Interior Halyard Slap

[Greenhand]

Is there anything you can do about halyards slapping around inside the mast? Both the main and the spinnaker halyard shackles are run to the toe rail, but the wind is blowing across the dock tonight, rather than the usual through the slip, and my own halyards are driving me bonkers resonating through the mast.

[capngeo]

I've found I can limit it by messing with the tension (or lack thereof) of the lines..... Now if I could just get rid of the mast pumping in the slip!

[skipmac]

Are you sure it's the halyards? I had a boat that would make the mast ring like a bell when rocking back and forth. Thought it was the internal halyards and tried everything and after some experimentation determined the noise was coming from internal wiring and not the halyards.

If it is the halyards and the toe rail is sturdy then tighten the halyards as much as seems reasonable and that should stop them from flopping back and forth inside the mast.

If it's actually the wiring then the cure will be a lot more trouble. I sold that boat before I tried any cures but bottom line you will have to figure some way to secure the wiring inside the mast. Without pulling the mast the only idea I had was to drill a few holes up the mast and try to feed in a tie wrap, piece of wire or something through the hole, around the wires and back out the hole then tighten.

Good luck.

[pierrrre]

Hi

I had the same problem on my boat. A few winters ago, when the mast was off the boat, I bought some piping insulation, the kind of foam piping insulation you can find at any hardware store, and ran all the wires through them in chain. If you do this, make sure to tape the insulation every few feet to prevent the cable form slipping out of the insulation through the slit. I have to admit, it did not stop the banging noise completely but it reduced it to a gentle ''thump'' noise which is normal since the foam now hit the inside of the mast and not the hard wire covering. It certainly does not wake us up at night anymore.

[a64pilot]

When I pull my mast, my plan is to tie wrap the wires every couple of feet with three tie wraps leaving the excess on the tie wrap. Plan is for this to have three legs that are bigger than the mast but will support the wires, yet still allow air movement and not hold moisture.

PO added a TV antenna, I'm hoping that is the cable that is un-secured and when I remove the antenna and coax, that will fix the problem.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by capngeo

Now if I could just get rid of the mast pumping in the slip!

Join the club: in the marina berth with winds above thirty-something knots, Led Myne's mast pumps hard.


Another cruiser, a sailmaker, offered to make a berth sail: a piece of stout sailcloth about twice as long as the mast diameter and as long as the mast diameter. His idea was for me to run it up the mainsail sail track to the upper spreaders, where it would flap and disturb the vortex that causes the mast to pump. I passed on the idea, just because it was a nuisance to open the gate, slide out the mainsail slugs, run the berth sail up on the main halyard (with a downhaul to provide tension and for dousing the berth sail), and of course every time I leave the berth to remove the berth sail and slide the mainsail slugs back in and close the gate.


Then I tried solution #2: buy a small fender, the sort sold for dinghies and runabouts. Longer than the bow-stern mast diameter, a tad fatter than the port-starboard mast dimension. Same deal: attach the main halyard, haul the fender up to the upper spreaders with a downhaul for tension and recovery. I think it stopped the mast pumping. But i found the fender-mast bouncing at other wind speeds and directions too much. Might try again with a second downhaul running to the end of the boom, to hold the fender off the mast.


Al

[Greenhand]

It could definitely be the wiring - I already know they did some funky stuff the last time they rewired. It would seem that they used the wiring from the steaming light to add a deck light

[Alan S. Mercer]

SR

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[bouncingyellow]

I place a ballon where there are openings in the mast. Once inflated it takes a lot off the slapping away.