Keep the halyards attached at anchor?

[MedSailor]

It seems seamanly to keep one's halyards attached to one's sails while at anchor. The benefit of doing this would be that if you needed to get going and your engine won't oblige you can sail away more quickly. The problem I have is that halyards left attached clang, bang, and generally annoy.

What do you do? Is there an easy way to keep things attached and quick to deploy but avoid that annoying mast clanging.

MedSailor

[mpickering]

I just use a bungee shock cord and hook them to one of the shrouds. I don't keep my main halyard attached to the sail until I'm on the boat. Jib halyard is always up. Bungee works fine.

Matt

[Tempest]

The genoa or jib is not much of a problem...no mast to clang against.
I would just keep it tight, so that the halyard doesn't wrap around the forestay. So a bungy cord or a sail tie from the shackle to the bow pulpit. But then you'd have to go forward to undo the bungy? So why not just undo the shackle.. The jib could set itself if left unsecured.

The mainsail clanging could be reduced by leaving it attached to the shackle and then tying the halyard off to the shrouds with a sailtie....but then you still have to undo that! And your not going to get the top of the halyard far enough away from the mast to reduce the clanging completely.

So my guess is that your quietest solution would be to undo the main halyard..and sail off with the headsail if you want a compromise.

[Joesaila]

While at anchor or on a mooring I always secure the halyards so they won't clang. I connect them to a clamp on the deck. I've seen some nearby that use the bungies and they seem to work fine. Its considerate to keep it quiet for the neighbors...me I like quiet

[davidpm]

I'm not saying this is a good idea but a captain I know did this all the time and it worked fine.

Loosen the main halyard so you have a few feet slack.
Flip the halyard so instead of going from the head of the sail straight up to the shive at the top of the mast it goes around the forward side of the spreader.
Bring the halyard from the head of the sail around something on the mast like the winch if you have one.
Lightly tighten the halyard.
It only takes a second to clear (usually) and the halyard will not clang.
The disadvantage is that it is easy to forget that the halyard is purposely fouled.

[SVCarolena]

If we are headding out or only going to be on anchor for a relatively short time, we leave the mainsail halyard attached. Here is what we do: with the sail down, put some slack in the main halyard where it attaches to the headboard; then loop the line from the headboard down around the bottom of the winch; take the free end of the halyard (the one that goes on the winch when raising the sail) and attach it loosely to the cleat below the halyard winch; finally, take a short line of shock cord (bungie) with a loop tied in one end and a hook on the other, and wrap it around the halyard and shrouds. By doing it this way, it puts some downward pull on the mainsail which prevents it from wanting to rise when the wind blows or the boat hits a wake, and it pulls the line far enough away from the mast that it won't slap except for when the wind really picks up. Once we are stowing the sail for the day, we tie one end of the halyard to the end of the boom and the other to the pulpit.

[remetau]

We detach our halyard and wrap it around the shrouds and attach both ends back to our mast pulpit.

[donlofland]

Or howsabout slacking the main halyard so you can take a wrap around it with your forward main sail tie? That keeps the halyard aft of the mast-but wouldn't work if you wanted to use the mainsail cover.

[Faster]

Seems to me it would take just as long to untie/disconnect/ clear... however you choose to 'quiet' the halyard as it would take to properly attach a halyard stowed to a rail or boom-end to keep things quiet... (but keep in mind my wife is a halyard nazi - thou shalt not clang!)

[CharlieCobra]

Ah, the benefits of a wood mast...