Roger-

On the body side, a snap shackle is what is recommended, as it can be
easily released under load. There are many situations where you may
not want to stay attached, and getting the tether off quickly is an
imperative. This is also a good reason to always carry a knife with
you, when on a sailboat.

On the boat side of the tether, you want something that is sal****er
corrosion resistant, which the standard climbing aluminum carabiners
really aren't designed for. You also want something that will only
come detached intentionally. The Gibb and Wichard safety snap hooks (as
opposed to snap shackles which are a different beast entirely) are much
better at staying attached to the boat than regular snap hooks or
carabiners. The mountain climbing ones have mild steel springs that
are subject to corrosion, especially the ones used in the locking
ferrules, and they are difficult to undo with one hand. Of the Gibb
and the Wichard, I prefer the Wichard, although the Gibb design is a
bit more secure. The Gibb will tend to bind up on webbing jacklines at
times, due to the secondary gate across the hook—this doesn't seem to
be an issue with the WIchard.

Given that a majority of the fatalities in boating are due to falling
overboard—because of failure to recover the COB, hypothermia setting
in, or the person drowning—I would prefer to stay on board and deal
with the slight additional expense and hassle of dual-action snap hooks
on my safety harness.

Regards,

Dan

On 2006-03-23 14:58:11 -0500, "Roger Long" said:

I think this was discussed recently here but it wasn't on my radar
screen at the time. Apologies if it’s too soon to bring it up again.

Would someone please tell me why standard snap shackles shouldn't be
used for safety harness tethers, at least on a casual cruising boat
where midnight headsail changes and spinnaker dousing isn't part of the
normal drill?

I looked at the double acting Winchard shackles that are supposed to be
the latest and greatest and the designer in me goes "Ugh". Your fingers
are in the way of what you want to clip to and the sharp edges are
going to be hard on jacklines or any other fiber. The tightwad in me
says something even less printable.

Does anyone have another recommendation for a boat where there is very
little deck work or much unclipping and moving around?