Banging Halyard on Hamford Water

Y

yerffoeg

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 Sep 2002
Messages
259
Location
Essex
Visit site
On Monday afternoon we sailed up to Hamford Water, hoping to enjoy the peace and tranquility of that beloved stretch of river. Not long after we had anchored, another yacht appeared, skippered by a lone yachtsman, but accompanied by the sound of a regularly chiming bell. He anchored near to us. After about half an hour of this irksome sound I trained the binoculars on the boat and discovered the culprit - a loose main halyard. The noise remained incessant and loud. When the skipper appeared on deck I hailed him, grabbed a halyard off my own boat and started shaking it. After looking at me for some time with incredulity, the penny seemed to drop; he then made an attempt to tie back the offending rope. This did mitigate the noise but did not stop it. Another half hour elapsed. Myself and my other crew member could take no more and motored upstream until our friend was out of earshot. Ironically the offending yacht bore the name of a well known Greek philosopher. Do forumites have any suggestions about any other action I could have taken?!
 
On Monday morning I managed to get away by myself without the usual crew. I was desperately in need of some solitude. Hamford Water was fairly empty: just the ticket. So I dropped the hook.

Knowing the mysterious tendency for arriving boats to want to anchor close to ones that are already there, despite acres of empty space, I hit upon the cunning ruse of deliberately leaving my halyard tapping against the mast to deter them. Indeed, I adjusted the tension so it would do so more.

Sadly, this didn't do the trick, and another boat anchored close by during the afternoon. I retreated below.

Blow me, having chosen to anchor near my clanging mast, they then started shouting and hollering about the noise. I tried to ignore them, but they didn't give up. I reluctantly went on deck and, while my inclination was just to stick two fingers up, I instead feigned an attempt at frapping the halyard, but ensured that it sufficient slack to continue to catch the mast from time to time.

After a while, they finally took the hint and buggered off further up Hamford water and, at long last, I was alone. ;)
 
Glad it's not just me then. I find people who leave halyards clanking to be rude and inconsiderate. Same as those who let their dogs incessantly yap.
 
nigelm said:
If I want to upset the neighbours I find some ACDC blasting out always does the trick ����
Click to expand...

Nah, I find high power Perry Como can clear Hamford faster than a forest of halyards. Some suggest using tracks from the Sound of Music but that's just too much IMHO
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top