Unveiling the BB Soft Shackle

[SaltyPaws1]

I do both. With a fender washer against the stopper, I attach the eye to a aluminum beam overhead in my cockpit. The suspend my meager 165 lbs by grasping the washer. Then I remove the washer & close the shackle around the center portion of a cleat. Then attach a line to a winch and to the shackle. Carefully placing the shackle so that the stopper is vertical, and the eye is horizontal against the cleat, I tighten the line that is pulling horizontally. I will slightly tension, then release and rotate the stopper 180°, tension again slightly more, release rotate 180°, then really crank down. Let it stay under tension for a few hours.
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[Amsteelbluez]

I've been making my softshackles with 1 extra step that I do not see anyone else doing on here. After burying and before tying the button knot, I milk the burying as much as I can, then I pull the burry sleeve through the buried end.

This makes a failsafe for accidentally pulling the buried end too much and losing the loop created on the other end.

Any reason why I don't see this?


Edit

Oo I see it now. Instead of putting after the burying, you put it before the bury.

I am going to try

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by Amsteelbluez

extra step

just a general-purpose comment on dyneema: it is usually best to minimize complications in dyneema constructions - the fewer 'steps', the less distortion of the weave, the less opportunity to have uneven legs/buries usually the better as dyneema is very sensitive to little unevennesses.

Often I have tried to add some extra step that I think is clever, and then do break testing and the strength has measurably gone down.

OFC if you are introducing an extra step in order to create a particular feature you highly value, then by all means, but realize it may well decrease strength by some amount.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Breaking Waves

just a general-purpose comment on dyneema: it is usually best to minimize complications in dyneema constructions - the fewer 'steps', the less distortion of the weave, the less opportunity to have uneven legs/buries usually the better as dyneema is very sensitive to little unevennesses.

Often I have tried to add some extra step that I think is clever, and then do break testing and the strength has measurably gone down.

OFC if you are introducing an extra step in order to create a particular feature you highly value, then by all means, but realize it may well decrease strength by some amount.

A year ago I posted this comment:

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Three years down the track, this is an update on what I am doing:

- Lately, instead of a central bury I have been tending to simply pass one leg directly through the other so that it creates a lock if the eye is opened very widely. I am only using very short central buries (even shorter than in the last photo from June 2017) if I need a longer soft shackle. Doing either of these things means the legs are not left loose to flap around, as they are in Kohlhoff style soft shackles. I don’t know if this can cause the eye to loosen when not under load, but it certainly looks disconcerting and it does improve handling….

I now usually skip any central bury at all, instead adding another pass of one leg through the other if the shackle is very long.

I will post a photo during daylight hours tomorrow.

SWL

[Seaworthy Lass]

This is my current method of constructing high strength soft shackles:

Short ones where the bury reaches or almost reaches to base of the eye are left Kohlhoff style.

For medium length ones I add a crossover about 20 line diameters away from the base of the eye, which stops the legs from flopping around individually while not under load (I find that disconcerting more than anything).

Extra long soft shackles have an additional crossing added as shown below: