When to use thimbles instead of blocks?

[tolachi]

Originally Posted by Brian Duff

your on the right track.

that bare spectra line (photo) helps things as it is so slippery itself.

any short travel application might be alright without a turning sheave, as long as it doesn't need to move much or at all once loaded.

add backstays, runners, lazyjacks, topping lifts, etc.

Thanks Brian. At this point I am thinking that the application must be either low travel or low deflection. Single braid spectra seems like an important part of the equation.

I am guessing that in addition to the unexplodability of the thimble you would encounter some cost savings with larger applications. However, for dinghy's and small keelboats that I sail on it actually doesn't seem to be cheaper than a small harken wire block.

[Ian McColgin]

I make a combination of quarter lifts and lazy jacks - called locally LazyIans but really LazyLifts - and for rigs with light (aluminum or hollow wood) booms with sails up to about 500 square feet I find that a simple thimbled eye is far more suitable than the over-engineered high windage clutter of blocks we see in some pre-made lazy jack systems that are rigged to disadvantage so they can't be turned into LazyLifts anyway.

In general it seems to me that any situation where you don't need to haul under load may well be great for a thimbled eye.

G'luck