Soft shackles a good idea?

[tenuki]

Hey, a buddy of mine was telling me he's converting to soft shackles that he's making himself out of amsteel. Just wondering if anyone had thoughts about it, seems like a great idea but I'm mr conservative/scaredy pants.

[sailingdog]

Umm... why not just tie two bowlines??? Cheaper, easier and allows you to end-for-end the sheets to distribute wear.

I never use shackles on the clew of a headsail... to much potential for it to kill someone.

[tenuki]

Although the picture shows a headsail my friend is thinking of using them for every place there is a metal shackle. I really like the idea for halyards, one less metal thing banging around. I can see their use at the toe rail too, I already use mountain climbing spectra runners to get the metal off the metal there.

I actually don't imagine using them for the headsail, especially not as shown in the picture, larkshead works great there.

spectra is really starting to replace a lot of stainless steel on the boat, and I really like that trend. Check out a lot of new tackle from ronstan, etc, they are starting to use spectra loops for everything. The cat across from my slip is using spectra standing rigging and I've seen people converting to spectra lifelines a lot.

[sailingdog]

Lifelines and standing rigging doesn't generally have the chafe problems that running rigging and shackles will generally encounter. The real problem with soft shackles is that they will chafe through, so frequent inspection will be a necessity.

[SailingRandy]

Who has used them that would like to comment?

[tenuki]

Found this on SA, there are several comments about soft shackles. Turns out they think of them most frequently on jib sheets, makes sense when they say it...

[allene222]

This thread is fairly old but in case someone hits it I got interested in using soft shackles and wrote up 6 web pages on how to make them, how to use them, some variations, how to tie the knot. How to get them the length you want, etc. I also did some destructive testing and I can tell you these things are strong. Here is a link to the first article:
Soft Shackles

[heinzir]

Great job on the articles!!
Got me all excited to make up a batch!

[mitiempo]

Lots of good info here Home

Here are their softies Softies | Colligo Synthetic Systems | Colligo Marine

[catamount]

Colligo has a video showing how you can make your own softie shackles if you don't want to buy them: YouTube - Softie Soft Shackle Construction- How to.