Hereward
New member
I've just realised that the new mainsail I fitted at the start of the season is incomplete. It doesn't have the rings for fixing the tack reef cringle to the ramshorn (the "spectacles", as I have seen them referred to).
I'll go back to the sailmaker at the end of the season but I would rather not lose good sailing time now, so I'm thinking of just using a soft shackle and a s/s ring instead i.e. ring as a stopper, shackle through the cringle and looped onto the ramshorn on the other side. I could of course add a second ring so it is fixed to the sail but I quite like the idea of taking it out when not in use as I'm not sure how secure these shackles are when not loaded.
In fact, I've never used a soft shackle but there is a lot of wonderful stuff written about their strength.
Will this work or am I missing something obvious?
Do they ever come apart accidentally, and is this the sort of configuration that would make that likely to happen?
Thanks for your thoughts
I'll go back to the sailmaker at the end of the season but I would rather not lose good sailing time now, so I'm thinking of just using a soft shackle and a s/s ring instead i.e. ring as a stopper, shackle through the cringle and looped onto the ramshorn on the other side. I could of course add a second ring so it is fixed to the sail but I quite like the idea of taking it out when not in use as I'm not sure how secure these shackles are when not loaded.
In fact, I've never used a soft shackle but there is a lot of wonderful stuff written about their strength.
Will this work or am I missing something obvious?
Do they ever come apart accidentally, and is this the sort of configuration that would make that likely to happen?
Thanks for your thoughts