main halyard caught around echomax reflector

I had that happen offshore, the loose mainsail halyard from taking the third reef formed a flapping bight which went forward between the lower and higher spreaders, hop it went around the radar reflector. No way to free it from below, I tried the boathook etc then immediately became afraid of tangling all sort of things up the mast so I went up to free it, just below the higher spreaders was enough.
One of those moments one keeps for himself, no gopros only intimate feelings.
 
Poignard said:
Just stop there! You're mis-quoting me. I said pass a bight of the halyard fall under the winch not under the boom. See Post #7
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I haven't got a bleeding winch outside the cockpit!. Making progress on your ark still requires a trip on deck, something which I am no longer licenced to do.
 
johnalison said:
I haven't got a bleeding winch outside the cockpit!. Making progress on your ark still requires a trip on deck, something which I am no longer licenced to do.
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I was not offering you any advice or opinions. I was responding to the OP. You had not joined the discussion at that stage. Then you come in and misquote me.

I am very sorry you cannot get on deck and pleased that I can. If I couldn't I wouldn't sail.
 
Poignard said:
I was not offering you any advice or opinions. I was responding to the OP. You had not joined the discussion at that stage. Then you come in and misquote me.

I am very sorry you cannot get on deck and pleased that I can. If I couldn't I wouldn't sail.
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Take a chill pill dude!
 
cpedw said:
My solution has been to attach a significant weight (e.g. spanner) and a light line (long enough to go from deck to spreaders 3 times) to the halyard shackle. Haul this up above the spreaders then, keeping the light line slack, lower the weight to the deck forward of the spreaders. That should allow you to manoeuvre the halyard away from the reflector. Using the light line to keep it away from the reflector, haul the weight back above the spreaders then lower back down behind the spreaders. The light line can be used to help pull it back.

It's a bit tedious but it has worked for me. That encourages me to avoid a recurrence.

Derek
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I have also used this method to free the halyard under way. It took some time to think it through so as not to make a bad situation worse! It did work though and like others took notice to avoid it happening again.
 
It happened to me once, between a tri-ball radar reflector and the radar dome. A boathook lashed to another pole and manipulated aloft from the three mast steps below boom level fixed it. But it’s very rare indeed that the main halyard has gone round the front of the mast. When the boat’s moored, I take a bowline in a short line around main and spinnaker halyards to one side of the mast, where a rolling hitch secures the line to a shroud. Pulling the hitch downwards ensures that the head of the main is held down. Pulling the remaining couple of feet of each halyard through its clutch holds it well away from the mast do there can be no frapping. Before setting sail, obviously the lashing comes off, and then taking in just a bit of spare halyard at the clutch means that even in a gale there’s no slack bight of halyard to get stuck around the spreaders.
 
BelleSerene said:
Before setting sail, obviously the lashing comes off, and then taking in just a bit of spare halyard at the clutch means that even in a gale there’s no slack bight of halyard to get stuck around the spreaders.
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There is actually-- Just the few seconds after you take the lashing off & get to the clutch to take up the slack- that is when it first happened to me.
Even when hoisting & dropping the sail there are times when the halyard goes slack if the sail goes up easily & one is hoisting by hand & stops for a few seconds for some reason
The second was dropping the sail in disappearing wind off Barfleur in a big rolling sea. No way was I going to try & stand on deck with contraptions to try & unhook it.
Next day I was up the mast tying a cord from shroud to shroud & the problem has never happened again.

I do,now, have an excellent piece of kit for catching errant lines. I used to do coarse fishing & for very few euros bought an 11 M fishing pole in France. It is light & folds to 1M. In use I have a metal hook taped to the end & can quickly extend it.
Comes in handy for getting escaped model planes from trees as well !!!
 
Poignard said:
Mine does it when the halyard is slack and the wind coming from starboard. I just flick it back again. If it became a real nuisance I'd either do as NPMR suggest or run the fall of the halyard through a thimble spliced in the end of a short length of rope secured near the reflector.
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You might run the fall through, but that is not normally the problem. Most are inside, or in the front of the mast. What about the hoist part? You cannot run that through the thimble as you would not get the sail up the mast.
 
pcatterall said:
Just an aside but we now carry one of those cheap extendable window cleaning brush poles. Very useful for freeing lines and similar. Dropping loops over cleats etc.
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I was about to suggest that - they are very useful and you can find some that are very long!
 
Daydream believer said:
You might run the fall through, but that is not normally the problem. Most are inside, or in the front of the mast. What about the hoist part? You cannot run that through the thimble as you would not get the sail up the mast.
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It's a pretty common set up I have. The hoisting part of the halyard doesn't get caught, it's the fall, which is forward of the mast and made fast on a cleat at the foot of the mast on the starboard side. That gets itself on the port side of the Echomax if I am careless and allow it to go slack.
 
dom said:
‘

That’s better :encouragement:

Now, to johnalison’s question, what are you proposing with that hypothetical winch, and where exactly is it located?
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That would be the winch I haven't got I suppose. No question about it.:)
 
I have never had that happen over the years that I have had my radar reflector in place. Something else to be wary of but then I do go up the mast and have done so in the Solent! I wouldn't do that again now though.
 
That happened to me a few times. Here's what not to do:

The first time I climbed the mast while at sea and got a battering as it was tough to hold on while the boat rolled. Came down black and blue.

So when I happened again i thought fine, just need to attach a weight to the end of the halyard, plus a downhaul strop, hoist the weight to near the radar reflector it's caught around, and hey presto it will swing itself free and down I haul it all...

So I opened the cockpit locker and my eye landed on an ideal weight - a 5l can of engine oil, complete with through bottle handle to easily attach the halyard. Up it went - i think I even shouted "ha, watch this", and with the first swing of the mast (we were at sea), the can slammed into the mast, opening a hairline split in it and then spent the next hour casually spraying oil all over the deck, sails and cockpit. We couldn't get it down because pulling the downhaul strop wasn't enough to free the halyard from around the radar reflector it was caught on.

Lesson learned!
 
The first time a halyard got caught round the back of the radar reflector, I learned I could create a moving wave in the halyard by tugging it hard, and when the wave passed the reflector it freed.
 
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