Tie Off Your Halyards
Once your boat is hauled out, winterized, and maybe even
covered there is one more step that should be taken. It’s a
step towards courtesy. You should properly stow and tie off
halyards so boat yard neighbors don’t have to listen to a
symphony of hundreds of banging halyards.
If your halyards are internal you should make sure to park
them near your bow pulpit and not near the mast. This keeps
the halyard well away from it’s partner in noise, the mast.
Also, it keeps the halyard away from the expensive paint job
on your mast. If you have external halyards you should
still park the halyards as far forward as practical. In
addition, you should tie off the standing end that runs up
the mast.
Perhaps the easiest way is a piece of shock cord, cut to the
proper length along with two plastic or metal hooks. Size
the shock cord, knot the hooks on and put the cord around
the halyard and the shroud. This pulls the halyard away
from the mast, reducing noise and damage to the spar’s
finish.
It’s a small investment with shock cord under a $ 1.00 per
foot and hooks around $ 5.00. It’ll also gain you the
appreciation of neighbors.
| This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2003 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Special Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. |
