Had there been a prize for the best stand attraction at this weekend’s Sailboat & Windsurf Show at Alexandra Palace, Holt would have scooped top prize. Holt – manufacturers of some of the best dinghy fittings in the world – transformed their usual professional fittings display stand into a fun factory/creche and successfully managed to attract 100s of visitors to the stand on the Saturday for the Blow Boat Challenge.

For a small donation of £1 which went to the John Merrick Sailing Trust, each competitor – ranging from three year olds upwards – was handed a blow boat kit consisting of balsa wood, sailcloth and various other items that could be used to produce a top performing ‘racing dinghy’.

With the competitive spirit oozing from every Holt fitting on the stand, kiddies and adults worked hard preparing and fairing their hulls and tweaking rigs before putting their craft to the test on the timed, championship drainpipe racecourse. Unfortunately Holt’s underestimated the success of the competition and after 80 entries was forced to bring the event to a close.

Going in to the Blow Off finals in the under 16 age group later in the afternoon, Adam Fox, age 12 from Stewartby Watersport Centre had the best time of 4.89 seconds, while Tom Dawber, age 13, from Delph Sailing Club had 6.34 seconds and Harry Isherwood, age 11 of Chew Valley Sailing Club had 6.37 seconds. The winner was Harry Isherwood who blew his boat home in an impressive 3.37 seconds to take first place with Adam Fox close behind with 3.76 seconds and Tom Dawber, whose modifications caught him out, with a dnf.

In the adults final, Olympic Tornado sailor Adam May was beaten by Ian Nolan with a final run of 4.34 seconds.

A total of £200 was donated to the John Merrick Sailing Trust.

In between all the fun and games, Holts were keen to show off their new range of 20mm Dynamic Blocks which have been specifically developed with the new breed of the performance racing dinghies in mind. According to Holt, by incorporating stainless steel ball bearings and stainless steel bearing surfaces in to its block, performance has increased by 50 per cent with only a negligible increase in weight. The HA2021 Dynamic Multi block weighs just 11.5g, has a Max dynamic load of 125, a breaking load of 350 and a price tag of £5.56.

For more details log on to: www.holtallen.com or e-mail sales@holtallen.com.