Soft Shackles | Sailing Wisdom

[@bzelarchannel1859]

Hi Such a great Teacher, Melinda sent me the link to Learn more about Sailing, Thank you so much ❤

[@MorozovYachts]

Thanks, very simple and practical method, much easy then classic splicing.

[@RiggingDoctor]

👍

[@chrisgrable6922]

Actually just coiled up my hose in the yard, and thought "How can I hang up this hose?" And I heard Herbie's voice: "SOFT SHACKLE!"

[@RiggingDoctor]

Haha!! Perfect.

[@aqueousmoments]

Super funny intro! Nice job

[@RiggingDoctor]

Thanks :)

[@bernardmichels8204]

took a little time to figure out what you were doing at the end...but wow way more easier than the way i was doing a different knot..thanks

[@goneswimming5636]

Love this video! I am sharing with my son who is the sailing guru of the family

[@firoxlion]

Funny, this how I actually stumbled onto your channel, by looking up a video on dyneema splicing. Your rigging video's are really top knot-ch hah

[@RiggingDoctor]

Thank you very much :)

[@TheClangerseatGreenSoup]

me too...i replaced my ss running back stays with dyneema 🎉🏴‍☠️⛵

[@rwbishop]

For 'quickie' soft shackles, I merely double a length of line & tie a double overhand using both ends. Then just form a Larks Head with the loop end, drop it over the knot... and Bobs your uncle. Can be made in seconds, simple & can easily be made any length... I have no idea of it's ultimate strength, but it's not trivial by any means. Cool videos, Thanks!

[@ylemoine1]

Love these kinds of helpful hints and tips. Well done and a great creative intro to the video. 👍 👌

[@PanzerDave]

3:00 When it (the soft shackle) gets loaded, it will stretch out. That sounds a lot like me. When I get loaded, I do less and less of what I had planned, and eventually stretch out in the cockpit, on the settee, or sometimes even on the dock box!

[@Steve-ul8qb]

Thanks herby! Just made some. On my own 😂

[@RiggingDoctor]

👍

[@ericsirois832]

That intro was awesome 😎 also, just made my first soft shackle

[@RiggingDoctor]

Excellent! It’s a great skill to have

[@stevenfeltner1373]

Love soft shackles. We have them in different diameters and lengths for different uses. We just put up new genoa sheets and used your integrated soft shackles instead of bulky bowline knots. Thanks for the great tutorial videos!

[@RiggingDoctor]

Excellent! Fancy rigging always sets a boat apart!

[@richardbohlingsr3490]

Nicely explained and clearly shown. Much better than bronze hank-on's.

[@PetervanGinneken]

Love it. I am a sailing instructor and I think that next training session I am going to try and teach this to all my colleagues.

[@RiggingDoctor]

I’d love to hear how it goes!!

[@DowneastThunderCreations]

Thanks for for the tip! Now I have another winter project to keep me busy!

[@sellsidedream8766]

Thank you for giving me an idea of how to keep my 4 year old son occupied during lock down in HK

[@melinda5777]

Thank you! You know I Love Turorials! Hope you have a great day!🙏🙏❤❤🇺🇸🇺🇸🤙🤙⛵⚓

[@drwindsurf]

This is a great how-to video - Thank you 😊👍

[@dket2571]

Brillliant idea, thank you

[@reloadncharge9907]

Good one....will be replacing some steel shackles soon!

[@RiggingDoctor]

Hope it goes well!!

[@guyfox68]

Looks like a quick simple knot that can be used for many things. I noticed that you hank on your sail this way. Have you ever had any trouble with these soft shackle hanks coming loose/breaking/getting stuck on the stay? What size rope do you use for these shackles?

[@patrickjames3994]

Great Video, do you ever have situation where the knot inverts under extreme loads and lets go?

[@RiggingDoctor]

Haven’t so far and I use one of these soft shackles as the tack for my reefed headsail, it sees some intense loads!

[@DaveWatts_ejectamenta]

Nice video, I’m going to give that a go. BTW why do you have brown sails and what’s the tape on the bottom of the jib for?

[@stevelansdowne]

Thanks!

[@RiggingDoctor]

You’re welcome

[@jonathanoasis]

I like the monkey fist method instead of the knot you have there because it makes a very round and solid round knot to pass thru the eye. It just seems less likely to accidentally slip back thru the eye if the load goes slack.

[@RiggingDoctor]

That’s a wonderful knot that no one seems to use, but it would make a really good stop knot for a soft shackle. I’ll give it a try! Another viewer sent me a design to test, so I’ll test the monkey fist version as well.

[@pavelavietor1]

Hello very creative 👌 saludos

[@romeowhiskey1146]

Don't let the DOJ see that SS over the NECK...or somebody will be serving a LIFE SENTENCE...no parole. LOL

[@sailingmoonshadow3169]

0:11 in danger of becoming a T&A (or should that be S&M!) channel there Herby 🤣. Love the demo, I wanted to make a bunch of these for next year so that came just in time 👍

[@redwood1957]

Could you recommend a book on knots and rigging. Thank you

[@RiggingDoctor]

Knots: Ashley’s book of knots Rigging: The Rigger’s Apprentice

[@stevenplancich6449]

Hmm. The Naught, Not, Knot Episode 😜 Well above my Pay-grade 😎

[@JeffreyHarthSailing]

Would this be appropriate for lashing a head and tack snap shackle to a block?

