I'm unable to get my main halyard ring to hook on my Viper. I've never had any trouble with it until now. I recently got a brand new set of sails, this is when the trouble started. I've made the knot as small as possible and am doing it the way AHPC suggests with the halyard line between the ring and the luff track. Any suggestions?

Try tying the know the other direction. Left over right, or whatever is the opposite of the way its tied now. Plus you can tie it from the top of the ring or the middle. Mess with it until you find a combination that works.

Some main/mast combos are a mofo. The mast on my last boat, the only way I could get it to consistently hook and unhook was I made a tapered main halyard and luggage tag the ring onto the halyard. Seemed to work well enough.

Also, check to see if the bolt rope is actually striking the hook.

It's unhooks no problem. I'll try tying to the top of the ring and different direction

You may just be trading problems. Don't ask how I know...

Suggestion: Put the boat on the side and see what is happening when you try to hook the ring.

The grommet in the head might be placed a tiny bit too far aft for your setup.

I had similar issues several weeks ago. Eventually seemed to get it to hook, but not the right way, instead somehow twisting the halyard around the hook and the ring after hoisting the sail. Ended up having to take the mast down with the sail, and then cleverly bent the mast step when the mainsail decided it had more force than I did, and twisted the mast as it went horizontal.

Hey pbl there are a few of us on F16's that race in your area, you should come check us out sometime

Absolutely! Been out of the water for a few weeks, nursing a busted up foot from a couple of weeks ago. Still trying to figure out the boat, and we're looking for some feedback from other folks out on the water. No point in learning the hard way...

Another thing to do is switch what side the halyard is on the hook. Shouldn't really matter for getting it to lock, but will matter as to which way you rotate the mast when trying to get the ring off again.


Just a matter of messing with it until you get the right combination of things going. Work methodically in some form or another to save time when you're testing different ways.

Or you can do like me... Push up main... What a pain in the butt.

Most of the time, I end up having to put the boat on her side to hoist the main all the way up and hook it. I rarely have any problems unhooking though.

(I can push it up almost all the way. It's amazing how heavy that last foot or so is.)

You mention putting the boat on her side. Is this relatively easy to do? Are there any tips that can be shared for doing so? I thought about doing that to undo the ring when it was stuck, but had visions of doing something stupid to the mast as it came down on its side. I expect this is a two person job, or can one person actually do it?

One person can do it pretty easily, but its a little unnerving the first few times.

Use the trap line, do not pull on the shroud.

Just grab a trap line, walk away from the boat and pull down. As the boat come over grab onto the shroud, (the side force on the shroud isn't that great at this point as you'll be higher up, and the boat will be somewhat balanced at an angle), then you just grab the mast and walk towards the end until you can set it down.


Obviously check the ground for anything that will damage the hull.

Putting the boat on the side is best done on grass in my experience.
Pull on the trapeze as Karl says and catch the shroud. Then walk the mast down. Have a chair or table ready to put under the tip of the mast.
To right the boat again, reverse the process and make sure you use the trapeze to get good leverage as the topside hull is headed for the ground. Stay too close to the boat and you will not have enough leverage to stop the hull from crashing down.

The method Karl describes is how I do it. I use the forward trap line to get the job started and then catch the shroud as the boat is coming over. A couple of things to watch out for as you are hoisting the sail this way... Make sure your high side spin sheet doesn't get caught on a sail batten. It helps to have someone at the base of the mast to make sure the sail feeds into the slot smoothly. The only thing to watch out for when lowering the sail this way is to make sure the downhaul is off before you try to unhook, and make sure you lower the sail somewhat after unhooking so it doesn't re-hook as you are bring the boat back upright.

Hull crashing as the boat comes back upright doesn't seem to be much of an issue for me. As the boat is going up, I put one foot on the boat, with one hand on the shroud, and hang off the boat like an X; this way the boat eases back upright. I have a bigger problem with the boat spinning as it's going up and no longer heading into the wind. There is also the fact that it is embarrassing.

If you have someone to help you, put him/her on the other side of the boat to lift the hull (to put the boat on its side,) and catch the hull and lower it (to bring it back upright again.)

Also do something to keep the rudders centered. They'll dig in and bend **** up and that's no bueno.

I don't have the rudders on when I do it. Almost everything else is put away before I get around to dropping the mainsail. Including the boom.

daniel - have you tried pushing the last foot or so with your tiller extension? Place one end on the bottom of a batten pocket end cap on the luff as high as you can reach and push from there, then the sail shouldnt tend to crumple as much. Just dont push from a weird angle and break your extension.

Tried the knot on top of the ring wouldn't unhook, tried a cople different knots with no luck either. What a pain to put the boat on its side to hook. At least it unhooks easily...will try something else today.

Hi Mac, I always have to have the halyard run up the starboard side of the hook. It won't go on otherwise. They all seem different from what I've seen tho.