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We are mooring our new Mac26M at a local marina for the summer. On windy days with the boat in the slip and the sail down, the mainsail halyard clangs against the mast. Ours seems to be the only boat in the marina making noise. I have tried tightening the halyard slack but it only solves the problem for short time. I am afraid someone is going to kick us out due to our noisy boat!! Any ideas to quiet the clang??

bhmurray wrote: We are mooring our new Mac26M at a local marina for the summer. On windy days with the boat in the slip and the sail down, the mainsail halyard clangs against the mast. Ours seems to be the only boat in the marina making noise. I have tried tightening the halyard slack but it only solves the problem for short time. I am afraid someone is going to kick us out due to our noisy boat!! Any ideas to quiet the clang??

I usually tie a bungee around the halyard around a side stay...looks crappy but works

I catch the halyards and topping lift on the spreaders and cleat back to the mast. I leave a touch of slack so they don't chafe.

I use the bungee cord. What I have done is to loosen up all halyards, tie the bungee cord around all halyards and the side stay, tighten up the longest first.

I attach the aft part of the main halyard to the starboard stanchion near the winch. I pull the forward part aft and bungy them together about 6' above deck.
I attach the forward part of the jib halyard to the bow pulpit. I pull the aft part forward and bungy them together about 6' above deck.
I then pull both halyards thru the rope clutches to tighten them up.

The incessant "tinkle" [some would say "clang"] of halyards is part of the ambiance in any marina occupied by sailboats, isn't it?
In our case, although the marina is dominated by sailboats, we're docked among power boats due to our limited draft - which is great, as we can literally park at our slip - so I've also tried to be a good [quiet] neighbor.

My bungee cord method involves tightening the halyards, then hooking onto the mast-raising bail - which I've left installed - wrapping around the lower shroud, then around the halyard [pulling both its ascending and descending segments away from the mast], then back out to hook onto the shroud. Hooking to the bail on the mast eliminates any "creep" that would reduce bungee tension. You can see the result in this photo.

I leave the bungees on to prevent annoying halyard slap when motoring. Since the jib is on a furler, its halyard is only used to fly the spinnaker, so it stays bungeed the rest of the time.

A bit of useless nautical trivia..
That incessant clanking of the halyards against the mast was known as "Devil's Harp" in the good old days

So now you can use your best pirate imitation ...
"Arrrgh...whose blasted scow is that be playing the devil's harp matey??"

I don't want any trouble with pirates,so I use bungees to the shrouds too!

I purchased a couple of halyard hooks at the boat show in Oakland one year. They attach to the spreaders and you just loop your halyard over the hook before cleating the halyard down. You could probably make a couple of these out of Starboard or a piece of chopping board material.



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Rich Plumb "Plumb Crazy"
26X, Covington WA

usually tie a bungee around the halyard around a side stay...looks crappy but works

What really looks crappy is if you stick an empty milk jug between the mast and the halyard. Works great.

Having lived on a boat for many years the clanging of the halyards act like a lullaby to me. Light sout!!

Rich Plumb wrote:halyard hooks

Those look pretty good! But, do they catch stuff when you raise and lower the mast?

The halyard hooks have been on there for about four years now. They are fastened to the spreaders with appropriate size stainless sheet metal screws. The hooks have not been a problem when rigging and unrigging. I sometimes forget to unhook the main halyard before attempting to raise the main... Dooh! And sometimes if the halyard is slack, it may become unintentionally hooked. Otherwise they are great and I'm a good citizen in the marina.

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Rich Plumb, "Plumb Crazy"
26X, Covington WA

Thank you all for all the good ideas. I will surely be able to hush the devil's harp to be a good slip neighbor.

Ditto - I usually tie a bungee around the halyard around a side stay. It works fine.

Rich, is it an optical illusion or is one of your hooks facing foreward and one facing aft? If one is facing aft, I would think that the mainsail would rub on it everytime you are running. I just had to have my main repaired because the spreader bolts poked a hole in it near the luff.

Yes, you are correct. One hook faces forward and the other faces aft. These hooks are fairly small and have smooth rounded sides. I have not had any problems with chafing when running down wind.

A little off subject: On the other hand, I have had chafing issues near the foot of the main sail where it chafed against the ends of the bolts holding the two bails on the main boom. I had to patch the main with sail tape and cut and smooth the ends of those bolts.

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Rich Plumb "Plumb Crazy"
26X, Covington WA