We’ve ordered a few things from Garhauer Marine in the past and I’ve always been impressed at how they can offer high quality, heavy duty sailboat hardware at an unbelievably low price. And, they back it all up with a 10 year unconditional guarantee.
Earlier this year they built us a new custom unibody mainsheet traveler to replace the old teak & steel unit that came from the factory in ’77. The old traveler was basically a metal slide on a metal t-track screwed to a teak beam. Even if the track hadn’t been been gummed up in Cetol drippings as ours was, the curve of the arch and the friction between the slide and the track made it very difficult to adjust under load. The new traveler glides like a hockey puck over a freshly surfaced sheet of ice. A true work of aluminum and stainless art at roughly 1/2 the price of a similar Harken unit. Unfortunately, still it sits, boxed up in our storage unit due to some unforeseen dry rot repair that took priority over its installation this summer.
The 9.9 horse Honda outboard on our dingy weighs about 100 lbs. and getting it on and off the transom without dropping it in the water is no laughing matter. Several days ago the Big Brown Truck delivered our latest acquisition from Garhauer; the outboard motor lifting arm that mounts to our radar mast. Highly polished and heavily built, once again Garhauer did not fail to impress. That is, at least until I tried to mount it. The brackets I ordered (clearly written on the packing slip) were for a 2″ diameter radar mast, but the ones they shipped me were for 2-1/2″. After a quick call to Garhauer I was promised the correct brackets would be shipped that day. Two days later the arm was installed and I was hauling my my outboard up to the rail. Now I just need to build that motor mount so I have some place to hang it.
