What is the most important immediate action when a halyard jams like this?

A. Wrap the halyard around a winch and crank it tight regardless of the jam

B. Cut the halyard immediately without trying anything else first

C. Pull as hard as possible with extra crew to try to force the sail the rest of the way up

D. Stop pulling immediately and ease the tension off — continuing to haul or sheet in hard risks damaging the halyard, the masthead fitting, or pulling something loose up the mast that could then fall

A. A jam like this is always caused by the sail being the wrong size for the boat

B. The halyard has almost certainly wrapped around something at the masthead — a spreader, the VHF aerial, the wind instrument, or twisted itself — and is now fouled, which is a common cause of a sudden jam partway up a hoist

C. This pattern means the wind has suddenly become too strong to hoist any sail at all

D. This always means the mast itself is about to fail structurally

A. Look up carefully from the deck (binoculars can help) to see whether the halyard has wrapped around a fitting, a spreader, or another line, and try gently easing or jiggling the halyard to see if it frees itself before considering anything more drastic

B. Assume it is always unfixable from the deck and the sail must be abandoned for the day

C. There is no way to find out what has happened without someone going up the mast immediately

D. Pull the halyard down completely and refit it blind without ever looking up first