The man who built Alinghi’s America’s Cup winning rigs knows a thing or two about eliminating any scope for failure…
This year Alphalock Systems launched its new Modular Lock System, an outgrowth of its original system from 2018. As with the originals, the new locks are automatic, requiring no triplines. The action is the same: hoist to lock; hoist to unlock.
‘Utter simplicity is the Holy Grail of engineering,’ says Eric Hall, founder and president of Alphalock. ‘I’ve been involved with automatic locks since 2007. Each year the locks became simpler and for a short while, I always thought a simpler lock couldn’t be devised. But then it always could. In 2018 I founded Alphalock Systems and again I thought our locks, with just two moving parts, couldn’t be simpler.’
Yet the new Modular Series is even simpler. It’s reflective of Alphalock’s emphasis on simplicity with no compromise in strength or function. It replaces the original geared double flipper locking system with a single flipper system with only one moving part: the locking flipper. ‘No springs, pins, ball detents or anything else found in other locks,’ says Hall. Read on.
