Roger Long wrote:

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?
Roger Long


Hi Roger:
I can not tell you why not, but I can tell why I do...

I was a hairy chested deep sea diver working the offshore oil patch in
the early 1980s. The industry standard for attaching a diver to the
umbilical was:
Diver...harness usually with 2 D-rings attached on the chest straps...
small stainless shackle on lower left D-ring connecting a snap shackle
to harness... followed by the umbilical D-ring . The idea was to attach
the umbilical to the diver and for the diver to "bail out" when
needed.

When I am on my boat and on deck I have a snap shackle attached to my
harness. I guess I am a creature of habit. Since not many of us here
have the statistics for recreational sail vessel mob events we are a
left with lots of what iffs and personal preferences. I can say this
for a fact:: the commercial diving industry requires diver side snap
shackles. But then again the tenders knew enough not to go yanking at a
diver's snap shackle. Or as I was taught, "just slip you're hand
under his harness. Then ya can drag the cocky ******* to the chamber
with no problems."

Personal preference............... I want the ability to detach myself
from any line..... instantly!

On the other hand I was one of those Big Government Liberals who always
wore my seatbelt years before it was mandatory.
Bob