Harken® CLR™ Mooring Winch Wins DAME Design Category Award

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The new Harken® CLR™ mooring winch won the award for the best product in the Deck Equipment, Sails and Rigging category of the 2018 DAME – Design Award competition, the most significant marine equipment event of its kind in the world. It was presented Tuesday, Nov. 13, in Amsterdam at this year's METSTRADE Show, the world's largest business-to-business trade exhibition for leisure marine equipment. The CLR was among 63 products that were nominated to enter the final rounds of judging.

The DAME jury praised Harken for "offering a fantastic blend of practicality, aesthetics and versatility with this winch, adding value to the owner experience."

They said the CLR was the best of several strong entries highlighting a trend towards "clean deck" focused equipment this year. The CLR pop-up winch is flush to the deck when not in use and offers significant installation weight and space saving over predecessor models.

"Having the CLR Mooring Winch win the category award makes all of us at Harken proud and excited at the same time," said Davide Burrini, Harken's Global OEM Sales Leader. "We are proud of the result of our continued quest for quality and innovation, and excited for the new opportunities that this breakthrough product will bring us, in both sailing and power boat markets. We can't wait to introduce the CLR Mooring Winch to our existing and new OEM, custom and wholesale customers."

Peter Harken, Global CEO, said the award "is really an honor earned by all of the people of Harken. Our company is a made up of people dedicated to quality, the best service and hard work. Without them, this would not be possible."

The CLR is a flush-stowing, deck-mounted powered winch for both sail and power yachts featuring geometry and mechanical characteristics never before seen. There have been other retracting, flush-mounted winches, but none offer the power-for-size ratio offered by the CLR. It stows completely belowdeck and occupies 40% less horizontal and less than 50% of the vertical space required by the previous market leaders. Plus, the CLR weighs just 33% of its competition while delivering comparable mechanical advantage. This gives naval architects more usable belowdeck space.

This compact form makes it possible for yachts to mount two CLR winches at the stern quarters and one in the bow. Together, three CLRs can reduce the need for engine and thruster power while helping crews moor stern-to-dock in the traditional Mediterranean style.

The CLR employs unprecedented winch drum geometry. Five distinct aluminum columns rotate together around a center axis. Working together, they create a very light drum that provides substantially more line-holding power and low-speed torque than would be available using a traditional drum. The CLR offers internal LED lights at the bottom of each column for use in low-light mooring situations.

Harken produces two versions of the CLR: 600 kg max pulling force for boats from 13.7 m -18.2 m and 1200 kg for boats from 18.2 m – 27.4 m. It is available in 12 or 24 volt electric or hydraulic power. The CLR flush deck plates are available in aluminum, chrome or wood grain finishes.

Harken has won numerous awards since the DAME program was started in 1991. The company won the Overall Award and Runner-up Award in 1995. Harken has won Category Awards five times and has received 14 Special Mention and Honorable Mention awards. In 2000, Harken was named Company of the Decade to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the awards.

"Harken has consistently placed item after item on the judging table that has served as a benchmark not only for the fiercely competitive Deck Equipment, Sails and Rigging category but also for the overall prize," said Tony Castro, chairman of the DAME jury at the time. "Harken's efforts are the essence of all that the DAME awards seeks to encourage and the jury commend and admire them for their efforts."

For 28 years, the DAME Design Award has focused attention on the art and science of design in all aspects, from styling, functionality and innovation, through to ease of implementation, practicality of use – and even packaging. It is judged by a panel of top naval architects, boat, interior, and industrial designers, plus user experts.

Harken, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of innovative sailboat hardware and accessories. Headquartered in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, Harken manufactures in the USA and Italy. Its network includes distribution in 48 countries, with group offices located in Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Rhode Island, California, and Florida).

By Ocean Navigator