Best Halyard Shackle for Cruising

[MarkJ]

Hi Filks


What the best Halyard shackle for the main halyard for a normal slab reefed main?

Also best halyard knot while I'm about it!

Maybe its just 'any shackle" and a Bowline.... life could be so easy!


Mark

[LakeSuperior]

I like the buntline hitch for sheets and the bowline for the halyard. The buntline is more compact than the bowline but can be harder to untie.

[svaletheia]

Personally I have an appropriately oversized Schaefer bow shackle with a tight bowline around a metal eye reinforcement (is there a technical term for those?). I always put the eye reinforcement in when using a shackle to increase the radius on high tension lines as well as to help offer chafe protection. Bowline knots seem to hold just fine - I've had this one in for several years and never needed to take it out. It hasn't slipped so far...

[donradcliffe]

Defender calls it a 'key shackle' by Wichard-it will never shake loose. Splice the halyard end around a stainless thimble to eliminate chafe.

[Dockhead]

Choose with care -- halyard shackles can get pretty loaded up. We had one break on our staysail in heavy weather (50-odd knots) last year -- it was not a pleasant moment.

We now use a Wichard shackle there which cost a surprisingly large amount of money, I think the equivalent of over $100. We have wire halyards (so far) so I can't tell you about knots, but we use bowlines for sheets and would probably do he same for halyards.

[Bash]

Eyesplice. Knots are for dinghies.

[svaletheia]

"Silly sailor, knots are for dinghies."

Wait, what? I've raced boats, cruised and crewed on cruising boats, etc... and have yet to see a dedicated eye splice for a main halyard - at least on any boat I've been on. No issues to report from bowlines, either. An eye splice in braided rope is an absolute bitch and not something I'm willing to do by hand for each of my 5 halyards...

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Bash

Eyesplice. Knots are for dinghies.

LOL You should see my eyesplices on Lil Dinks new painter.

They are a real cracker! You'd never reccomend me do one for real. LOLOL

[roverhi]

I've done over 10,000 miles using knots, not metal shackles, for fastening halyards to the sail. Got bopped in the hard with a loose jib halyard shackle which beat some sense into my head. Have mostly used bowline but have switched to the buntline hitch because of the more slippery nature of the modern low stretch ropes.

The Buntline Hitch

Be sure and leave a good tail on any knot but especially a bowline as they can shake loose without it.

Knots do lower the breaking strenght of rope. Think that is not an issue as halyards are so much stronger than any possible load I could put on it. If you are using some high tech string with a small strength reserve it might be an issue but then you couldn't handle it without an added braid cover. Something that probably is foreign to most of us with 3/8" or larger halyards.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

LOL You should see my eyesplices on Lil Dinks new painter.

They are a real cracker! You'd never reccomend me do one for real. LOLOL

...I once again reflect that you really don't deserve to be living the life you're living.

We should change lives, and quickly. I'll take care of the splice; you're scheduled to lecture in an hour.

[svaletheia]

Originally Posted by Bash

...I once again reflect that you really don't deserve to be living the life you're living.

We should change lives, and quickly. You're scheduled to lecture in an hour.

What the hell does being able to make a perfect splice in braided line have to do with "deserving" any kind of particular life, except maybe that of a professional rope splicer?

The true necessity of splicing a line is so rare (and usually such a premeditated need) as to be purchaseable in advance these days - any thing a sailor SHOULD be able to handle in emergency situations is not something that presents time for a splice anyway.

Yes, eyesplices are nice. They are pretty. They weaken the line much the same as a decent bowline or buntline hitch, and in badly executed cases, much worse. They are not the One True Way to hitch a halyard to the head of a sail, just as a bowline or buntline is not a One True Way - they all work effectively, have all proven themselves through time, etc...

Please don't cloud the issue with some talk of "deserving", and do show some respect for the fact that different people value and need different things from this lifestyle. With your rating on this forum, I know you can post better things than that.

[svaletheia]

... or, having re-read your post, you might have been joking and I might be overly sensitive having just defended some cruising friends who were actually hassled in a similar manner by someone who was NOT joking...

In which case carry on, apologies for the broken humor detector.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by svaletheia

... or, having re-read your post, you might have been joking and I might be overly sensitive having just defended some cruising friends who were actually hassled in a similar manner by someone who was NOT joking...

In which case carry on, apologies for the broken humor detector.

You probably missed the context that Mark and I are friends, and that he is well aware of the esteem I hold for him, his project, and the elf who accompanies him. He has always seemed to intuit that when I complain that he's going to wear out his boat, I regard that as a good thing.

Regardless, I expect him in the lecture hall 1/2 hour from now.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Bash

I expect him in the lecture hall 1/2 hour from now.

What, pray tell, an I expousing me knowledge on? I mean both 'on' as in is it an all female audience, and what are they expecting to learn? I have a few jokes against most professions to break the ice then I can then just ramble till they fall asleep.

[svaletheia]

Originally Posted by Bash

You probably missed the context that Mark and I are friends, and that he is well aware of the esteem I hold for him, his project, and the elf who accompanies him. He has always seemed to intuit that when I complain that he's going to wear out his boat, I regard that as a good thing.

Regardless, I expect him in the lecture hall 1/2 hour from now.

Yes, yes I did. almface:

I hope he is a good lecturer. I can see sort of an inverse Capt'n Ron occurring... "Oh, don't worry about that. Triethylbenzene is perfectly safe to play around with in chem lab! And let me show you how to splice a braided line while we're at it. Swab, hand me those goggles."