[Rhodes22-list] believer in the Rhodes

[Roger Pihlaja]

Richard,

Wow!  You experienced a failure in the windward upper sidestay while the
boat was heavily loaded & in rough conditions?  A fella just doesn't need
that much excitment in his life!  What actually failed; the swaged terminal,
or the pin, or the wire, or?  Did it fail suddenly, "with a bang", or just
sort of progressively "unravel" over several seconds?

How does the boat react when you lose the upper sidestay?  Does the mast
develop any sort of noticable "bend" or "lean"?  It sounds like you reacted
properly & quickly shortened sail.

FYI, if you had 9 people on the boat in heavy air, then you could have made
better use of them as "active ballast" by having them sit on the windward
side with their legs hanging over the toerail.  Hopefully, your boat has
lifelines to hang on to!  Not only would putting your 9 crew on the windward
rail have helped keep you upright in the heavy air, but it would have
properly distributed the weight out along the length of the boat.  It sounds
like you may have had too much weight in the stern.  The Rhodes 22 sails
best when treated like a big "dingy".   Keep it nearly level as possible
from side to side & on her waterline fore & aft.  Properly trimmed, the boat
can punch to weather & thru waves in truely amazing conditions.  Believe it
or not, if you can keep from heeling, then the boat will not round up in the
gusts.  You will just keep accellerating.  I wonder what surfing feels like
with 9 people on board?

Oh, & be sure to lower the pop top the next time you go out in heavy air.
That thing causes nothing but pure drag & heeling in heavy air.  It's also a
big opening into the cabin for flooding if you should happen to take some
green water over the bow.

Richard, I hope to meet you some day.  I'd love to have the opportunity to
sit down with you & talk some more about this amazing experience!  Welcome
to the list.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilbrium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard and Sherry Day" <dayz@lisco.com>
To: <Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 11:26 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] believer in the Rhodes


>   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.
>
>
> _______________________________________
> Subscribers, send mail to this address Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org
> To change your options or unsubscribe from the list click on this link
> http://www.rhodes22.org/mailman/listinfo/rhodes22-list Check out our
> FAQ pages at http://www.geocities.com/blew_skies/topics.html
> http://www.sailnet.com/ -Where Sailors Get It!  http://www.rhodes22.org
>