[Rhodes22-list] What's up with my mast?

[Slim]

John,

When we lower the boom so it's just above the cabin roof with the pop top
down, we refer to this as the "first reef."  By lowering the center of
effort, this allows you to have more sail cloth out and still keep the boat
from heeling too much.  Since you can't do that on your boat, I hope you
have standard reef points in your mail sail.  If so, you'll be in good
company since most sailboats are like that.  If you don't have reef points
in your main, you will not be able to sail comfortably in winds higher than
about 15 or so.  Above that, you need to be able to shorten sail to keep the
boat on her feet.

It doesn't look like you can engineer a slider for the boom.  To do that you
would have to remove the pad eye that you're using for the pop top, so then
you'd have to also engineer a slider for the pop top, which looks impossible
given the plate that's stuck in the track towards the bottom.

It would be a lot easier to add a couple of reef points in your main if you
don't have them.  Then you'd have a set-up like 99% of the rest of the
sailboats out there.  There are some very slick "jiffy reefing" systems
available that make shortening sail almost as quick and easy as the IMF.

Slim  

On 4/5/07 2:30 PM, "John Lock" <jlock at relevantarts.com> wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
> I'm trying to understand exactly what I have.  I knew from the
> beginning that my boat did not have a standard GB mast on it.  Who
> knows where it came from.  As I attached the boom and read more about
> how these things work. I'm beginning to wonder about what's going on
> with my particular mast setup.  So, here are some photos and
> questions. TIA for any sage advice -
> 
> Photo #1 - Base of mast - http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-base.jpg
> 
> You can see in this photo that the sail track has a "kink" in it
> about a foot up from the base plate.  It looks like it may have been
> twisted or broken in the past and repaired.  Notice that there is no
> slider for the poptop (see next photo).  You can see the remains of a
> slider just below the kink with threaded holes still
> intact.  However, it can't travel up past the kink.
> 
> Photo #2 - Poptop connector -
> http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-popcon.jpg
> 
> Here you can see a pad eye that's been screwed into the sail track
> above the kink.  I insert the pin for the poptop bracket (see
> previous photo) thru this pad eye to secure the poptop up.  It's a
> little awkward, but manageable.  Also, I don't have anything close to
> 6-foot headroom under the poptup.  I'm 5'9 and I can almost stand
> straight up under it.
> 
> Photo #3 - The boom connector -
> http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-boom.jpg
> 
> This is where things get seriously weird.  There is no slider for the
> boom.  It attaches to the mast with the swivel bracket you see in
> this photo, which is screwed securely to the mast.  Consequently, the
> boom is always in the "up" position and cannot move vertically in
> either direction.
> 
> 
> Given these new insights, I'm beginning to wonder what kind of
> sailing quirks I might encounter.  For example, the boom vang issue,
> that R22 owners try to solve in various ways, is a non-issue on my
> setup.  The boom is permanently "vanged" in place!  Once the main is
> up, I suppose I can ease or trim the main halyard to adjust tension
> on the sail, but that's about it from what I can see.
> 
> What kind of problems can I expect to face if the boom is always set
> that high?  Are there advantages to being able to set it lower with
> the poptop closed?
> 
> Would it be a worthwhile project to re-engineer a slider for the boom?
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> John Lock
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
> Lake Sinclair, GA
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list