Yes, after much agonizing I have decided to cow hitch the backup strop directly to the 3/4″ up chain, under the swivel. That way it becomes a true backup if the swivel fails—I have seen two of those fail at the nut weld. (I always did that with the safety chain on the big boat, and never had a tangle over the short period it was on.)
Still not sure I’m doing the right thing on the cow kitch, but I have also seen a lot of lines chafe at thimbles. The other benefit is no shackle to wire, or fail.
Of course the cow hitch will drop the strength maybe 30%, but I have plenty of safety margin.
At some point I will do a full article on this, including what I’m using for the primary bridles, based a lot on your comment and photo of a year or so ago.
Interesting, I will look forward to your whole article. Around here, I think most moorings have the swivels between the bottom and top chain. It may be related to most moorings having a ball with the chain going through it which are not particularly conducive to a swivel there as opposed to one where everything connects at the bottom. On a theoretical level, I think it probably makes more sense to have the swivel at the top of the top chain but I realize that means more immersed shackles although with a little never-seize, it just isn’t a big deal. I too worry about the swivel, I have seen a few examples of failed ones but they have all been used past when they should have been. We got a new mooring guy about 5 years ago and he has been great and uses quality gear and replaces when he should but previous to that, I had to provide my own hardware and tell them when to replace.
Yes, we used to do swivels that way in Bermuda. When I moved here our mooring guy and I talked about it and decided we both preferred it at the top of the up chain where we could see it, with the bridles connected directly to the swivel and as well as buoy on a short length of chain. The nice thing about this is that all I have to do to check the swivel and connected shackles is to tie a line to one of the bridles and run it back to a winch, and then grind the whole connection out of the water. While I’m at it, I can cow hitch the backup pendant on.
Is that a brummel lock splice you are using? Looks like you whipped it as well… was that for redundancy?
Hi CR,
In my view any critical burry splice should be whipped and lock stitched: https://www.animatedknots.com/brummel-eye-splice-knot
Hi John,
Out of curiosity, how are you attaching the buoy end of this? Is it a cow hitch? Something else?
Thanks.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Yes, after much agonizing I have decided to cow hitch the backup strop directly to the 3/4″ up chain, under the swivel. That way it becomes a true backup if the swivel fails—I have seen two of those fail at the nut weld. (I always did that with the safety chain on the big boat, and never had a tangle over the short period it was on.)
Still not sure I’m doing the right thing on the cow kitch, but I have also seen a lot of lines chafe at thimbles. The other benefit is no shackle to wire, or fail.
Of course the cow hitch will drop the strength maybe 30%, but I have plenty of safety margin.
At some point I will do a full article on this, including what I’m using for the primary bridles, based a lot on your comment and photo of a year or so ago.
Hi John,
Interesting, I will look forward to your whole article. Around here, I think most moorings have the swivels between the bottom and top chain. It may be related to most moorings having a ball with the chain going through it which are not particularly conducive to a swivel there as opposed to one where everything connects at the bottom. On a theoretical level, I think it probably makes more sense to have the swivel at the top of the top chain but I realize that means more immersed shackles although with a little never-seize, it just isn’t a big deal. I too worry about the swivel, I have seen a few examples of failed ones but they have all been used past when they should have been. We got a new mooring guy about 5 years ago and he has been great and uses quality gear and replaces when he should but previous to that, I had to provide my own hardware and tell them when to replace.
Eric
Hi Eric,
Yes, we used to do swivels that way in Bermuda. When I moved here our mooring guy and I talked about it and decided we both preferred it at the top of the up chain where we could see it, with the bridles connected directly to the swivel and as well as buoy on a short length of chain. The nice thing about this is that all I have to do to check the swivel and connected shackles is to tie a line to one of the bridles and run it back to a winch, and then grind the whole connection out of the water. While I’m at it, I can cow hitch the backup pendant on.