Slapping Halyards

[chef2sail]

Here, we have a sailing family, and this family has used solutions from Duct Tape, to Chinese bungee cords, to helping people directly.

I think we can all agree, we love boating, we love the water, and we love our fellow sailors, 99% of the time.- Gary Mayo

I totally agree.

I beleive we as sailors should help the less experienced sailors when we can help them in situatuions and of course learn from others who know more than us to help us become better sailors. In this instance the people on the boat with the slapping halyards obviously wanted to do something about the noise as it was stated, but didnt know how. A more appropriate rsponse in my mind would have been to Talk to them (confront) and offer my suggestions instead of hiding and watching them screw up and then criticise them and board their boat.One way they may learn...the opther that will perpetuate itself as it is doing.

Hopefully thats why most of us join foums, to learn from others, for the comradiere, and to "pay it forward."

I think SN is missing you.-Don Lucas

Don,

I dont think snide comments like this are productive, nor do they foster positive relationships. Please do not continue in this vein. There is a difference beween poking fun good naturely and this. Feel free to PM me privately if I have done anything offensive as it is not my intention, but sometimes things said on the internet get misinterpreted. I dont want to continue wasting anyone elses time with comments like this.

Dave

Dave

[GaryMayo]

Talk about the need to join a forum to get up to speed.

I am 55. In some ways brilliant and in other ways, if I were a light bulb I would be rather dim. Lol

I sat out sailing 25 years to work way too much. I woke up last fall realizing I was throwing my life away and not enjoying myself.

I purchased a sailboat, then another, then a power boat, and by early spring, two more sailboats.

I settled on a 32' center cockpit ketch diesel motor sailor that makes me grin when I get near her. 32 is the max length on my dock or I would have gone larger.

I knew nothing about a leased slip. I did not want to be the village idiot on the docks, so I read, posted questions on the forums, and tried to fit all the pieces in place.

Slapping halyards was just one of the things I learned about before setting foot on the docks.

Thanks everyone, for helping me learn and figure it all out. At 55, I learn slow about some things.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by GaryMayo

.

You also mentioned stereo. At the marina, I dislike any radio noise. I get out of the city full of noise. At the lake, I want to hear birds, fish, bugs, children, a pet or two, and the wind. I always hope everyone has their radio off. If not, I filter it out in my own head.

.

Slapping halyards I like. Buoy bells I like. Hull slap I like.

Noisy kids and pets. No way. By the attitude in this thread I am interpreting that I have a right to board other people's boats and silence their kids and dogs?

[zeehag]

halyard slap means replacement is imminent.
fractures occur when lines hit each other in wind.
fractures in coverings also happen in the face of halyard hitting parts of boat-paint is removed from mast bits and fractures occur in the halyard.
i see dollar signs when halyards slap and i see lack of manners and i see disrespect for the rest of the area in which the boat is being kept as well as for the people therein.
slapping halyards is a definitive sign of disrespect and self indulgence and lack of knowledge.

[sailorboy1]

I'm scum!

See how few words were needed.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by zeehag

halyard slap means replacement is imminent.
fractures occur when lines hit each other in wind.
fractures in coverings also happen in the face of halyard hitting parts of boat-paint is removed from mast bits and fractures occur in the halyard.
i see dollar signs when halyards slap and i see lack of manners and i see disrespect for the rest of the area in which the boat is being kept as well as for the people therein.
slapping halyards is a definitive sign of disrespect and self indulgence and lack of knowledge.

Now that's you and Bash both quoting lack of seamanship (knowledge) if you allow halyard slap? That is BS and its rude.

My halyards have been slapping on and off for 7 years. Iminent failure is ridiculous.

I've sailed with Bash and we got along great. Zee, you make lots of choices about your boat and cruising lifestyle. Many things I question but I keep silent. Your boat and your choice. The main thing is you are out there doing it.

Jesus, lighten up. There is no law against halyard slap to my knowledge. However, in company of others I secure the halyards as a courtesy. I'd rather listen to halyards than a yappy mutt...

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

By the attitude in this thread I am interpreting that I have a right to board other people's boats and silence their kids and dogs?

It's OK with me, please do so!

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

It's OK with me, please do so!

I better be careful. I understand 90% of those dogs are killer guard dogs there to ward off pirates - LOl...