[@RiggingDoctor]

I use it for the tack because I can easily inspect it on a long passage. It can be used for the head but if it fails, your halyard will also go up the mast and come down on your deck, making the repair even harder to carry out while underway. For that reason, I use soft shackles at the tack but a steel shackle at the head.

[@rush164w]

Looking at a 32 foot contessa built in 1984. Im told its the original standing rigging. I want to replace with dyneema before i take into ocean. Boat has spent life on great lakes and has been taken out of water every winter. Is there any way i can contact you through email or text/ phone to discuss how i convert to dyneema?

[@RiggingDoctor]

Yes, you can email me at [e-mail]

[@trevhedges]

But what are they called? 😂. Cheers guys! Very cool!

[@rwbishop]

Never did figure out how to finish your method of tying... the video 'glossed' over that part.

[@RiggingDoctor]

This blog post on tying the knot will go over it in more depth: www.riggingdoctor.com/life-aboard/2016/8/5/soft-shackle-knot

[@rwbishop]

@@RiggingDoctor Thanks... but it's still confusing. Can only get it right maybe 10% of the time in my practice line. Does anyone know of a clear line drawing of this thing?

[@RiggingDoctor]

That’s just the knot. It takes a lot of practice and I still get it wrong a few times (and I tie a lot of them). It’s tricky, you can have everything done perfectly but if you don’t pull them evenly while you tighten it goes wrong! I always get the knot formed in the middle and then push it over to the end, otherwise it just doesn’t work out for me either.

[@rwbishop]

​@@RiggingDoctor Thanks! Isn't it amazing how some things so simple looking can be so frustrating! I still don't have my head 'wrapped' around this one... but intend to master it. Thanks again!

[@davidseslar5798]

What diameter of dyneema are you using here?

[@RiggingDoctor]

1/4” or 6mm in this case. It depends on what you are going to be using it for. This size is plenty strong to make soft hanks out of, as well as regular soft shackles for general use around the boat. The soft shackle that I use to reef our mainsail is a bit larger (8mm) to give it more strength.

[@jenniferwhite6089]

were have you pick up your needles for your rigging

[@SOLDOZER]

What size is the Dyneema in this video you think? 1/4"?

[@RiggingDoctor]

Yes sir! 1/4” or 5mm or 6mm. All of those will make for a reliable and strong soft shackle

[@luckylevio]

👍👍👍

[@davidseslar5798]

Since Dyneema line is very slippery, the overhand-knot-based true lovers knot (those aren't half hitches) seems like it will be prone to squirming and untying itself under high loads. Previous soft shackle videos I have seen (mostly 4wd winch applications) use a more complex diamond knot which is reputed to be more stable, and stronger (typically fails by breaking at knot). This evening, I found this soft shackle video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWHIi61pa7WFj6s - which is a clever design. It starts with forming double-brummel eye splices on each end, followed by creating the soft shackles sliding eye in the middle. The two ends now paired and are tied in a double overhand knot; now the sliding eye bight is *inserted though the two end eyes*!! The double overhand knot is dressed so the excess length of the end eye strands feeds back through the knot to snuggle tightly to its base. The bury for the eye splices feeds back through the knot and forms the bearing surface for the sliding loop when the shackle is closed. Reportedly, this design breaks at twice the rated strength of the single dyneema strand instead of the 150% or so for diamond-knot soft shackles. Feeding the doubled shackle strands through the end eyes makes knot squirming-to-untied impossible and tying the knot on 4 strands (due to eye bury length) makes it stronger so the failure point is not the knot. Plus no raggedy frayed ends. I'm not seeing anything to dislike in this design. These 2-free-end-type eye splices are easy as is the overhand knot, so this should be achievable by almost all people new to or challenged by knots and splices.

[@RiggingDoctor]

Yep! It’s a type of overhand knot!! Once it’s tightened down, it doesn’t come loose and has held firmly in all of our soft shackles. I use them for everything from soft hanks for the headsail to the thing holding the tack point of the mainsail when we reef in a storm! It’s not the strongest knot in existence but it’s strong enough for the use it gets on a sailboat. The trick is to just size it accordingly with the task at hand!

[@allynonderdonk7577]

Your moving thumbnail preview looks like some sort of fe-tish video. I use those soft shackles using regular line, for lots of low weight bearing applications.. Since I still have a lot of metal rigging I don't need my two dyneema shackles very often.

[@jimmybrokos4610]

👍🏼🙏👍🏼

[@JonMadsen70]

:)

[@Viper_Poker]

I like the button knot or Celtic knot when tying soft shackles. Its a little more labor intensive but its so much prettier and it just looks good on your rig. Here's a link below to show you how and how much load it can withstand before it fails. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2LCm3ighsmfeLc