat is that it is LIGHT. Light is always better. Light always beats heavy. Always. So you want your boat to be light. But the rub is, you cannot 'add' lightness in one big move. You have to build it in EVERYWHERE, saving a pound here and here. It really really adds up. As you noted, the Garhauer parts is TWO TO THREE times heavier then the bits you normally find on race-boats. Now image on the design of your boat, that on every one of the thousands of choices the designer/builder made, they made the one that saved a few bucks but was 2 to 3x heavier. You 'raceboat' would be an overweight pig by the time you were done.
I have exactly one Garhauer part on BlueJ. It is a SS mast plate. It is very well constructed, and was very reasonably priced. But it is SO overbuilt. It's like there was no structural engineering that went into it, so the shop guys just used very thick SS plate to make it. It looks like it came off the Titanic. Honestly, every time I look at it I say, 'Man, that's heavy!' It could be 1/2 the thickness and half the weight, and still function perfectly and forever.
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As you say there are always tradeoffs. The boat in question is a Hunter 340 which is never going to be a light weight flyer even if all of the hardware, mast and rigging was made out of weightless Unatainium.
I enjoy racing and try to win my fair share of races but I do not try to complete with the sport boats. I would rather save 2 pounds by keeping the $100 difference in my pocket and telling the crew that the post race beer is in the cooler back at the dock.
I enjoy racing and try to win my fair share of races but I do not try to complete with the sport boats. I would rather save 2 pounds by keeping the $100 difference in my pocket and telling the crew that the post race beer is in the cooler back at the dock.
Like I said, I like the the stuff as a product, its just not for me.As you say there are always tradeoffs. The boat in question is a Hunter 340 which is never going to be a light weight flyer even if all of the hardware, mast and rigging was made out of weightless Unatainium.
I enjoy racing and try to win my fair share of races but I do not try to complete with the sport boats. I would rather save 2 pounds by keeping the $100 difference in my pocket and telling the crew that the post race beer is in the cooler back at the dock.
