Name + replacement advice for small rigging piece?

[dalepo]

I managed to lose a little u-shaped bracket like the one pictured below. I need it to attach the lower pulley set for my mainsheet to the backstay mount on my 22-footer.

Anyone know what this piece is called or where I can find one or whether it'd be possible / advisable to try to fabricate a replacement out of a thin strip of sheet metal?

[psk125]

Those are called shackles. Fabricating one yourself is possible, but probably a waste of time. There's a West Marine in Taylor that should have about 2000 suitable shackles for you to buy. This place: I94 Marine & Watersports – Family Owned Marine Sales Service in Belleville, Michigan (closer than Taylor) may also have them. A local hardware store may have them as well, but you want one made of stainless steel, which they may not carry. Shackles have pins that close off the opening end. Some are threaded. The pins have to be turned hard to keep them from coming out. Some threaded shackles have captive pins that stay attached to the shackle so they don't get lost. Other shackles (like the one you pictured) use clevis pins to close the openings. Clevis pins need cotter pins or rings to keep them from falling out. It looks like your shackle lost its clevis pin. If you can find your old shackle and it isn't too bent out of shape you could keep using it and just get a new clevis and cotter pin. It might save you $1.13 ..

[Bycrick]

In general, they’re called strap shackles. Harken has some called stamped shackles. Not very expensive, maybe $3-6 with the pin.

[dalepo]

Thank you both for these helpful replies. I think the Harken snap shackle is what I'm looking for. Just out of curiosity, what is the functional difference between this component and an eye-jaw toggle, which appears very similar, but costs six times as much?

[StuM]

Apart from size, weight, material, max load? Nothing really
(One weighs 8 grams, the other 57 grams, which sort of explains the size/price difference

[psk125]

The Shafer site says the loading on their "toggle" is based on wire size. 3/16 stainless wire like this: https://www.e-rigging.com/3-16-stain...teel-316-cable has a breaking strength of more than 3500 pounds. You could probably use it to lift your boat from a single point. A bit overkill for your situation - if it fit in the available space.