Allen renewed as official hardware supplier to the Swedish Sailing Team.

The Swedish Sailing Team has confirmed Allen as their official hardware supplier for another year.

The partnership between Allen and the Swedish Sailing Team was officially announced at the 2020 RYA Dinghy Show, and this extension of the supplier status will further enhance the relationship between the elite athletes and the performance hardware manufacturing company.

Allen manufacture many of the specialised parts for the one-design classes that will be used in the sailing events at Tokyo. The Swedish Sailing Team boasts an impressive 35 sailing medals with 4 teams selected to represent their country in the Finn, 470 men, ILCA Standard and ILCA Radial classes in Tokyo. So, it comes as no surprise that the Swedish team chose Allen as its hardware of choice before the games.

Managing Director of Allen, Liz Adams, commented proudly “We are delighted that the Swedish Sailing Team has extended its partnership with us as their official hardware supplier. By working closely with the elite athletes in the team we are able to further develop our products and ensure that their sailors get the best possible performance hardware to help them win a gold medal!”

Thomas Hansson-Mild of the Swedish Sailing Team stated “It is great to work with Allen and benefit from the 60 years of competitive sailing heritage that they bring to the table. We too have a proud heritage. We won our most recent Olympic medals in London 2012 when Fredrik Lööf and Max Salminen won the gold in the Star and Rasmus Myrgren a bronze in the Laser. We aim for more medals in Tokyo and the cooperation with Allen will greatly improve our chances.”

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Our Biggest Block Yet

Around the world, we are known as a company that produces small boat hardware, but this isn’t strictly true. 

Let us introduce to you to “The Big Boy” just one example of what we can do for bigger boats.

This new 150mm block has been designed to fit on the end of an 8-meter hydraulic ram and has a breaking load of 28 tonnes. The Big Boy weighs 5kg and has a plain bearing sheave with ball bearings to cater for side loads. 

Here at Allen, we are much more than just marine hardware specialists. We are engineering experts who work with a wide variety of companies in different sectors, such as; medical equipment, automotive parts, window manufacturing, public and defence sector, theatre, advertising, aviation and much more.

We can work with such a wide variety of clients due to our multiplicity of in-house resources. Which includes our close-knit team of engineers and designers who can work to deliver premium solutions for custom or mass-production jobs. Allen is also an ISO9001 accredited business, which means we are capable of mass manufacturing high-quality products as well as ensuring a high level of craftsmanship is carried out for custom items. 

“The marine sector, from small leisure boatbuilders to large commercial marine engineers all now face the same issue when outsourcing. We are all in the same boat,” explains Liz Adams, Managing Director of Allen. “Sourcing from anywhere outside the UK now carries a higher level of risk to business continuity than it has in the past. Sourcing from multiple suppliers carries the risk they are buying in materials from abroad. The only way to de-risk is to use UK suppliers who, in turn, source from UK suppliers. If you want to see how it should be done, we have produced a video showing how one of our blocks, the A2060Tii, has been designed and manufactured entirely using services we have in-house.”

As a British family-owned business, we ensure 100% of our products are designed, manufactured and assembled in-house at our factory in Essex. All our materials, where possible, are sourced from within the UK. We also guarantee a competitive and fair price for any job we undertake.

If you have any custom requirements, big or small, marine or non-marine, don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how Allen can solve your problems.

Jon Sturmer Joins Allen

UK performance hardware manufacturer, Allen Brothers (fittings) Ltd, has appointed Jon Sturmer as Business Development Manager.

Jon Sturmer has had an extensive career in the marine industry and has previously worked for Dolphin Sails as the Sales Manager. Taking on the new role at Allen from the start of 2021, Jon will be based at the Allen headquarters in Essex and will be driving the business development and sales in the international marketplace.

“I’m excited to be joining a company that supplies great British designed and manufactured parts to everyone from weekend boaters through to Olympic sailors. Having used Allen products on my own boats and professionally at past jobs, I already knew Allen made great products. It is also important to me that Allen is looking to increase its environmental responsibilities by utilising recycled products as used on the 20 & 30mm plain bearing block ranges. And I am really looking forward to working with Liz and such a knowledgeable team who are passionate about sailing and boats.” commented Jon Sturmer.

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Joey Taylor 2020 Sailing Highlights

In late 2019 I moved from helming 420s to crewing and teamed up with Kuba Staite as my helm.  After only a couple of weekends training together we went to our first 420 event, the Christmas Race in Palamos. The event was 4 days long with 3 days of training beforehand. Palamos is an awesome venue and it was a great experience having 4 solid days training and then being able to test ourselves against other crews from other countries.  Having 8 solid days sailing and racing was a great start to our sailing partnership

After Christmas, we were straight back into training and preparing for the Spring championships in March. After lots of training and getting used to each other in the boat we arrived at Rutland with high hopes. We had two good days in light to medium conditions and managed to finish in 8^th out of 30 boats. Unfortunately, this was the last time we were able to sail together until the summer as we were put into lockdown the week after.

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