Is there something soft that can be attached on unused halyards that will keep them from slapping against the mast when under-sail? just wondering
unused Halyards slapping the mast
- Thread starter Zephyr-Jeffer
- Start date
I avoid bringing them back down the mast. Try anchoring them to the toe rail or similar, depending on the boat.
while moored -- tossing them around the spreaders will usually get rid of the noise. Bungee cords around the halyards and pulled to the lowers also can do the trick. I clip mine on the pulpit when moored and move them back to the mast while sailing.
while sailing - I don't notice it as a issue - just make sure they are tight.
while sailing - I don't notice it as a issue - just make sure they are tight.
Clearly designed for people who do not use spinnakers. Ever. That thing would shred several of mine over the course of a season.
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my question is whether it is couth for one to step on to an unoccupied neighbor boat when his untended halyard is banging around like a banshee on his boat at 2 in the morning .. (a donated bungee is a small price to pay to be able to sleep when there's a 7 am departure planned...)
While I am loathe to allow my own halyards to slap, I don't mind others' doing so nearly so much as that poor man, Mr. Corke.
I have liveaboards all around me. The marina supports a certain number of liveaboards on every dock. As a former liveaboard, everybody has permission to board my boat and fix whaterever I forget to. As a former liveaboard, I know what it's like to put up with slapping halyards etc. So I am pretty diligent about moving halyards etc. I also bungee off the lazy jacks. When I was a liveaboard I felt no problem re boarding a boat to "silence" it...It was amazing how many furler lines that were not cleated..
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 24,522
Tightening halyards, bungees for slapping halyards, sleeping aboard occasionally triggers the need when owners have left their boats unprepared for rising winds.
Stepping aboard and securing the halyards helps to reduce chafe, marring the mast, and silences the noise.
Seems to be a good neighbor act.
Stepping aboard and securing the halyards helps to reduce chafe, marring the mast, and silences the noise.
Seems to be a good neighbor act.
Who cares.... it's either that or earplugs. What would be uncouth is a noisy boat with the owner on board...... wearing earplugs... instead of fixing the problem... that would really get my snarky dander up.
Why people keep saying they use relatively expensive bungee cord on OPBs is beyond me. Flag halyard line, cheap, is just fine.
Then there's this old saw:
The Romantic Sound Of Clanging Halyards
Sunday, November 28, 2004
By Capt. Alan Hugenot
Have you ever been woken up at night while sleeping in a marina because the neighboring sailboat’s halyards were banging against the mast in the wind?
If you have ever tried to sleep through this constant noise, which is like someone continuously knocking on your door, then you know the dilemma which this causes for any poor sailor trying to sleep nearby.
Of course, the skipper of the offending boat is not there to hear the incessant slap, slap, slap, and he probably wants to keep those halyards ready to hoist sail as soon as he comes aboard, totally unaware that by doing so he is creating a nerve-racking noise machine.
So what can you do?
You can’t sleep and you are conflicted about what action to take.
You know that if you go aboard his boat and swing the halyards outboard around the spreader before making them fast again that the incessant slap will stop. And, you wonder why the inconsiderate skipper did not do that before he stowed his boat.
Maybe you also know that he only comes down to the marina once a month or even less to check his boat. You know he is totally unaware that you have to listen to his halyards going slap, clang, slap, clang every night.
On the other hand if you go aboard his boat to fix the problem, it will actually be trespassing - not quite breaking and entering - but trespassing none the less.
When he comes back to the boat, he may even get angry at the “prankster” who tangled his halyards around the spreaders, thinking “who would do such a thing, just to confound him.” He, of course, never realizing the true reason unless you tell him.
Yet, from a different perspective you might only be a “good Samaritan.”
For instance, if the halyard were loose and about to carry away through the top of the mast, then that same skipper would want you to quickly go aboard his boat (even though he had not given you permission) and “properly” secure it.
That simple act of neighborly seamanship would save him the grief of having to go aloft to re-thread the halyard through the top of the mast.
So wouldn’t it be the same thing here?
