Victory Chain Hook

[noelex]

I like soft shackles, but they take two hands.

The new high strength soft shackles with button stopper knot have a smooth top and are quite easy to attach or remove single handed. It is not as quick to do as some chain hooks, especially the non locking hooks that will often fall off the chain once the load is removed, but it does not take much time, even with one hand.

One significant advantage of a soft shackle is that can be winched over the bow roller without any damage. This means the connection, or disconection can be done near the anchor winch rather than leaning over the bow.

I agree the single handed facility is important. On the foredeck it is often helpful to follow the old adage of “one hand for the boat”.

 

[Kukri]

I use a Wichard hook with a big fat bit of square sinnit on the pull ring, suited to being pulled with cold wet hands on a dark night. So far so good.

 

[Neeves]

Watch the pin, in common with many such pins they are susceptible to bending. If the bend in use it is even more difficult to release the pin. It has that been suggested to me to replace the pin with hard drawn stainless - but I don't know where to source. I use a completely different device now.

If you scroll through the images in this link you will find one way of adding a simple lock to a chain hook, that can be used one handed, simply flick it with your thumb. It does depend on what sort of hook you use, this works with a clevis pin but not if the hook is simply spliced to rope through a hole in the hook.

http://www.mysailing.com.au/cruising/the-art-of-snubbing-in-the-nicest-possible-way

Interestingly the lifting industry uses hooks a lot and they are very common - use of slings of various types, chain or textile, is also common. There has been much development of hook design, as illustrated by the 'compelexity' of the hooks used today. The hooks we see in chandlers have simply been replaced for lifting. Making a decent and reliable hook is actually no more difficult than making one that might be questionable. Soft shackles have not hit the popularity stakes - yet - for lifting. For small chain soft shackles are simply to fiddly to apply.

Jonathan

 

[Kukri]

Watch the pin, in common with many such pins they are susceptible to bending. If the bend in use it is even more difficult to release the pin. It has that been suggested to me to replace the pin with hard drawn stainless - but I don't know where to source. I use a completely different device now.

Jonathan

Thanks. It did strike me that the pin is “out of scale” with the rest of the set up.

 

[Neeves]

If the pin was bigger the hole would then impinge on strength. The pin seems to be made from something with a low yield, maybe 316. A problem with adding a more bend resistant pin would be attaching your sinnit (before ours bent we had a triple loop of nylon, same idea). You could thread it and then attach something - but as I could not find the high yield wire - it all became academic.

I have a lifting hook with a pin, they thread the end and have a little knob that screws on. Most lifting hooks are steel - and would need to be galvanised - and you cannot easily galvanise something that 'fiddly'. The pin of the lifting hook - also bent (it can be galvanised but you need a special process, which is available in the UK). If you look at the Cromox range - they have a stainless G60 hook - but it has no lock (I think their agent, Andersen?, is based in Newcastle and also think Jimmy Green stocks). The Cromox hook is a slightly different design to a 'normal' hook and is kinder to chain. It possibly has the same propensity to falling off!

It would be easy to make a production run of decent hooks, they be a G60 quality and have a pin - but one offs are inordinately expensive to make (I know, I do it from other materials). The G60 hooks would cost factorially more, on the chandlers shelves, and people would not buy them. I talked about this with the K&W, Cromox people a couple of months ago when they were in Oz and they came to see me, my powers of persuasion were insufficient, or my designs did not cut the mustard

Jonathan

 

[robertj]

I use one of the best chain hooks for my snubber it can double as a temporary mooring line, lashing down a dinghy etc. A line with a rolling hitch tied around the chain.

 

[Neeves]

I checked the Cromox site to find what I might call a chain hook they call a chain shortener, their hook (or the one I looked at) would simply not be suitable in a snubber scenario.

This is the device I was thinking of:

https://www.ketten-waelder.com/products/cromox/cromox-lifting/shortener-cve/

Apologies

I have not tested one, never seen one 'in the flesh' - it comes from a reputable supplier, it looks 'the business'. They have a focus in the marine industry.

Jonathan

 

[vyv_cox]

I use one of the best chain hooks for my snubber it can double as a temporary mooring line, lashing down a dinghy etc. A line with a rolling hitch tied around the chain.

Last week in the marina we had northerly winds around F6-7 for a few days. The boat next to us was blown back on the lazy line with his transom touching the pontoon. The owner put a rolling hitch on the heavy rope bow line and heaved it in a metre or so with his capstan. When the wind dropped he could not untie it and had to cut it off. Never happens with my chain hook, which just falls off as soon as I haul the chain in.

 

[Kukri]

I have had to cut off a rolling hitch, also.

 

[thinwater]

not true on the first two counts!

I'm confused. Which two points?

Several people said it was hard to remove under tension and it is clearly not locking.

 

[Neeves]

I'm confused. Which two points?

Several people said it was hard to remove under tension and it is clearly not locking.

I'm also confused (by your original post to which Bejasus refers) - why can you not remove a hook from a tight chain. If the chain is tight the snubber is loose (and the hook might then fall off) but if you can reach the hook, so need to retrieve some chain - what stops you simply lifting the hook off - if you can reach it.

This is the whole problem, or one of them, with hooks - they can fall off when the chain is tight (if they have no locking mechanism). I might add - modern lifting hooks are made for specific sizes of chain. They fit the correct chain snuggly - and can be less easy to disengage as they need to be disengaged in a specific direction (and not at an angle) this might be inconvenient when you have your arm round a forestay straining to reach the hook. Hooks in chandlers tend to be loose - which is why they fall off. But modern lifting hooks are small, neat even - they are easier to take over a bow roller (though, in time, may damage some bow rollers - but no more so than the shackle or anchor shank).

As an option consider having a lifting hook galvanised. I prefer the 'hooks' that are hooks rather than those that are claws, the hooks are more forgiving in how they are removed but to me, if this is not a contradiction, are more secure.

Jonathan