Another revelation from Captain Obvious.
Yesterday, I found this odd object laying on deck, at the base of the mast. Looked ominously like something important.
It took an embarrassing amount of head-scratching before I realized that it is the locking pin from a snap shackle. From the boom vang to be precise.
(The rest of the evidence was all laying around on deck too, but I was looking upward...)
Looks like something (stray reefing line?) snagged the split ring that holds the shackle together, and it just fell apart.
Obvious in hindsight, but I did not realize that the split ring, which you yank on to release the shackle, is all that holds the mechanism together. Now that has me pondering whether these things are a good idea for critical applications. Looking at other snap shackles on board, I see that some of them have split rings on the pin and some have riveted loops, which presumably are immune to snag-failure.
Confession - there were so many things to do at launch time that I haven't taken the time to sit down and eye-splice the shackles onto the new rope halyard ends anyway - I've just got them tied on with bowlines. But... the snatch blocks that I use for preventers and bridles all have this same type of snap-shackle.
Hmm...
Yesterday, I found this odd object laying on deck, at the base of the mast. Looked ominously like something important.
It took an embarrassing amount of head-scratching before I realized that it is the locking pin from a snap shackle. From the boom vang to be precise.
(The rest of the evidence was all laying around on deck too, but I was looking upward...)
Looks like something (stray reefing line?) snagged the split ring that holds the shackle together, and it just fell apart.
Obvious in hindsight, but I did not realize that the split ring, which you yank on to release the shackle, is all that holds the mechanism together. Now that has me pondering whether these things are a good idea for critical applications. Looking at other snap shackles on board, I see that some of them have split rings on the pin and some have riveted loops, which presumably are immune to snag-failure.
Confession - there were so many things to do at launch time that I haven't taken the time to sit down and eye-splice the shackles onto the new rope halyard ends anyway - I've just got them tied on with bowlines. But... the snatch blocks that I use for preventers and bridles all have this same type of snap-shackle.
Hmm...