In my last post I showed the process of making soft shackles. Today I was able to connect our two new eye spliced sheets to the head sail via the soft shackle and then take Prairie Gold for a test sail. From now on there is no going back to bowlines to attach sheets. When one tacks with the soft shackle and eye spliced sheet there are no knots to get caught on the shrouds. I was out solo today and was able to tack in apparent winds up to 25kts with ease and the sheets came through so fast it was not necessary to use a winch handle to tighten the sheets.
I am so impressed with soft shackles I have added three more: one for a block for the tackline and two for blocks for the sheets of the spinnaker.
Here is a picture of the sheets and soft shackle while sailing. The shackle is red and I have added a velcro strap (lavender) to keep the knot at the clew of the mast. At this point I haven't cut the ends of the dyneema line since I have been waiting to put a load in the knot. Just accomplished that, so now its time to cut the loose ends away.
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