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I am looking for some type of clip or carabiner to connect from a mooring pennant (with an eye splice at the boat end) to the boat's bow (trailer) eye. This needs to be quite strong and corrosion-resistant - it will be in salt water, so stainless throughout is a must. Although I would be using a separate safety rope when the boat is unattended, I'd still like the primary connection to have a low probability of coming unclipped. A conventional shackle would work fine, but be a pain to get on and off each time. The pennant is about 3/4" diameter, so whatever I come up with needs to fit that.
They make stainless steel spring loaded clips that snap on the bow eyes. They can be quite stout, but as you mentioned, a secondary line or bridle with a braided eye attached to a cleat, would be prudent.
I'd stay away from the clips with little springs in them as the springs wear quickly.
Hamilton Marine sells clips called Spring Clip, Wire Lever, these eliminate the little spring but still spring closed... poor explanation but that is what we use for our mooring system. Depending on the weather and loading you'll need to replace every couple years or so.
A 3/4 inch pendant is pretty serious, what size boat is it for? A Yale made mooring pendant that is 3/4 inch has a break strength of 23,000lbs! Far more than a SS clip will withstand.
Thanks for the link. I am concerned about corrosion in the spring clips, even if they're stainless. The boat is 21 feet, nothing that would require a 3/4" pennant, but it was there.
I'm thinking the most sensible thing is to get rid of the ocean liner pennant, get 2 1/2" pennants, and lead them to cleats on either side of the bow. If the Squirrel Island you're from is the off Boothbay, you can come over to Linekin Bay and see how it worked out.
Cleats are clearly the way to go. In tight mooring fields (Squirrel) we run our main pendant to our bow cleat, then have an short elastic pendant with a SS clip (no spring) we run from mooring to bow eye. The idea is keep the swing circle small during normal weather, but gain scope during times of bad weather and reduce shock loading.
Indeed, I spend summers on Squirrel and do most of my boating in the greater Boothbay area. We should meet up for a trip, Hells gates can be fun at a changing tide!
