Ronstan’s new orbit blocks suit more than just ILCAs
Ronstan says its new Series 25 Ball Bearing Orbit Blocks hit the sweet spot between size, strength, and weight as it strives to support competitive sailors with compact, efficient hardware where every gram matters.
The blocks were designed with the ILCA dinghy in mind and suit other dinghy and small boat applications, with an impressive strength-to-weight ratio which is well suited to control line systems such as mainsheets and spinnaker sheet turning blocks, cunninghams, and cascading vangs, says the company.
“They are already being fitted as OEM-spec standard equipment on some ILCA hulls and are available for the public,” says Jason Belben, SailTek (the official Ronstan distributor in the UK). “They hit a sweet spot that didn’t exist in the market before, perfectly balancing size, strength, and weight. In fact, the new Series 25 blocks have the same 8mm line capacity as the larger Series 30 blocks.
The Series 25 Orbit Block completes the ILCA dinghy complete Ronstan fitout.
Built around high compression strength acetal sheave, the stainless steel hub supports versatile lashing configurations and includes through-sheave becket functionality. For demanding applications, the range includes the RF28109HL high load model, featuring a Grade 2205 stainless steel sheave and a ball bearing race with Grade 304 stainless steel ball bearings. These blocks are said to be ideal for modern foiling dinghies and other setups using small-diameter high-load lines.
Ronstan is headquartered in Australia. Belben says that so far Sailtek hasn’t been adversely affected by Trump tariffs (his company also imports to the UK from Denmark). “In terms of tariff worries for SailTek Ltd, we import goods from Australia and Denmark and as yet have not been affected and if anything exchange rates have worked in favour, although I am sure there will be knock on effects from the fall out.
“The consequence of Brexit with border customs continue to cause delay, extra expense and uncertainty with goods from Denmark, however Australia obviously remains as it was before, which seems more streamline.”
Ronstan is owned by the French-owned Wichard Groupe which operates 13 manufacturing facilities, eight of which are in France, along with three strategic platforms across France, Denmark, Romania, the US, Australia and Indonesia.