His halyard is clearly wearing itself out beating against the mast, and if you will just “properly” stow it for him, then it will not wear out as quickly. Also your nerves won’t wear out as quickly either.
This is no small problem.
I have lived aboard for several years, in both Seattle, Wash. and San Francisco, and have also spent a night or two in nearly every marina from San Diego to Seward, Alaska. In every one there are these slapping halyards.
At first you might think that a polite word to the offending skipper would solve the problem.
But a couple of times when I asked the owner of an offending boat if they could take a moment before going ashore to quiet their halyards by rigging them away from the masts, they became defensive.
They acted like I was being rude for butting into their business, criticizing their seamanship.
They arrogantly pointed out that they knew what they were doing, had studied proper halyard techniques, and had graduated from ASA or US Sailing. They were not going to quiet their halyards by rigging them outboard.
Besides who was I to tell them anything.
In one case the offending skipper said that “If they found their halyards any different than how they chose to leave them” then they would blame me for trespassing on their boat, and would report it to the marina manager.
After this encounter, I could not stop the noise from his boat, and wished I had never spoken to him about it.
I knew that if I had never brought it up, I could have quieted his halyards and he would not know who “fouled” his lines.
Instead, I changed marinas and learned the lesson that my safest bet was to quiet all offending halyards myself, and do so without telling the owner that I was the culprit.
This “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowed me to sleep, and several weeks later when the offending skipper turned up to sail his boat I was not there to hear his wrath about “Whoever fouled his halyards was going to catch hell.”
I guess it comes down to who is more inconsiderate: Me for trespassing on his boat, or him for leaving the noisy halyard slapping against the mast.
It is such a simple thing to just tie the halyards off on the shrouds, or swinging them around the spreaders. Maybe 60 seconds to quiet every halyard on the boat.
Another idea is to use a shock cord to pull them over toward the shrouds and away from the mast, and there are dozens of other ways to stop the slap, slap, slap.
Of course no way am I advocating that you climb on someone’s boat and adjust their halyards. Trespassing is something I would never encourage you to do.
Several times in marina parking lots I have heard novice boaters saying “Wow, listen to the clanging of the all the sailboats in the wind. Isn’t it romantic.”
So maybe it is a matter of perspective, or rather ignorance of the harm that may be caused by what may be romantic to one person and pollution to another, depending upon perspective.
It baffles me to no end why sailing instructors don’t teach this simple courtesy to their students.
It seems that simple courtesy should always be part of every lesson for novice sailors.
We live pretty close together on the water, which means we need to cultivate proper manners and respect for our fellow boaters. Learning how to rig our boat so that it does not create undue noise pollution should be part of every sailing lesson.
Actually, in California the boating laws are beginning to take notice of noise pollution.
Beginning in the fall of 2004 agencies will begin to enforce a new law that makes it illegal to have a power boat that is too noisy.
Maybe this idea that noise pollution on the water is a crime can be stretched to include sailboats that are too noisy. Clang, slap, clang - but it’s so romantic. Yea, right.
Then there's this old saw:
The Romantic Sound Of Clanging Halyards
Sunday, November 28, 2004
By Capt. Alan Hugenot
Have you ever been woken up at night while sleeping in a marina because the neighboring sailboat’s halyards were banging against the mast in the wind?
If you have ever tried to sleep through this constant noise, which is like someone continuously knocking on your door, then you know the dilemma which this causes for any poor sailor trying to sleep nearby.
Of course, the skipper of the offending boat is not there to hear the incessant slap, slap, slap, and he probably wants to keep those halyards ready to hoist sail as soon as he comes aboard, totally unaware that by doing so he is creating a nerve-racking noise machine.
So what can you do?
You can’t sleep and you are conflicted about what action to take.
You know that if you go aboard his boat and swing the halyards outboard around the spreader before making them fast again that the incessant slap will stop. And, you wonder why the inconsiderate skipper did not do that before he stowed his boat.
Maybe you also know that he only comes down to the marina once a month or even less to check his boat. You know he is totally unaware that you have to listen to his halyards going slap, clang, slap, clang every night.
