Halyards - Shackles or Snap Shackles

[john_morris_uk]

The only problem with bowlines is that they take up more space than a halyard knot. This is sometimes a problem if you need to hoist the full length of your mast. (This also applies to shackles). The drawback to halyard knot is that you often can't undo it. The reduction in strength doesn't usually matter as most halyards are oversized for ease of handling so not close to stress limit.

Quite agree. We couldn't raise our mainsail and tension the luff correctly if I put a bowline in the halyard. There's just enough space for a captive pin shackle spliced onto the halyard. (The top sheave is big enough not to matter about the tail of the splice going through it.

Halyard knots are good but the captive shackle on a splice hasn't failed us in twenty years, so what's the problem.

It's also very simple for crew to understand and operate. Halyard knots need to be taught and are often very hard to get undone.

 

[thinwater]

Who cares? By the time you need to untie it, you should trim 6" to move the chafe spots.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Who cares? By the time you need to untie it, you should trim 6" to move the chafe spots.

But we move our main halyard to the back end of the boom when we're not sailing. (With a few turns round the topping lift to stop it humming: see separate thread discussion...)

 

[alan_d]

But we move our main halyard to the back end of the boom when we're not sailing. (With a few turns round the topping lift to stop it humming: see separate thread discussion...)

I think the suggestion is to use the halyard knot to attach the halyard to the shackle, not directly to the head of the sail, so no problem about moving the halyard to the aft end of the boom (or anywhere else).

 

[ghostlymoron]

I think the suggestion is to use the halyard knot to attach the halyard to the shackle, not directly to the head of the sail, so no problem about moving the halyard to the aft end of the boom (or anywhere else).

Not so. On my Mirage, i tied the halyard directly to the sail. This allowed a higher hoist. I guess the sail was slightly too long in the luff. When the sail was flaked, i took the halyard down round a low level cleat and swigged it tight to keep the sail down. To prevent frapping I used a bunghy round a shroud. I didn't take the main off during the season and either untied or cut off the knot at the end of the season.
If hadn't had an issue with hoist height, I'd tie off to a shackle.