Does anyone elses rig Creak ?

[ellispe]

Fellow Catalina 34 owners.

I finally sailed my recently purchased 2005 Catalina 34 home to its new birth and noticed that the rig made a strange creaking noises while under sail. Sounded like what you would hear in the movies, inside and old steel freighter. 

I have one of those in mast furlings and am not sure if that is part of the issue.  I never had a sound like this on my Catalina 30 or my Catalina 28.

Has any one else had this issue ?

Many Thanks

[Stu Jackson]

Deck stepped or keel stepped?  Very important for us to know to even begin to help you.  Also, where the noise is coming from would also help.  The better input in your question, the better off we are to begin to help.  Smells and sounds are among the hardest to deal with in a message board format.

[Jim Hardesty]

Congratulations on your purchase.  Hope you like your 34 as well as I like mine.
I have a 2001 with the furling mast, Charleston Spars, and no.  I don't have any strange creak, noise or vibrations.   Sailing, even hard on the wind in Lake Erie chop, it is real quiet.  Can you tell where your creak is coming from.  The mast?  Cabinetry below? 
Wish I were sailing.
Jim

[Jon Schneider]

Stu, Peter told us in an earlier post that his boat is three years old, so I think all of the later models, furling-mast or not, were built as deck-step models, but I could be wrong.  Peter, I can't say if it's normal (though it's worth doing a search on this board for potential previous posts), but I suspect your rig needs a tuning.  They always do, so yours probably does.  How much do the lee shrouds slack on a heel?  Is one of the lowers noticeably more taut or slack than another?  How much bend is in the foil?  

[tonywright]

You said "under sail". From that I assume we can rule out that you had no furling main in the mast? if there is no sail there, then the foil inside the mast would creak and bang a bit like that "old freighter" sound.

Assuming that  the sail was there, did you have the main halyard tensioned? The PO may have slacked it off while not sailing, then when the sail was unfurled, it may have allowed the foil to bang around a little. With a furled sail, sometimes it is easy to forget.

If neither of these are the problem, then I would have to agree with the tips on tuning the rig. Bear in mind that with masthead rig and roller furling, you must not induce prebend.

Tony

[Ron Hill]

ell : The creaking in the keel stepped masts of the MK 1 is from the mast pressing against the wedges where the mast goes thru the deck. 
Not too sure where a creak would come from in a deck stepped mast? 

[Wayne]

I've seen (heard) boats creaking at the goosneck.

[ellispe]

Many thanks for all your info. I do have a deck step mast.  Since I was sailing alone, I could not go up on dect to listen to see if I could tell where the noise was comming from. I will try to get out again soon and see if I can hear anything

[Craig Illman]

Also check around the solid vang attachment points. Mine squeaked at bit annoyingly until I polished it up with Starbrite Marine Polish with PTEF.

Craig

[Susan Ray]

My Catalina 30 use to creak while sailing, only on the starboard side....never did find the problem but lost the mast (deck stepped) when a rusted chainplate parted on a port tack out of Pearl Harbor in 35 knot winds....maybe you should pull and check your chainplates where they got through the deck..?

This boat has a loud popping noise on the port side when the weather changes quickly..something in the deck expands and contracts, but not while sailing, only in port..I have gotten use to it. This mast is stepped to the keel and I pulled, checked and (being now paranoid about this) re-bedded the chainplates last year anyway.

[Ron Hill]

ell : You might ask Catalina (Jerry Douglas) if a loose mast shoe on the deck could be causing that creak?