Stainless steel housing, a white, ribbed plastic disc and the characteristic clicking sound when the sheet is pulled through: anyone who has not learnt to sail on a tall ship is likely to have come across the classic creaking block. There is hardly a training dinghy from the last 50 years that has not been or is not equipped with the fitting developed by the exceptional Danish sailor Paul Elvstrøm.
A revolution at the beginning of the sixties, today it has long since become standard: the combination of a deflection and ratchet bollard enables comfortable and energy-saving sailing, as the block intercepts part of the sheet pull, but immediately releases the line for furling.
Even if the classic is still manufactured by Andersen (it didn't even do badly in our test): Development has of course continued. Ten alternatives are now available in the typical foot block size for ten-millimetre ropes, with a price range from 31 to almost 100 euros and full-bodied advertising promises: The sheet tension can be reduced to a twentieth with the right block, and the ratchet function only starts automatically under load if required.
But is the block that costs three times as much also three times as good, and what makes a product a perfect creaking block?
You can read about this and how the individual candidates fared in the big test in the current issue of YACHT, 16/2011.
Hauke Schmidt
Test & Technology editor