[zeehag]

ex cali--i had to replace my spinnaker halyard due to some rope on rope slapping i found in mazatlan in tormentas whose winds exceeded 30 kts regularly for one summer. the fracture was exactly where the twain hit. is not an imaginary problem.
yes slapping halyards is the problem of the boat that is experiencing it--even profligate has slapping lazyjax..lol....so----if ye wish to replace halyards, let em slap. show off your sailing prowess--let em slap--means ye take out yer boat and dont have respect for it. nada mas.
i will not get a heart attack or stroke or lose sleep because your halyards slap and cause fracture of selves. not my -problem. i can only say what i actually see and experience.
if not get along with it--is what i saw or did or experienced some way and i will state how i experienced it.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

I better be careful. I understand 90% of those dogs are killer guard dogs there to ward off pirates - LOl...

Yes...and for all the "future" cruisers who will be out there protecting their million dollar yachts with flare guns converted to fully automatic 50 caliber machine guns!...

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Yes...and for all the "future" cruisers who will be out there protecting their million dollar yachts with flare guns converted to fully automatic 50 caliber machine guns!...

My deck guns are there to protect my slapping halyards from boarders with duct tape and bungees...

[micah719]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Yes...and for all the "future" cruisers who will be out there protecting their million dollar yachts with flare guns converted to fully automatic 50 caliber machine guns!...

You mean there's a kit? I'm intrigued, tell me more! I need to keep the Pelicans from eating my guard chihuahua.....

I'm amazed at how long the thread has gone. Somewhere in the dim recent past I remember that the problem was a practically abandoned boat with slapping halyards...now we're gone over every permutation of how to go about silencing the thing. What if a neighbour's flagpole halyard slapped all the time....would we hop the fence and donate all sorts of usefull bric-a-brac? Perhaps....if the owner never came but once a year, all efforts at contacting them and the estate agents failed, and the noise is sending you batty.

A couple of months ago I was working on a house where the neighbour has one of those little "rustic" steel windmills. Rustic it was, and squeaky too. The engineer's soul in me was shrieking "danger will robinson, bearing failure imminent!". They were away on holiday for a couple of weeks, and the folks were waiting to move into this house I was working on, and I was only on that scaffold eight hours a day....meaning I didn't have to sleep next to the Perpetual Scream of Death, and there is never much wind around here anyway (personal contributions excepted). So, not really a big problem (the windmill, I mean).

However, I found myself concocting all sorts of sneaky and illegal scenarios, fantasizing what I would do if this mechanical torture machine were planted under my bedroom window. My fertile little brain was seeing me commando crawling over the lawn and hoiking that monstrosity over the embankment. No, too drastic. How about a slingshot with a fishing sinker....stop it micah. No, how about the commando crawl, but you bend the crap out of it so it can't spin ever again. No, I've got it...oil the bearing! Careful, they might be purple people eaters with maneating Shitzus....etc.

Eventually, I came to sensible solution if I were the occupant here. In daylight go over the fence, and stick a twig in it so it stops spinning. Then wait till the owners get home and speak to them...they turned out to be nice folks, so it would have been easy to bring up the subject at a tactful point and politely ask them if they would oil it or something. Of course, they may well have been flesh-eating thugs, in which case another scenario may have been appropriate...perhaps the stealth oiling.

Point of this epic saga is that there is no blanket solution...perhaps you can get the folks to stop the halyard slap by talking. Perhaps it means tangling it on the spreader, a nice non-traceable act done discreetly. Perhaps talk to a couple of other boats nearby and the manager, so nobody can accuse you of a crime. And if after all the simple, polite, safe methods have failed, and the halyard -slapper turns out to be doing it deliberately to annoy you, you're better off moving, because that kind of thing is torture (sleep deprivation and noise stress) and you're dealing with a psycho. I suppose you could give him the impression you are a worse psycho than him, in the effort to frighten him into leaving you alone, but that could backfire. You never know....so be careful.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by micah719

I'm amazed at how long the thread has gone. .

You've only been here a short time. After about a year, your eyes will glaze over and nothing will seem amazing here...

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

My deck guns are there to protect my slapping halyards from boarders with duct tape and bungees...

Well Cal...I would never resort to Duct Tape...that was a Bash thing. I would leave you with a brand new, plastic'd end bungee that you could appreciate as a gift and use somewhere...

[sailorboy1]

What's with all these bungees and duct tape anyway? Am I the only one who takes their halyard off and secures to a handrail etc after each sail (acturally I'm currently attaching to the end of my boom and using it to lift the boom so the sail cover doesn't drag and wear on the dodger & bimini).