All these horror stories makes me wonder. I have used snap shackles for 35 years
and never had the slightest problem. Yes, I know how to tie a bowline, but untying

one on a bouncing fordeck could be a challange. If you grab the sheets back from
the clew and pull them in instead of grabbing for the shackle, you should be safe
enough. To be fair, I should mention that I only sail a 22 footer, so I can't
speak for
boats with larger foresails.

Sherwin D.

Mys Terry wrote:

On 12 Mar 2006 16:53:48 -0800, " wrote:

I'm with you here, well tied bowlines shouldn't come loose often. I've
had it happen a few times on a lazy sheet but I've had more sheets
break than bowlines wiggle loose. I really don't like putting hardware
onto the clews of non-boomed jibs. Jibs will flog and eventually
somebody will get hit by them. I nearly lost my brother when he was
hit by a jib that had tied sheets on it. Knocked him out cold and I'm
sure he'd be dead if we'd had hardware on the clew.

-- Tom

Locally we had a guy who thought that snap shackles were the cat's meow for
sheets. He would tell everybody how clever it was. Then one day, in stiff winds
he was coming about and as the snap shackle dragged across a shroud, it snapped
on and took the whole rig down.

I've never had THAT problem with a bowline either!