- Joined
- Jun 4, 2020
- Messages
- 2,595
- Reaction score
- 688
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 38
- Location
- Seattle area
- Model
- Seafarer
I keep my boat on a mooring buoy generally between early/mid July until roughly late September or early October up at our beach cabin on Whidbey Island. During that time, I'm not always around the boat because of work and the fact that I live in town. A couple of years ago when I first bought the boat, I went to my local marine hardware store called Harbor Marine in Everett and had them make up a bow line for me. I told them that I've got a Grady White 228 Seafarer with a weight of around 7k lbs and wanted something that would withstand that. The rope is still holding up just fine but my concern is that the snap hooks are non locking, and with the boat being valued at roughly $60k, I'm thinking I should have something on there that is locking. Even if it's just for a means of having a backup method in the event that the primary snap hook were to fail. Attached is a link to the snap hooks that are currently on the bow line, of which they're rated to just under 12k lbs. They seem to work just fine, and maybe I'm being a bit anal about it, but I don't want them to rust and/or somehow have the latch part get stuck open and the boat drift off. So, what would you recommend to either replace those with or use as a backup means of securing the bow line both to the boat as well as to the mooring buoy? I've looked at bow shackles as well as well as D shackles, carabiners and so forth. My thought process is to go with carabiners in the event that a bow shackle over tightens and not be reliant upon pliers, as well as potentially having to hold them over the side of the boat and losing them. Not that I don't have a set of pliers on the boat anyways, but I could definitely see myself, my uncle or another family member dropping them overboard. I think the almost 12k lb rating on the bow shackles are a bit overkill as the boat I'm guessing doesn't weigh anymore than 7k lbs total, but what are your opinions and advice on the matter?