Quote:
Originally Posted by neilda
Not sure, I think I got carried away during the ordering process - would you just have a loop spliced?
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Yes - just a simple eye splice. If this if for your everyday mooring lines and you're attaching to a D-ring on the boat, I'd have a small eye about 2-3 times the diameter of the rope (just enough to feed the working end through). If it's more general purposes, I'd leave unfinished and make a loop with a bowline if needed.
I wouln't splice a hard eye (especially steel) into a boat's mooring line as it could do some damage to boat or people. I'm guessing you were thinking of shackling it to an internal D-ring? Unless you 'mouse' the shackle, that's not very secure (can come undone). If you do mouse it, it's a real bind to get off. Or, if you screw the shackle up really tight, you'll never get if undone without a tool (which will never fall easily to hand).
Example of the time to use a hard eye (thimble) and shackle would be if I wanted a static mooring line on my home pontoon, cut to exactly the right length to make up on the relevant cleat on the boat.
For that, I'd splice in a galvanised thimble then attach the eye to the leg of a pontoon cleat (leaves the arms of the cleat free for others) with a galvanised shackle (also better not to mix s/s and galvanised).
Hope this helps.
PS. One more suggestion - the rope in that picture looks like that 'soft to the touch' stuff. It's nice to look at and handle but I suspect it will go 'woolly' and develop 'pulls'. For general mooring duties, I'd use somnething a bit harder wearing.