According to General Boat's sales literature, Stan & Co. build about
50 Rhodes 22's per year. So, if my boat is hull #46 and was built in
April 1976 and it is now September, 1998...well, let's round off and
call it 22 years of boat building:
46 +(50 boats/yr * 22 yrs)= 1146
So, if Stan has stayed on schedule, he should be somewhere around
hull #1146. Has anyone on the list purchased their boat this year?
What's your hull number?
There are about 100 members on the list and not every one of them owns
a Rhodes 22. The list probably represents 5-10% of all the Rhodes 22's
ever built. I wonder how many Rhodes 22's are still sailing? Does
anyone on the list have an earlier hull number than 46?
When and where was the 1st Rhodes 22 built? Stan, do you have any
records from "the beginning"? I'm rather curious how your company
got started. Did you know Phillip Rhodes personally? Did you
commission the Rhodes 22 design or fall in love with the prototype
built by somebody else or? I'm sure it's an interesting story if
you'd be willing to share it with us.
There's one other odd thing about my boat. Normally, the numbers on
the mainsail and genoa match the hull number, i.e. 46 in my case.
However, the numbers on my standard OEM sails when I purchased my
boat from a private party in the spring of 1987 were 227. It was
sort of like discovering the chassis and engine serial numbers in
your car don't match. The previous owner had no explanation for
the discrepancy. I always assumed someone along the line had
purchased a used suit of sails for the boat with a greater number.
But, as I've replaced the sails over the years, I've always used the
number 46. The sailmaker will give you any number you ask for or
no numbers at all if that's what you want.
The numbers on the sails really only matter in sailboat racing.
They are big enough for the race committee to read from a distance
for scoring purposes.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
I finally looked at the serial number on the back of my Rhodes 22.
Is the last number the year? Which number is the hull number for
that year? (I actually have two serial numbers the one I have to
use is from the FL Dept of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division.
Jim Sequin
The hull number on my Rhodes 22 is GBX220046D76. The GBX is General
Boat's 3-digit code as a boat maker, the 22 is the overall length,
0046 is the sequential number of the hull (mine was the 46th Rhodes
22 built), D76 refers to the month and year the vessel was built.
The months are labeled A: January, B: February, C: March and so
forth. So, my boat was built in April of 1976, the 46th boat of
the total production run.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
04 Sep 98
Can you provide your full hull number? It should be stamped on a metal
plate riveted to the transom.
My 1976 Rhodes 22 has hull number: GBX220046D76. According to the marine
industry standard nomenclature for hull numbers:
- GBX is the code for General Boats
- 22 is the LOA
- 0046 is the sequential hull number
- D is the month the boat was made: A = January, B = February, C= March, D =
April, & so forth
- 76 is the year the boat was made
My mainsail originally had the number 227 on it. Whenever I've purchased
new sails for the boat, I've always put the number 46 on them. No one has
ever been able to offer an explanation for the initial hull number/sail
number discrepancy. I always assumed that, at some point, somebody
purchased a set of used sails or something, but I don't really know for
sure. You are the only other person I've ever heard of with the same hull
number/sail number discrepancy. Perhaps there was something unusual about
boat production in 1976.
It's hard to believe your hull number is 31 & your boat is a 1972. How
could my 1976 hull number be only 46? Did they really only build 15 boats
in that 4 year period?
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
07 Jan 2002
