Who’s it for? A myriad uses on all boat types, these are light and inexpensive enough to buy in bulk and keep as spares. Contact: www.sailtek.org.uk
Ronstan Shock Sheaveless Block
These neat and compact aluminium, low-friction, sheaveless blocks have a multitude of uses. The smallest, weighing just 2g, will take lines of up to 5mm and has a breaking load of 350kg, making it ideal for applications such as lazyjacks or simple lashings on many yachts.
The XL size block will take lines of up to 10mm, weighs 12g and has a 1,000kg breaking load, opening up a much wider variety of applications, including purchase systems or hoists for outboards and passerelles. Alternatively, in the dinghy and keelboat world, they can be used with tweakers, vang systems and barber haulers.
We used the smaller Shock Blocks in the vang system of a one-design keelboat.
Ronstan Shock Block
Price: £30 for two / $15.59 for one
Buy Ronstan Shock Block from Amazon.co.uk
Buy Ronstan Shock Block from Westmarine
Tested by Rupert Holmes
Verdict
This proved to be a neat, streamlined and lightweight alternative to a traditional block, and there was no discernible increase in friction.