Personally, I go with 'typical' and 'convention of majority'- your mileage may vary - I look to Starboard for the Main and Port for the headsail halyards when I get on a 'new' boat - then check them (for clear leads too!) A lot like the control pedals on automobiles.... Culled from many boards on the internet: "The "jib-port, main-starboard" is not a hard fast rule.... a but very very common set up." "Main on starboard, jib on port. Except in France. " "Main and Spin hal on Stbd, Genoa and 2nd spin hal on Port. " "In the old days of external halyards & mast mounted winches, certain halyards had to be on certain sides to lead to the winch without chafing on the spreader bases. So the main & spi halyards, coming down the front of the mast, hadd to lead to the stbd winch. Same for jib halyard, leading down aft side meant it could only go to port winch." "The halyards are on the wrong side of the mast. The main halyard exits the mast to port and the jib halyard exits the mast to starboard." "The other end of the halyard is usually attached to the mast at its foot by way of a _cleat_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleat_(nautical)) . It is convention in some places to fasten the main halyard (for the _mainsail_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainsail) ) on the _starboard_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starboard) side of the mast and the _jib_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jib) halyard to the_port_ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port) side. This allows quicker access to the lines in a time-critical situation." "It's just for conformity, so sailors new to the boat don't have to sort it out perhaps in the black dark. There's no _rule_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/rule.html) says you have to do it any particular way. It's the skippers' responsibility to show new crew " the ropes "." "Believe it was tradition in placement of the halyards. EVERY boat I owned or was on had the Main Halyard on the Stbd side and headsail halyards to port. After a 20 year hiatus from sailing noticed there no longer seemed to be that hard and fast convention. First noticed it on a multi _hull_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/hull.html) . Maybe it's a training _wheel_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/wheel.html) boater thing flaunting convention. Confusing for us sailors who grew up with the Stbd Main Halyard location expected. Even a bit dangerous as the wierd halyard location hit home when the_skipper_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/skipper.html) needed me to reef the main and I tried to drop the jib instead in a sudden big increase in_wind_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/wind.html) velocity." ____________________________________ "IIRC, the French had a penchant for putting the main halyard to port. No idea why. Just trying to remember 30-40 years back but as I _recall_ (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/tags/recall.html) all the boats I owned: US made (Morgan), Finnish and German all had the main halyard stbd side." and from the real expert: _Brion Toss_ (http://www.briontoss.com/spartalk/member.php?s=8d2c4cd03f192f987af0a67dd13df...) Moderator Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1,137 Options ____________________________________ Hi there, The good news is that all of your questions are answered, in exquisite detail, in my new book Rig Your Boat. The bad news is that I haven't finished that book yet, though I have been gnawing away at it for years. So meanwhile the short form is: if the halyard goes into the mast in front, it should come out of the mast in front. That way it will have the fairest lead, and the least likelihood of encountering throughbolts, other halyards, and any other obstacles. This method also makes it easy to figure out whether a line is a jib halyard or a main, because the jib, for instance, is in front, and that's where the halyard exits. And if that halyard exits in front, then it will lead fairest to the starboard winch; if you brought tit out on port, from an exit towards the front of the mast, you would have to deflect it aft, to get a lead to the winch, which would make for a foul lead. And one sees precisely this a lot, because people are still fixated on the "main on starboard, jib on port" mantra, which was evolved specifically for external halyards. Actually it goes even deeper than that, back to the days of external halyard blocks and the first, jib-less sailboats. The point is that rig layout should reflect rig traffic patterns, and inverting the traditional patterns makes sense with internal halyards. There are refinements, like optimizing relative leads based on load and frequency of use. For that, I fear you will have to wait for the book, or take one of our classes. Fair leads, Brion Many ways to do it - none are 'Right' for all. Have fun, Go Sailing, GO