[Rhodes22-list] believer in the Rhodes

[Steve Alm]

Richard,

I haven't ever broken a shroud but here's what happened to me:  A few weeks
ago I lowered my mast to do some adjusting of my bow stay at the mast head.
When I got it down and looked at it, I discovered that the clevis pin
holding the stay in the bracket was MISSING THE COTTER RING!!!!!  Only a
little friction was holding it in place.  I now use sail tape on all of
those connections.  The point I'm making is that a shroud or stay could come
apart having nothing to do with overloading the boat.  Very glad to hear you
avoided any injury or serious damage to the boat.  Makes me wonder if the
forward lower shrouds would have held my mast if my bow stay would have let
go.

Slim
S/V Fandango

On 9/5/02 10:26 PM, "Richard and Sherry Day" <dayz@lisco.com> wrote:

> I can now, honestly, vouch for the sturdiness of the Rhodes sailboat.
> I have only had my boat for 3 years and started out cold turkey.  New
> nothing about sailing, zilch, except what I could learn from sailing guide
> magazines.   Everything has been trial by error.  But, boy has it been fun!
> I love when it's windy and you can sail with the rail down.  It's not
> efficient but makes for a thrilling afternoon anyway.  I have found to my
> chagrin (and stupidity) that 9 people in the boat on a very windy day is too
> much for my Rhodes but thank god it was a Rhodes underneath us.   While
> sailing in very windy conditions this year with this number of people on
> board I come to appreciate what some people might consider overkill for the
> number of stays on a small boat.
>  We were positioned evenly around the cotpit with two in the cabin with
> the top-pop up.  With that much ballast for stability we were still getting
> the bottom people wet and rounding up when gusts hit.  Then the outside
> starboard stay broke loose!  I immediately let loose the main, rounded up
> and furled the genoa thinking all the while I was about to lose my mast and
> rigging.  I was very lucky in many respects; learned very quickly the
> maximum capacity, learned not to get overly confident, and kicked myself for
> endangering the people on board.
> It's funny when miscues happen little things run through your mind.  But
> when that stay broke free Stan's remark on his tape about the safety factor
> of having 9 stays danced through my mind.  I really believe I would have
> lost my mast and gotten someone hurt that day if it wasn't for the
> additional stays on my Rhodes.
> My boat is an older model.  Therefore I will sail it with a bit of caution
> from now on, knowing that if one shear bolt broke others might be suspect
> under too heavy of a load.  I just thought I would share this piece of
> information and tell you all how proud I am to have a Rhodes.  Richard Day.
> 
> 
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