We were in Aldermaston Wharf on the Kennet & Avon Canal doing the fit-out of Waiouru when two live-aboard boaters mentioned they were going to Braunston to purchase some excellent soft shackles. This pricked my interest. What was a soft shackle? On their return two days later I asked them to show me what a soft shackle looked like. An interesting concept and I wondered how they were made. When we reached Braunston during our first trip north I purchased two thinking the first would eventually break or wear out. It never did! I used it to secure the two centrelines to the boat. The soft rope shackle never damaged the paintwork and the rope never frayed. It was also very strong.
For almost a year I’ve been thinking having a few soft shackles during outback trips might be very useful. The shackles are made from Dyneema rope and it’s not exactly cheap. These days it appear to be the “go to rope” for 4WD winches. Not wanting to spend $100 to see if I can make and shackle and not wanting to buy them at $29 each I started looking for something I already had that might be suitable. That’s when I remember I had a cheap synthetic tow rope purchased about 20 years ago. After ratting around in the boxes stored in the garage (I don’t throw things away) I found the rope. It was just long enough for two shackles.
You Tube was my friend when it came to making the shackles and the end result was a very large shackle. Certainly too big for the boat.
I doubt I’ll ever place enough strain on one of these to make it fail.
Major lesson from this is “Don’t throw anything out… it may be useful one day!”
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