Renoir, I posted some more photos at the same site that i were developing this week. I was describing two different Items that use the same set up. I have the soft hank/soft shackle (same thing) And I have the soft shackle that is spliced onto the end of the halyard.
So far I have seen no failures or damage, and I have been putting this stuff in some funny places that may not work over time, but I am trying to abuse things a little to see what we can get away with. I cannot really say these are the next great thing because i have not used them enough. I suspect they will be, but need more time and abuse to find out.
You need a hollow 12 braided line made out of Dynex, Spectra, Amsteel, all of them are UMHWPE.
I use 3/16" Dynex for my halyards. The black soft hanks are made from 5mm Marow Dux (a new product)
The halyard is simple. Just make a a tail as long as you need (about 5"plus enough for a stopper knot) Run the tail back inside the body of the line which will give you the eye you need. Bring the tail out the side of the line and tie a stopper knot in it. What you end up with is an eye with a flexible cover between the eye and the stopper knot.
To use it just slid the cover back a bit to open up the eye. Put the stopper knot inside and milk the cover back to the eye.
To make a soft shackle it is basically the same, except when you tie the stopper knot, you tie both the covers end and the tail end together.
It will take some fooling around to get it right. That is part of the fun of doing this kind of stuff.
Hope this helps.
