[Ian McColgin]

I quite agree with Brion that the crown splice is best if one does not plan do do other things with the rode, like bend it to another rode or use as a tow line or whatever, and especially if youv'e a rope-chain gypsey or smallish hawspipe.

The bronze keeper thimbles are absoluetly best. I've also used steel versions aboard a tugboat where the strains are truely huge and a quickly made up eye was not very snug anyway.

Bur for yacht sized mooring pendants and anchor rodes,. the normal open thimble, even if spotwelded for strength at the neck, still has so much flange that I've not observied any twisting out or causing chafe.

Take a normally shaped thimble for 1/2" line. In destructive tests I did about 25 years ago, the line would fail at about 30% stretch. I understand this is normal. This leaves 15% stretch around the thimble as the load is shared. I think that the splice's bulk actually keeps the line in the eye from stretching even that much.

I use the "prosplice" which gets the throat in more tightly than the "Boy Scout" approach to starting the eye. I can certainly see how a clunkly and loose throat could lead to trouble.

I never observed the throat of the eye emerging from the flanges of the thimble though I believe just prior to rope failure the inner part of the rode might have gotten as much as 1/2" away from the inside throat metal of the thimble. Hard to tell guessing from the visible strands and I did not want to get anywhere too close.

The rode nestles into the flange tightly long past the side tangents normal to the apex tangent because even stretched they legs of the eye are converging. I think that it really can't twist out unless one does an incredibly sloppy and loose splice.

So, in years of splicing up some hundreds of mooring pendants, I've not had a failure induced by the thimble slipping or by chafe at the throat. Those that fail mostly chafe through due to poor bow chocks or refusal to maintain decent chafe gear up above. Moorings very seldom fail due to pure pendant at breaking strain or lower eye failure.

On anchor rodes that are used hard and are eye spliced to the chain, I worm and parcell the eye before splicing. I also carry chafe gear down the splice and out each side of the eye a little, somewhat capturing the shackle into a narrower range of movement, and giving the sides of the eye a bit of protection against chafe along the bottom. Perhaps all that "braces and belts" reduncancy is why I've not worried about thimbles hopping out.

That's my anecdotal experience but it may not be generalizable. My question for Brion is, have you observed enough throat chafe or thimble slither that this is really worth worrying about? Have I been living in a fool's paradise?

One further question: Are you now advocating dacron rather than nylon as dacron's superior abrasion resistance outweighs any advantages from nylon's stretch? Or did I just imagine that?

Thank you & G'luck

Ian