On the other hand if you go aboard his boat to fix the problem, it will actually be trespassing - not quite breaking and entering - but trespassing none the less.
When he comes back to the boat, he may even get angry at the “prankster” who tangled his halyards around the spreaders, thinking “who would do such a thing, just to confound him.” He, of course, never realizing the true reason unless you tell him.
Yet, from a different perspective you might only be a “good Samaritan.”
For instance, if the halyard were loose and about to carry away through the top of the mast, then that same skipper would want you to quickly go aboard his boat (even though he had not given you permission) and “properly” secure it.
That simple act of neighborly seamanship would save him the grief of having to go aloft to re-thread the halyard through the top of the mast.
So wouldn’t it be the same thing here?
His halyard is clearly wearing itself out beating against the mast, and if you will just “properly” stow it for him, then it will not wear out as quickly. Also your nerves won’t wear out as quickly either.
This is no small problem.
I have lived aboard for several years, in both Seattle, Wash. and San Francisco, and have also spent a night or two in nearly every marina from San Diego to Seward, Alaska. In every one there are these slapping halyards.
At first you might think that a polite word to the offending skipper would solve the problem.
But a couple of times when I asked the owner of an offending boat if they could take a moment before going ashore to quiet their halyards by rigging them away from the masts, they became defensive.
They acted like I was being rude for butting into their business, criticizing their seamanship.
They arrogantly pointed out that they knew what they were doing, had studied proper halyard techniques, and had graduated from ASA or US Sailing. They were not going to quiet their halyards by rigging them outboard.
Besides who was I to tell them anything.
In one case the offending skipper said that “If they found their halyards any different than how they chose to leave them” then they would blame me for trespassing on their boat, and would report it to the marina manager.
After this encounter, I could not stop the noise from his boat, and wished I had never spoken to him about it.
I knew that if I had never brought it up, I could have quieted his halyards and he would not know who “fouled” his lines.
Instead, I changed marinas and learned the lesson that my safest bet was to quiet all offending halyards myself, and do so without telling the owner that I was the culprit.
This “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowed me to sleep, and several weeks later when the offending skipper turned up to sail his boat I was not there to hear his wrath about “Whoever fouled his halyards was going to catch hell.”
I guess it comes down to who is more inconsiderate: Me for trespassing on his boat, or him for leaving the noisy halyard slapping against the mast.
It is such a simple thing to just tie the halyards off on the shrouds, or swinging them around the spreaders. Maybe 60 seconds to quiet every halyard on the boat.
Another idea is to use a shock cord to pull them over toward the shrouds and away from the mast, and there are dozens of other ways to stop the slap, slap, slap.
Of course no way am I advocating that you climb on someone’s boat and adjust their halyards. Trespassing is something I would never encourage you to do.
Several times in marina parking lots I have heard novice boaters saying “Wow, listen to the clanging of the all the sailboats in the wind. Isn’t it romantic.”
So maybe it is a matter of perspective, or rather ignorance of the harm that may be caused by what may be romantic to one person and pollution to another, depending upon perspective.
It baffles me to no end why sailing instructors don’t teach this simple courtesy to their students.
It seems that simple courtesy should always be part of every lesson for novice sailors.
We live pretty close together on the water, which means we need to cultivate proper manners and respect for our fellow boaters. Learning how to rig our boat so that it does not create undue noise pollution should be part of every sailing lesson.
Actually, in California the boating laws are beginning to take notice of noise pollution.
Beginning in the fall of 2004 agencies will begin to enforce a new law that makes it illegal to have a power boat that is too noisy.
Maybe this idea that noise pollution on the water is a crime can be stretched to include sailboats that are too noisy. Clang, slap, clang - but it’s so romantic. Yea, right.
+1. I also like the sound of wavelets slapping against the hull. Our bunk is maybe 12 inches above the waterline and there is a port light maybe 1 ft above our bunk. Beautiful sounds.At home in the woods we have a couple small wind chimes hung around our 4 acres. on the boat we find halyards similarly southing. We don't like having neighbors too close at either place, so that works out also.