Attaching a chain hook to line

[Twister_Ken]

One of these wee beasties...

Attached to three strand with:
a) a soft splice
b) a knot
c) a hard eye splice plus a shackle

Whaddya think?

 

[Tom Price]

That hook

Bowline every time.

 

[Salty John]

Use a rolling hitch - straight onto the chain.

With the chain hook, it needs to articulate a bit so a loose eyesplice or a bowline would be favoured, I think. A shackle would add to the weight and clunkiness so wouldn't be my choice.

 

[Twister_Ken]

What is it to be used for?

To cushion the load on the chain when anchored, so the strain comes through a stretchy line, and not a solid span of chain.

Best pic I could find...

 

[Salty John]

That looks like the 'Captain Hook' snubber from Johnson. It's a fork-like device, a bit more secure than a chain hook.
On a short snubber like that they are OK because the load tends not to come off the hook as often. On a long snubber, 2m or more with a large chain loop, I find the chain rolls over and the chain hook drops off. Not a security problem, but annoying.

 

[Twister_Ken]

John,

One of these fellers?

Haven't bought the hook yet so it could be one of these if they're better. Looks just as vulnerable to falling off to me, though.

(Edit - blimey - just seen the price - close to US$100. Eek.)

 

[VO5]

One of these wee beasties...

Attached to three strand with:
a) a soft splice
b) a knot
c) a hard eye splice plus a shackle

Whaddya think?

No, that is not a proper seamanlike way to do it. You need a proper thimbled strop for the job.

The proper way to go about it is as follows:~

Take a three stranded rope of a reasonable circumference and set a thimble with a splice at one end, really tight and the splice to have at least six tucks.
Split the ends, pair them off and bind them and fuse the tips.

Where this rope goes over the bow roller protect from chafe using tube or turning and serving worming and parcelling.

Make a spliced eye at the other end to go over a cleat or Samson Post. Again, protect the eye from chafe.

Now to the hook attach the thimbled eye by way of a hefty shackle, whose pin ought to be a snug fit in the hook hole. Mouse the Shackle.

You can use a plastic cable tie to mouse the chain hook so it does not slip off. To release. snip off with pliers or cut off with a knife.

I further advise you to take the chain off the gypsy when riding to the strop at anchor.

I have a Y strop that I rig to go over the cleats, through the fairleads with the chain hook because I have had the experience of snapping the Gypsy Arbor when caught at anchor and being suddenly hit by a microburst that appears suddenly with high winds in excess of 45 knots.

 

[electrosys]

I'd be inclined to use an open thimble on it's own, without a shackle.

 

[Salty John]

Eek! is right! I suppose it'll be a chain hook then.

 

[prv]

Personally I'd probably make an eye splice through the hole in the hook, although I accept that there's much to be said for a thimble and shackle from a chafe point of view.

All a bit academic as I can't see the point of these hooks anyway - I just put a mooring warp onto the chain with a rolling hitch.

Pete

 

[Tranona]

Soft eye splice. Ignore the doubters. I have used them for years and they work. Make the strop up long enough to clear the bow roller and a soft splice the other end to go on your cleat.

 

[Robin]

One of these wee beasties...

Attached to three strand with:
a) a soft splice
b) a knot
c) a hard eye splice plus a shackle

Whaddya think?

That is what we use and have done for over 20 years. The 3 strand nylon line is spliced directly to it, then in the main part of the line above the hook is a rubber mooring compensator wound in with 3 or 4 turns for maximum stretch, then through a movable ant-chafe tube. I prefer not to have a loop to the on board end and to have a reasonable amount of spare line tail to allow for more adjustrment. We had two such lines/hooks in fact, one the standard one used 90% of the time and a second with a heavier duty rubber snubber wound in for severe conditions. These snubber lines are also useful to double up mooring lines in exposed visitor berths, taken up just enough so the normal lines just hang slack, this takes all the snatch and jerk squeak and groans out of play nicely.

I personally don't like thimbles and shackles in this application as it makes it clumsier to pull back in over a narrow bow roller if it hasn't dropped free as you raise the chain.

 

[Pinnacle]

I'd be inclined to use an open thimble on it's own, without a shackle.

Thats what I thought I would do.......but I couldnt see any way of opening the thimble enough to be able to get the hook into it ( 20mm 3 strand rope sized galv thimble ).

So I too opted for the spliced thimble with big shackle approach, as per VO5.

 

[fireball]

I've been looking at getting a chain hook - but never quite got around to it ... so instead I use my 'mooring protector warp' - it's about 3m long, 16 or 18mm 3 strand and has a nice big soft eye spliced into one end ...
I place the loop over the chain, put the other end around the chain and back through the loop and then cleat it off on a normal cleat ... the chain then gets loosened off and the whole thing settles down ...
Not that I've anchored in much 'weather' and never had to retrieve in a hurry

 

[Fantasie 19]

Just a thought - and excuse the naivety - why not use a carabine instead??

...that would remove the worry about the hook dropping off, but would still allow you to unclip pretty easily?

 

[prv]

Just a thought - and excuse the naivety - why not use a carabine instead??

In most short-link chain, a suitable-sized carabiner wouldn't fit through.

Pete

 

[ChrisE]

Soft eye splice. Ignore the doubters. I have used them for years and they work. Make the strop up long enough to clear the bow roller and a soft splice the other end to go on your cleat.

+1, have used ours for over 1000 nights at anchor with no problems.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Twister_ken consider the length of the strop. I have one of these hooks and the strop is long enough to take four turns around the primary sheet winch with the hook at the stem head. This allows the anchor to be weighed with a sheet winch if the windlass isn't available.

Of course, this can be done with any appropriate line and a rolling hitch. I had the misfortune on a smaller boat (Moody 31) to have the Bruce anchor stuck in nice, sticky, gumbo clay. This is a easily an anchor that can be handled manually. I cranked down the bow using the sheet winch and waited. About 5 minutes later the bow popped up and I recovered the biggest clay ball ever on the Bruce. So, even on smaller yachts there may be a need.

Just an idea and food for thought.

 

[vyv_cox]

Over many years I have used two types.

The upper one didn't cost $100, there are many similar ones that cost much less. This one failed when I was stern-to in a harbour in the Sporades. In bad surging conditions that hook opened, released the chain and the boat went back far enough to hit the wall. One leg of my stern platform was punched through the transom, fortunately the damage was not too severe.

I replaced it with the lower one which has so far proved to be good. It has the advantage that it tends to fall from the chain as soon as tension on the snubber line is released, making hauling anchor rather easier as no special effort is required to free it before winching.

I have used a bowline for many years without problem. The snubber line is a length of 11 mm nylon doublebraid, which I have used for more than 20 years.

 

[bbg]

Personally I'd go with a soft splice (like the photo in post #6) or a bowline. This is a piece of kit that is going to be handled i.e. seen up close every time it is used. Chafe / wear will be obvious.

Over-engineering a solution is inelegant.