[Rhodes22-list] High thrust engine-transom

[Mary Lou Troy]

Burt,
it seems that in the discussions of motors we always seem to divide 
up into several camps.

There are those who have a Rhodes 22 sailboat who sail off their 
moorings or motor out of their slip and then go sailing.

Then there are those who back out of the slip to go somewhere. That's 
us. While we daysail, we also do a fair amount of cruising with 
friends. There may be no wind or the wind is on the nose with 3 ft 
waves and it's 30 miles to home or you may have to navigate a long 
channel with 3-4 knot currents and a drawbridge in the middle.  We 
may be off to meet someone in Annapolis or St. Michaels or have to 
get home after a couple of days of good sailing. It's a very 
powerboat-like use of a sailboat. The nice thing about the Rhodes 22 
is that it's a great sailboat that also motors very well. We had a 
nice Yamaha 2 stroke 4 hp on our Com-pac 16. I would not have trusted 
that motor to get the Rhodes under the Bay Bridge with a knot or 2 of 
current and 18 knots of wind on the nose coming home from Annapolis 
in May. The 8 hp motor did just fine. The lighter weight of a 2 
stroke is tempting but if you are going to put in 5 or 6 hours of 
motoring, a four-stroke makes for a much quieter ride. Unfortunately 
we couldn't find a lighter weight 2 stroke 4 hp engine that had 
electric start and an easy freshwater flush.

Mary Lou
1991 Rhodes 22 Fretless
Rock Hall, MD


At 09:08 AM 9/24/2007, you wrote:
>Mary Lou,
>   Thanks for the info. I suspected that my 82 Rhodes may have been one  that
>had it's transom on a fiberglass diet... I rather carefully inspected the
>ships hull and did not discover any other dietary deficiency. Hopefully few
>others exist.... however, I would recommend a minimum dockside full power
>momentary forward and reverse flex test... If that transom mount moves
>significantly.... and the observer is uncomfortable with that .... 
>then...  Perhaps in
>sailors in low traffic, inland, fresh water bodies will fortunately  never
>experience transom testing impacts ..... Perhaps a light 4 hp vs a 
>15 hp  heavy 4 is
>another alternative.
>We do have a sailboat, not a powerboat.... and it's design requirements of
>course differ.
>Burt
>
>
>
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