Homemade shackles secure our boat during Harvey

[Pilgrimtex]

Thank you all for your positive replies.
These shackles were made of 1/4" New England Ropes HTS-75 Dyneema. The shackles are my latest design in my drive to develop a shackle where the failure mode was the Dyneema itself and not from construction techniques.
The line has a breaking strength of 9,700 lbs. I had this design test through my friends at Stix-n-Riggin. Bryan's brother owns an hydraulics shop. They tested the shackle at 25,000 lbs and my post mortem on them found a construction technique that needed changing. I'm waiting for test results to hopefully bring my shackles above the present 260% strength of the Dyneema line.
I will remove my storm lines tomorrow and check for chafe.
I would offer them for sale on the forum if i new how to go about it. I'm selling Dyneema line organizers presently through Stix. They also use me for a source for shackles if they get too busy to make their own or need a special application. They don't tie the button knot.

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Those cleats are very strong, and through bolted to the dock structure. Seabrook shipyard has new, well made docks.

Ah, good. Thanks for the inside info!

Since you're still posting I'm guessing you weathered well, thankfully.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

Ah, good. Thanks for the inside info!



Since you're still posting I'm guessing you weathered well, thankfully.

All good here, re-assembled the boat yesterday, except for the Bimini.

[SSgtPitt]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

All good here, re-assembled the boat yesterday, except for the Bimini.

I'll be there in the morning, doing the same thing. What did you find?

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by SSgtPitt

I'll be there in the morning, doing the same thing. What did you find?

Silt in the parking lot......and all of the damm spiders made it through unscathed.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by SSgtPitt

I'll be there in the morning, doing the same thing. What did you find?

But we're in Kemah, not corpus.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

SNIP

The soft shackle we use for attaching snubber to chain made with 6mm dyneema has held through several storms at anchor (prolonged 50-60 knots with higher gusts).

SNIP

Seaworthy Lass, thank you for all your advice and encouragement you provided me when I first started my soft shackle adventure; it was invaluable.

While I have found several uses for them I did not think about using one when anchoring.

I have a catamaran and currently use a nylon bridle attached to the anchor chain with a metal shackle. Could you advise me how you would attach a soft shackle. Maybe I am just over thinking this and it is a simple direct attachment.

In any case thanks again for all your good advice and your effort to keep us current with the state of soft shackles.

As an aside when another poster mentioned one needs to consider the time spent making a soft shackle I had to laugh. Once I use the online calculator to get the various measurements it only seems to take minutes to make one. The really time consuming part is putting the soft shackle on a fence post and using a come along to tighten things up; but if you do it in bulk after making several soft shackles things go really fast.

And thanks again for all your effort; you are a star at CF.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by tomfl

Seaworthy Lass, thank you for all your advice and encouragement you provided me when I first started my soft shackle adventure; it was invaluable.

While I have found several uses for them I did not think about using one when anchoring.

I have a catamaran and currently use a nylon bridle attached to the anchor chain with a metal shackle. Could you advise me how you would attach a soft shackle. Maybe I am just over thinking this and it is a simple direct attachment.

In any case thanks again for all your good advice and your effort to keep us current with the state of soft shackles.

As an aside when another poster mentioned one needs to consider the time spent making a soft shackle I had to laugh. Once I use the online calculator to get the various measurements it only seems to take minutes to make one. The really time consuming part is putting the soft shackle on a fence post and using a come along to tighten things up; but if you do it in bulk after making several soft shackles things go really fast.

And thanks again for all your effort; you are a star at CF.

Thanks for your kind words .

The attachment between snubber and chain is direct, so the thickness of dyneema you can use is limited. 6mm dyneema is the most you can easily poke through 10mm chain links. If you are making a high strength soft shackle it needs to be long enough so that the thicker portion with the tails buried is not going through the links.

I put an eye splice with a SS thimble in the nylon octoplait snubber. In the photo below a plastic one was used only as I had nothing else on hand at the time:

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I don't think he did and neither did you. There are no shackle pins used. The OP stated one of the reasons. Did you read his post?

I think you are being nit-picky, The point is that the bearing surface of the Dyneema is obviously less than that of the cleat bends and thus constitutes both a wear point and stress riser. I referred to Dyneema as cutting though the dock line in my post, making my meaning obvious.

Regarding pins, I assumed that was simply a brain fart. He would not have come up with the idea of a stress point if he had not looked at the picture.

