Sailboat as musical instrument?

Sailboat as musical instrument?   ...   Sunday 2^nd December, 2012

When we started our shake down cruise to Maine, we both started to feel that we were hearing every little unusual noise or change to the sound of the engine.  Most often this was caused by another boat, often at quite a distance, whose engine sound we could perceive over the noise of our own.  It seemed strange that we could hear these variations so clearly.  This got me to thinking about how sounds are amplified and transmitted by the boat.  My conclusion is that basically a sailboat is a poorly tuned musical instrument.  You have the long fretboard (mast) with attached strings (halyards).  The fretboard is attached to a sounding box (cabin).  When the wind blows the strings are ‘plucked’ and vibrate against the neck of the instrument.  This vibration resonates in the sound box and can be heard for substantial distances.  This “Music” keeps many a sailor from getting a decent night of sleep.  Either the sounds are coming from his boat or from boats nearby.  In the first case, the sailor is jumping out of bed trying to re-tie the halyards so they don’t clang against the mast.  In the latter case, one just has to suffer.

To return to the engine noises, we think that the vibrations of the engines of other vessels resonate in Continga’s sounding box and that’s why we are so aware of them.  Who knows?  Maybe we just have too much time on our hands…

Gloria

Position: 28 04 55.5 N  80 35 19.2 W

Looking back from our anchorage just outside of the ICW channel across from Melbourne