Here's the situation... a while back the mast was down, so I had all the maintenance possible done on the thing... from replacing all standing rigging to replacing all running rigging to removing and replacing hardware and painting. Massive job. Yard did most of the work (they had the giant paint booth).

The jib furler was then attached to the halyard with a halyard knot vice a splice and shackle. Well I recently tried to "hank on" the jib and I could not get reliable action from the furler... most of the time the foil would catch the halyard knot and not allow the furler to do it's job. Not a good situation. I am thinking the diameter of the knot, right next to the foil, is what is causing the problem.

So the immediate thought was to simply add a shackle back to the system (makes loads of sense... it is simply too nice to be able to use a halyard anytime, thus it should be easily removable from the furler). So I am thinking of using a halyard knot for the shackle... but to ensure that the knot is far enough away from the furler foil, I want use as long as shackle as I can get...

So that is the question... does it really matter what shackle I use for the jib halyard? I am thinking of a long shackle similar to a Wichard 91433... typically used for a main headboard.