Slapping Halyards

[uncle stinkybob]

This is a picture I took tonight of the worst halyard slapper near me. Wire to rope halyards, left loose so they bang like the dickens. I heard the furler let go an hour ago. Wind gusts to around 30knts tonight. they let their dog crap on the dock and don't hose it off, they just leave it. Must suck, it was a nice sail. It was beating so bad I wasn't willing to risk getting hurt trying to save it for people like this.
This is the second one to shred tonight. I tried to save the other but it was flogging so bad by the time I got there it was too late, it shredded just as I got to it. Nice old guy that own's the boat, wish I could have saved it for him.
wish I could turn that damned picture right side up.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by DivingOtter

One, single time it came undone while I was out getting supplies and headed back out? It's not like it was clanging for days on end. I could complain about dockies who never leave the slip but sit there blasting music, grinding ice in a blender and being loud at 0200 in the summer, but I don't.

Hey, it's yer sailor's tale about the halyards ... ya get to tell it yer way. Most of us are well aware of all the other dumb stuff that goes on.

[JPA Cate]

they let their dog crap on the dock and don't hose it off, they just leave it.

They got what they deserved, imho.

Maybe the nice guy with the shredded sail will be able to get a new one, or a better condition used one.. Especially with an old sail of tired fabric, the disintegration can be really fast.

Ann

[sailorboy1]

Was blowing here in the marina this morning. No banging halyards here at the transient docks at all. But I walked down to the showers and on the side of the marina where the "regular" docks are it was like a drum concert. Kind of goes with what I have noticed over the years that those not using their boats care less whether the lines are banging.

[JPA Cate]

noticed over the years that those not using their boats care less whether the lines are banging.

Heck, they're not even there to notice. We've a guy down the dock from us where we are while we deal with health issues whose wire pole topping lift slaps the mast every time there's a northerly wind. Bangs the anodize right off it. Yeah, it's noisy, but the real doozy is the guy with the in-mast furling whose mast makes the kind of noise you used to make when a kid, blowing across the top of a (brand of your choice) soda pop bottle. I hear it from about 300 meters away. And nothing he can do about it.

It's all part of it.

Ann

[a64pilot]

My neighbor has one of those in mast furlers that do that, drives me nuts, I won't miss that boat when I leave. It's the slot in the mast that makes the noise, and there is a fix, the fix amounts to a rubber flap that covers the slot that stops the Woo Woo noise, I was told many marinas won't allow boats with that kind of mast unless they have the fix.
For a while I thought it was his wind generator.

[KetoNomad]

So I'm a rookie sailor and spent a few nights laying awake listening to my own halyard clanging away (inside the mast) I tried slacking the line off completely and wrenching it tighter than a piano wire and everything in between to no avail, what should I have done?

Ironically it probably would have been better to anchor out so I could take the waves bow-first but I stayed in a "marina" because I thought it would be better, haha. They had no food anywhere nearby and I swear that breakwater was holographic

Oh now I remember why I didn't anchor out... I had no dinghy! I didn't fancy a swim in my drysuit either lol. Live and learn: ALWAYS HAVE A DINGHY!

[Fiveslide]

Originally Posted by KetoNomad

So I'm a rookie sailor and spent a few nights laying awake listening to my own halyard clanging away (inside the mast) I tried slacking the line off completely and wrenching it tighter than a piano wire and everything in between to no avail, what should I have done?

You sure it's not wire or radar cable clanging, rather than your internal halyard?

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[KetoNomad]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

You sure it's not wire or radar cable clanging, rather than your internal halyard?

Sent from my XT1080 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

I am not sure :| I sold the boat anyway. It was shaped like a chianti bottle and about as heavy so the ripples from an insect landing on the water next to it would practically throw all occupants overboard Good riddance!

[skipmac]

Hi Sailorboy,

Got the latest BoatUS online mag in my email and it included and article that's right up your alley.

Think you should print a few copies to leave on the appropriate boats.

Silence Sailing Halyards - BoatUS Magazine

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hi Sailorboy,

Got the latest BoatUS online mag in my email and it included and article that's right up your alley.

Think you should print a few copies to leave on the appropriate boats.

Silence Sailing Halyards - BoatUS Magazine

I saw that in my email in box but haven't read it yet. I'm hoping it says to use a knife as I'm looking for something basically giving permission

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I saw that in my email in box but haven't read it yet. I'm hoping it says to use a knife as I'm looking for something basically giving permission

Nothing that radical but it did point out that, besides annoying all of your neighbors is is also damaging your own mast. Maybe a little self interest will be a better motivator than keeping peace with other boaters.

[clockwork orange]

I just got off the boat after 2 months helping my son and his girlfriend deliver the Simpson cat they bought from florida to the great lakes. We are fastidious about tying off anything that bangs but its still noisy as all the wiring inside the mast is just banging around when its windy, apparently there is no wiring chase, and in fact even everything inside the boom was howling one night when the boat was lying to the tidal flow while the wind was over the stern and blowing into the boom. There is not much we can do about the mast wiring until the mast comes off this fall to be replaced. Very frustrating.

Steve

[sailorboy1]

When I started this thread I kept my boat on a mooring in Salem MA. The past 22 months we cruised down to Georgetown Bahamas and had done all the east coast between Salem Ma (Boston) and Key West Fl. Thee wasn't a bunch on slapping banginh halyards during that 22 months. Butlast week we were on a mooring in Scituate Ma just south of Boston and right behind us was a banging halyard boat. We just got a mooring here in our old home marina in Salem and you guessed it, on both sides of us are banging halyard boats.

So maybe its a regional thing and I can plan around it some.

[a64pilot]

No, I think it’s a seldom used, abandoned boat thing. It can be big expensive boats in a posh marina, but it does seem to be the boats you never see anyone on.
Seemingly people that are on and use their boats, whether it be a gold plated or a little trailer sailer, don’t have banging halyards.
At least it’s not as bad as it used to be when steel cables were used.