I am 100% certain this would be stronger and wear better without the Dyneema. I have pull tested Dyneema against nylon and polyester in this way. One solution would be to put some webbing around the Dyneema. Of course, the cleat will give first and it is chafe and other factors (line length etc.) that matters.

The one argument I like was the cleat overfill issue. Yup, that can be a problem and this is possible solution. A simpler solution would be for each line to have a Dyneema loop at the end. Easier to make and easier to protect from chafe; Just cover it with either NER Spectra chafe sleeve or tubular webbing dipped in Maxijacket.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by thinwater

I am 100% certain this would be stronger and wear better without the Dyneema. I have pull tested Dyneema against nylon and polyester in this way. One solution would be to put some webbing around the Dyneema. Of course, the cleat will give first and it is chafe and other factors (line length etc.) that matters.

The one argument I like was the cleat overfill issue. Yup, that can be a problem and this is possible solution. A simpler solution would be for each line to have a Dyneema loop at the end. Easier to make and easier to protect from chafe; Just cover it with either NER Spectra chafe sleeve or tubular webbing dipped in Maxijacket.

Chafe is my biggest concern (the bollards on board are super strong). Our bulwarks are fairly high and the line will be rubbing the top of these. I mentioned in my earlier post that I was planning to make some dyneema loops for this application (and cow hitching this to an eye splice on the line). I had not considered adding chafe protection to the eye splice in the mooring line attached to it. Do you think this is required?

[JPA Cate]

I had not considered adding chafe protection to the eye splice in the mooring line attached to it. Do you think this is required?

Cheap insurance; it's easy to cut through nylon.

Ann

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Cheap insurance; it's easy to cut through nylon.

Ann

I am considering using a type of mooring line used extensively by fishing boats here in the Netherlands. It is something a local aluminium Stadship owner recommended: Lankhorst Rope's Tipto 12.

There is not much information regarding its specifications, but unlike nylon it is listed as having "very good" chafe and UV resistance. The strength is similar to nylon & polyster. The stretch characteristics are closer to nylon. It is around half the weight of polyester. It floats so this minimises the risk of being caught in the prop. It is inexpensive.

The drawbacks are that it doesn't handle as well (or look as flash) and it is more slippery, but I think its positives easily outweight the negatives.

I am just working out how to eye splice it. The only instructions I can find are a Youtube in Dutch and I am scratching my head trying to figure it out.

SWL

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I am considering using a type of mooring line used extensively by fishing boats here in the Netherlands. It is something a local aluminium Stadship owner recommended: Lankhorst Rope's Tipto 12.

There is not much information regarding its specifications, but unlike nylon it is listed as having "very good" chafe and UV resistance. The strength is similar to nylon & polyster. The stretch characteristics are closer to nylon. It is around half the weight of polyester. It floats so this minimises the risk of being caught in the prop. It is inexpensive.

The drawbacks are that it doesn't handle as well (or look as flash) and it is more slippery, but I think its positives easily outweight the negatives.

I am just working out how to eye splice it. The only instructions I can find are a Youtube in Dutch and I am scratching my head trying to figure it out.

SWL

It's actually available in Australia:
12 Strand Tipto Twelve

"Material: High tenacity Polypropylene"

Their PDF splicing instructions here (in English):

http://www.leaustralia.com.au/templa...structions.pdf

Also, brochure here: http://www.lankhorstropes.com/bestan...lve%20(R2).pdf

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by StuM

It's actually available in Australia:
12 Strand Tipto Twelve

"Material: High tenacity Polypropylene"

Their PDF splicing instructions here (in English):

http://www.leaustralia.com.au/templa...structions.pdf

Also, brochure here: http://www.lankhorstropes.com/bestan...lve%20(R2).pdf

Thanks for this, Stu. I was truly baffled by the Dutch instructions I found.

The pdf I loaded did not list the material. Lankhorst simply implied it was possibly some kind of recycled plastic. I looked up the specs of standard polypropelene, but they did not match (eg specific gravity was highe for Tipto).

I will have a go splicing it tonight. I bought 12m of 16mm just to make a short, easy to use dockline. These are always handy.

For those unfamiliar with it (as I was), this what Tipto looks like:

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

.....The stretch characteristics are closer to nylon.......

Doesn't it look a bit low from this website for used rope?
TIPTO TWELVE