Internal Halyard Slap

[LordNelson]

I bungee the external portion of the halyard that connects to the mainsail to a stay, but the internal portion will slap on the inside of the mast when it gets rough. i am sure my neighbors get tired of hearing it all night, but i don't know how i could stop it. any suggestions?

ps. the boat is kept on a mooring.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Do you have any wires in the mast? Are you sure it's the halyard?

 

[Joe11688]

I might be some kind of a nut but I love the sound of halyards slapping masts. Go to Newport Harbor in RI. That's all you hear on a windy day.

There are worse things than halyard noises I think, like a mast whistling. My friend Wayne has a Seaward 22 with a whistling mast and it's driving him crazy.

My point is, you are only surmising that the surrounding neighbors are getting tired of listening your halyards slapping. For all you know, they may be accustomed to it or you may have some like myself who love that sound. I would talk to some of the closest neighbors and ask them in an inconspicuous way if they have any issues with the boats on moorings. If worse comes to worse then you can address the problem later.

My mast has internal halyards, but they don't slap on the inside. They slap on the outside but our neighbors haven't complained.

A few years ago some of our members left their small sailboats on trailers on the club lot during the off season and one of the neighbors complained about the wind whistling in the masts. He claimed that the whisling was so loud on windy nights , that it was keeping him up all night. He said that it got so bad one night that he felt like going over there and cutting the stays to the masts.
This guy I think, would kick if he had two broken legs but we passed the word on to the boat owners and they corrected the problem. Win a few, lose a few I guess.

 

[LordNelson]

no wires in the mast, only rope halyards. i removed the old wires for the mast head light when the light fixture broke as i had only used them once in 6 years. i do have running lights.

i agree about the music, but we also have renters in the cottage next door at times. i was just trying to prevent problems if there was an easy solution. i don't want to ask anyone as up to now they haven't complianed and it's no use putting ideas in there head.

that would be like larry bird in a three point shooting contest when he asked his toughest competior if he had changed his shot.

 

[Joe11688]

The only thing you can do to cut down on the slapping is to secure both halyard shackles to their respective cleats and tie the halyard off with a slight strain which should keep the halyards taught inside the mast.

 

[Stu Jackson]

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. __________________

 

[Joe11688]

That's a good write up Stu. I think I'll start bungeeing up my halyards so they don't slap.

 

[LordNelson]

after studying the boat from a distance, i think the slap may be from the external portion of the mast but near the top. it only occurs with a strong wind. i tried using the bungee on the outer stay insead of the inner. it changes the angle to the mast and seems to have almost eliminated the slap.

i would love to see power boat noise inforced. we have boats with illegal through hull exhaust that make it impossible to have a conversation when 1.5 miles away on the other side of the lake.