When it comes to innovation in sailing hardware, it’s often the simplest ideas that are the most profound. You can grasp the basic concept of Karver’s new Flying Cam Cleat at a glance, but it takes considerably longer to enumerate the many things it might be useful for. “Every sailor’s ditty bag ought to have one of these things in it,” proclaimed one of our judges. Many of those ditty bags will, of course, belong to racers (dinghy sailors in particular will like the flying cleat for handling loaded working lines more comfortably), but we think cruisers will ultimately find the most creative uses. The cleat can serve as an instant rolling hitch for jobs like hanging an awning, a Sunshower, a riding light or some bananas in the rig. It will also be very handy for tensioning tie-down lines when you’re stowing gear on deck. There are probably a dozen or more uses we haven’t thought of yet, and come to think of it… we may need more than one in our ditty bag. $100. Karver Systems, karver-systems.com
