Rope Shackle for Genoa Sheets

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Snowgoose-1

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I have decided to increase the rope diameter for this year. In the past, I have cow hitched a single length to the sail cringle which stays there for the season. The cringle is too small to fit the new width and I intend using a single rope shackle after making eye splices to both ends of the sheets.


I used to stow jib sheets after use in the days of hank on sails and they looked better and lasted longer. The rope shackle will also make this easier.

Any drawbacks ? , i.e. catching shrouds mast mongery, chaffe etc.

Can't find a rule of thumb for size of rope shackle but I entend using some dyneema shackles.

TIA
 
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I’ve been using a soft shackle for last 3 years on my genoea sheets, it’s 5mm dyneema, never had any sign of coming loose
 
If buying new, why not use a single longer sheet & whip in a single eye in the centre? This will reduce the weight of rope flogging on the clew when tacking as well as less resistance rubbing on the mast etc during the tack. Still use the soft shackle. If you do not like it you can always cut the sheet & splice in 2 eyes later.
 
Pass jibsheet through sail cringle with a figure of 8 knot each side - keep simple as possible

(Edit - Ref DDB #8 below - Cow hitch passes through the cringle twice so rope passing through with knot each side might be OK - or have a bigger cringle fitted)
 
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I gave up using a soft shackle for jib sheets when mine detached and dropped overside...while flogging head to wind near the start of a singlehanded race.
Stressful, and a bad start!
 
No problem with metal shackles other than getting hit in the head and the damamge they do to the mast. No, hard stop. I got away from those 20 years ago, after living with them for 20 years.

Either tie on and live with weathering of rope, or use soft shackles. I would lay odds that see Simon had the bad luck to have failed to set the shackle properly. It happens, usually with less expereinced crew, but they don't come off if spliced properly and installed properly. If there is any doubt, there are Velcro straps and other odifications to make them even more secure.

In 20 years of using soft shackles, the only one that came off was a dogbone style and the new crew had never used one before and I failed to demonstrate. And it wasn't a big deal, since each sheet had a separate soft shackle (if you have one on both sheets all you need to do is tack).

And I have had SS shackles fail on jibs twice. In both cases they did something fluke and got side loaded. So not a prfect record either. I can list far more SS failures than softshackle failures.
 
There are different styles of soft shackles and some are impossible to accidentally come undone I would say. I don’t have any to hand otherwise I’d post a photo. YouTube has them somewhere too.
 
We have never had a soft shackle come undone in any application, but while rare, it is not impossible for this to occur . You can "mouse" a soft shackle using a cable tie. Add the cable tie at the base of the eye, rather than cinching the knot.

IMG_7801.jpeg
 
noelex said:
We have never had a soft shackle come undone in any application, but while rare, it is not impossible for this to occur . You can "mouse" a soft shackle using a cable tie. Add the cable tie at the base of the eye, rather than cinching the knot.

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That is one of the original style of soft shackles where you milk the outer over the inner isn’t it? Good idea with cable tie. Do you file the end of that cut cable tie so it is not sharp? I was taught to not cut them even if it looks untidy it does not leave a sharp end of plastic. Used lots of cable ties on engines and wiring looms and cut myself on cable ties that previous engineers have cut leaving a sharp end.but this website shows a debate Google Search
 
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OCuea said:
That is one of the original style of soft shackles where you milk the outer over the inner isn’t it? Good idea with cable tie. Do you file the end of that cut cable tie so it is not sharp? I was taught to not cut them even if it looks untidy it does not leave a sharp end of plastic. Used lots of cable ties on engines and wiring looms and cut myself on cable ties that previous engineers have cut leaving a sharp end.
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No, it is one of the later “high strength soft shackles” made using a Brion Toss button knot. One of the legs is hidden (it is just visible in the bottom of the photo). These soft shackles are about 30% stronger than the original ones made using a Diamond knot.

Good point about the cable tie end. It should have been cut flush. Most boat owners have scratches and curses to show the wisdom of this practice.
 
Cable tie is not very much use for Op, because he wants to remove sheets after every trip. that means poncing about on the deck with cutters to remove the tie each time then using a new one every time he wants to go sailing.
Bit of a pain in my view
 
noelex said:
No, it is one of the later “high strength soft shackles” made using a Brion Toss button knot. One of the legs is hidden (it is just visible in the bottom of the photo). These soft shackles are about 30% stronger than the original ones made using a Diamond knot.

Good point about the cable tie end. It should have been cut flush. Most boat owners have scratches and curses to show the wisdom of this practice.
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That is indeed one of the stronger shackle designs I had seen , clever.
 
Daydream believer said:
Cable tie is not very much use for Op, because he wants to remove sheets after every trip. that means poncing about on the deck with cutters to remove the tie each time then using a new one every time he wants to go sailing.
Bit of a pain in my view
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Absolutely. There is no need to mouse most soft shackles. They do not require routine mousing like hard shackles.

However, old habits die hard, and many are uncomfortable when a shackle is not moused. It is nice to have a way of doing this even if it is rarely warranted. The only soft shackle we have moused is the attachment at the end of the strop connecting the bitter end of the chain to the boat.
 
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We have soft shackles for our jib sheets on our family cruiser, and all boats I recently raced on had those too. I like them particularly because you can sheet the jib in very close to the jib car, especially if you tie the shackle with two turns through the clew and the eye of the sheet.

The only disadvantage I can think of is that putting them on or removing them is slightly more fiddly then tiying/untying a bowline.
 
Daydream believer said:
If buying new, why not use a single longer sheet & whip in a single eye in the centre? This will reduce the weight of rope flogging on the clew when tacking as well as less resistance rubbing on the mast etc during the tack. Still use the soft shackle. If you do not like it you can always cut the sheet & splice in 2 eyes later.
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Good point. The rope was gifted in two parts but I like Alahol2's idea of a long strop so what you suggest may be possible.
 
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