Question Anything wrong with attaching spool to DSMB using a bolt snap?

[Brett down under]

The bolt snap "could" come off of the SMB if it's choppy and there was no weight hanging on it. If it's tied on with a loop, that can't happen.

Weight would also need to be on the line to stop the open dsmb from falling over too.

Yeah I guess this is the answer I’m looking for. It’s a risk, but low risk of a bolt snap open itself in the ocean without coming into contact with anything else.

Thanks for your help.

 

[VikingDives]

Yep this is exactly what I do now. But not what I want to do given it’s bulky to store them both together in my small pocket, would prefer to keep the separate and then bring them together for use.

Ah, I see. Aside from the potential for loss, I don't think this will result in things being smoother or faster. At some point, you're going to have a spool, now weighted down with a double-ender or boltsnap that you have to keep control of while you try to attach it to your dsmb.

 

[Wibble]

Weight would also need to be on the line to stop the open dsmb from falling over too.

Not really.

You’d need a lot of weight to keep it vertical, especially if there’s any breeze. Hanging heavily negatively buoyant is not good for the diver as you’d need excess weight and dump most or all of your wing and drysuit gas (i.e. cold). This is likely to not be good for your horizontal trim.

Your SMB should have girth as well as length. This floats flat on the surface and is obvious to the boat skipper. Even in waves the SMB is visible on its side.

When there are surface waves your reel/spool will bounce up and down quite violently as waves pass. If you’re hanging on the line negatively buoyant it will be horrible pulling your arms up and down, just as it is on a decompression trapeze if it’s feisty.

The most comfortable place to be is neutrally buoyant and not hanging on to the SMB line. That can either be bouncing up and down in front of you a few metres/feet away, or let the spool/reel out below you by a few feet/couple of metres and put your fingers around the line in an OK symbol so the spool/reel and line bounces up and down below you (I sometimes use a boltsnap in my hand to stop the sawing line cutting into my drygloves).

 

[crofrog]

The mc storage pak for the halycon backplate is made to stick a lift bag or smb in it.

 

[Brett Hatch]

As the title suggests, is there anything ‘wrong’ with attaching a spool to a dsmb using a bolt snap?

For context, appreciate the easiest method is keeping the attach prior to the dive. My wetsuit pockets aren’t deep / necessitate low profile so considered keeping spool on butt ring and dsmb in pocket.

Rather than faff about threading loop from spool onto dsmb, I was considering having a small eye bolt snap permanently on spool end and using it to clip onto dsmb. I just don’t see this often and wondered if there was a perceived or real issue with this method? The little extra weight of the extra bolt snap would only be a good thing / insignificant.

A double-ender clipped to a loop at the end of the line, I wouldn't trust. But you're talking about a single-ended boltsnap. In that case, IMHO the risk of an eye boltsnap disconnecting from the DSMB ring is pretty slim. Not zero, as Wibble says, but it's a risk I'd be willing to tolerate. At least for the dives I do, where I don't consider a DSMB to be life-saving equipment... divers who do deco under boat traffic, or long deco in fast current might find any risk here to be intolerable.

That being said, with a single-end eye boltsnap tied to the end of the fingerspool line... how do you intend to keep the line from unreeling while it's in your pocket / on your butt D-ring? Usually I connect one end of the double-ender to the line loop and a hole in the spool, and the other end to a D-ring. With a fixed eye, you could attach the boltsnap end to both the spool and the D-ring, but you'd have a little piece of line jiggling around. And worse, when you unclip the spool from your D-ring, there would be a good chance of unclipping from the spool as well, and away she goes -- hope there's nothing tangly on the seafloor below!

If I were going to do what you're saying, I'd stick to a double-ender to secure the spool to the butt D-ring, and a separate double-ender (or fixed-eye boltsnap) to secure the DSMB to a pocket D-ring/bungee loop. Or, you could do what I used to do, and pre-assemble the whole thing, and clip it to the butt D-ring with a double-ender. Or, do what I do now, and bolt a mesh bag like this one to the backplate, and stick the whole pre-assembled kit into the bag. Or, maybe what you really want is a locking reel instead of a finger-spool.

Hope this helps.

 

[Wibble]

What else would you use the spool for aside for attaching the SMB?

Prior to the dive, attach the spool to the SMB (loop through the ring) and tie off the double ender with a "cave" knot. Then store the spool + SMB in your right pocket. Do the same for your backup SMB and put that in your other pocket -- it is critical equipment so you need two as most skippers need one SMB per person to count the divers.

 

[happy-diver]

Mate just do it how's best to do it

Put it together

Clip it here dude and go diving

and go invent some different stuff

We used to have a clip on the end of the string, for bags or dsmbs, but that was with reels before spools

Unless you've got one like this

 

[mattvish]

I agree with the bolt snap attached with a schackle. I would not risk using the bolt snap as the connection.

 

[Micko1974]

The bolt snap "could" come off of the SMB if it's choppy and there was no weight hanging on it. If it's tied on with a loop, that can't happen.

One less failure point is always good.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

So when on OC, I clip off my DSMB already attached to a loop in the line, and that is secured via a double ender.

I don't think it was discussed, and my apologies if I missed it, but most people have too much line on their spools. Excessive line increases the chance that the boltsnap gets unclipped, releasing the line. I have been neglecting to release that (as well as work on a user manual for the Excursion) as I need to update the pictures for how I set mine up my DSMB.

I recommend people to play with their setup, however they do it, to see if the boltsnap can be undone. Now I have talked to a couple of cave diving instructors from Mexico who had these fancy ways of securing the line. However, for cold water divers with thick gloves, those setups are just not going to work. So depending on the exposure protection on your hands (if any), you (general you, not just the OP) may choose dramatically different ways of setting up your DSMB. My method is extremely simple but not perfect.