[Rhodes22-list] Cockpit Under Water

Wed Jul 9 09:53:30 EDT 2003

Joe,

Seven people is a lot of crew for an R-22 in heavy weather.  However, it is
still well within the boat's USCG rated carrying capacity.  So, you weren't
doing anything intrinsically unsafe or dumb.  I still think your major
problem was that you didn't have the crew's weight properly distributed.

By the way, in my previous post, I mentioned that the R-22 develops weather
helm as it heels.  If you ever find yourself in this situation again, keep
this heeling/weather helm relationship in mind.  If you can't prevent 30+
deg of heeling even with a bunch of crew up on the windward rail; then,
minimize the mainsail area.  You might even have to furl the mainsail up all
together.  Put up as much foresail as the boat can stand up to.  With most
or even all of the sail area up forward, the weather helm will be
counteracted and you will not have to crank in lots of rudder angle to keep
the boat on course when a gust hits & the boat heels over.  With this sail
configuration, the R-22 will continue sailing to windward without
significant weather helm until the heeling lifts the rudder blade out of the
water, at which point the boat will broach or spin-out with gusto!  This
will scare the living daylights out of you the 1st few times it happens &
you need to hang on to something.  It's just the R-22's subtle way of
informing you that you've crossed over the edge of the performance envelope
& that the laws of physics are not to be broken lightly.  Extreme rudder
angles also cause the rudder blade to create lots of drag, almost like a
water brake.  This slows the boat down, causing the water flow over the keel
& rudder to be less effective & perhaps not generating sufficient force to
counteract the forces being generated by the sailing rig under the same
conditions.  i.e., the wind won't stop howling just because pilot error
caused the boat to stop dead in the water.  In addition, beyond a rudder
angle of about +/- 45 deg, the water flow over the hydrofoil on the rudder
blade is likely to stall, thus resulting in complete loss of steering
control.  Remember, you need to keep the boat moving in order for the
controls to behave as you expect them to.

The only trouble with the above passive sailing strategy is that wind speed
is almost never constant under heavy weather conditions.  In a wind lull,
either due to less actual wind speed or because the boat is in the bottom of
a trough between waves, having all or nearly all the sail area up forward
will cause the boat to develop severe lee helm.  Remember, the weather helm
is a side-effect of heeling.  When the boat stands up, for whatever reason,
the weather helm goes away & the forward biased sail area instantly creates
lee helm.  The lee helm will require extreme rudder angles to counteract
with the same detrimental effects as with weather helm & can leave the boat
sitting dead in the water or unable the climb the next wave crest to get out
of the trough.  It's a sitting duck waiting to get broached by the next wind
gust!  Because of this problem of variable wind speed vs. how to configure
the sailing rig, a passive sailing strategy in heavy weather is not really a
viable option.

This is where the technique of "actively sailing" the boat comes in.  You
put up sail area sufficient in size & appropriately distributed for the wind
lulls.  Then, the helmsman & sail trimmers work together as a well-oiled
machine, powering up the sails in the lulls, depowering in the gusts, &
sailing a zig-zag course to take maximum advantage of the waves & local
gusts of wind.  It takes a lot of concentration and teamwork, but it's great
fun!  Once you master the technique, you will stop being afraid of heavy
weather.  You will come to regard wind gusts as handy little packets of
kinetic energy which you greedily harvest & then spend to help you get
upwind.

The Rhodes 22 is a great heavy weather boat.  It's stoutly built to take the
pounding & with sufficient sail shaping controls to enable active sailing to
work.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ware, Joseph W." <joseph_ware at merck.com>
> Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 14:47:09 -0400
> To: "'The Rhodes 22 mail list'" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: RE: [Rhodes22-list] Cockpit Under Water
>
> > Thanks Roger, and your assumption is correct, myself included.  It's
going
> > to be fun learning on this boat.
> >
> > Joe
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Roger Pihlaja [mailto:cen09402 at centurytel.net]
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 2:43 PM
> > To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Cockpit Under Water
> >
> >
> > Joe,
> >
> > The sailing performance of the Rhodes 22 is very sensitive to trim, both
> > port/starboard as well as fore/aft.
> >
> > I presume with that kind of party on board & from your question that you
> > didn't have a skilled crew that could sail the boat "actively".
> >
> > The Rhodes 22 sails best if it can be sailed as level as possible
> > port/starboard & as nearly on the waterline fore/aft as possible.  In
this
> > respect, the R-22 behaves very much like a big sailing dingy.  You
needed to
> > put as many crew as possible up onto the windward rail & distribute them
> > fore/aft to keep the boat in as level trim as possible.  If there are
waves,
> > the crew in front are going to get wet - this is considered to be part
of
> > the fun.  The problem if you pile everybody into the cockpit is that the
> > stern of the boat does not have sufficient floatation for that much
weight.
> > The boat trims down by the stern.  The wetted surface of the hull under
the
> > cockpit behaves like the flaps on an airplane wing when the boat is
trimmed
> > down by the stern.  This large wetted surface area causes a lot of drag
> > which tends to prevent the boat from achieving sufficient velocity to
punch
> > thru waves.  In addition, the R-22 develops weather helm when heeled,
which
> > tends to limit the boat's ability to go to weather.  It sounds like you
made
> > both mistakes & thus experienced the R-22 at its worst.
> >
> > If you had put your crew up onto the windward rail & properly
distributed
> > their live ballast fore/aft; then, you would have been able to carry
much
> > more sail area to keep the boat moving, able to punch thru waves, and
under
> > control.  At times, you might have even started to plane!  Everybody has
> > more fun at surf city.  Try it - you'll like it!
> >
> > Roger Pihlaja
> > S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ware, Joseph W." <joseph_ware at merck.com>
> > To: "List Rhodes (E-mail)" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 11:40 AM
> > Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Cockpit Under Water
> >
> >
> > > I was out this past week with 7 people on board.  4 adults and three
kids.
> > > We had tons of wind, and had the genny furled from 100% down to 10%
and
> > > still brought water over the rail, as well as across the bow.  My
question
> > > is, with this many people in the boat, we had water in the cockpit all
> > day.
> > > Is this normal, and is there any way to change the balance forward to
> > > eliminate the stern from sitting so low?
> > >
> > > Joe
> > > s/v Whisper
> > >
> >
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> >
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----
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> > named on this message. If you are not the intended recipient, and
> > have received this message in error, please immediately return this by
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