[Rhodes22-list] Subject: Re: Re design of Rhodes Interior and elimination of compressi...

[David Culp]

John:

Email is impersonal sometimes-just don't want anyone I don't know in person
to get the wrong impression.  We are all just trying to have fun here and
learn something.

Communication is key and I just picked up on something in your last post and
that was that you had compression problems on the port side of the boat.  My
problem was also on the port side.  The port side is also where the aft stay
tensioner line is tightened and secured on my boat.  Is it the same on your
boat?

That port aft stay has a lot of tension on it when in use.  I have been
guessing that the aft stays were over-tighten on my boat and left that way
which caused the cabin top to start bending over the top of the support
bulkhead.  Roger tuned his boat very tightly but cautioned that he always
released the aft stay tension when the boat was not in use.  Maybe now we
know why.  There is a huge mechanical advantage with the aft stays that you
don't have with the sides.  Rodger's example was tying both ends of a
 "banana" but this boat is no banana.   In my simple mind it is more like a
crossbow and arrow... and the mast is the arrow.

I checked the upper side shrouds yesterday and I am carrying 180 lbs on the
Loos gauge so closer to your numbers then I thought but well below Rodger's.
 What I should have checked is how much tension I have on the aft stays when
they are tightened.  Just by feel, I am guessing 240 but it may be more.

The lesson here MAY BE and I caution it's only a MAYBE is that you must
always make sure to release the aft stay tension when the boat is not in use
or you may face a compression problem over time.   Boats get pounded by chop
even in the slip and I can see something is eventually going to flex under
constant high tension.   I would assume that everyone is already doing that.
 I always have.

David


Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 18:50:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Shulick <jsbudda at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Subject: Re: Re design of Rhodes Interior
       and elimination of compressi...
To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Message-ID: <23862507.post at talk.nabble.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii


Dave,

You have nothing to apologize for, I came to this forum to learn from others
and to report my observations about how my boat responds to various settings
and configurations in the hope of increasing the pool of knowledge about our
boat. I would like to see your settings and would encourage others familiar
with a loos gauge to chime in with their numbers as well. The Roger piece
was the only writing I had found that had any numbers to go on when it came
time rig my boat last year so at first I duplicated his settings and did not
like what I saw inside the cabin so I backed them down to what I have now
and the cabin eased up some. My boat also had the port side of the cabin
compressed due to probable over tension by previous owners. In the
companionway on the port side the fiberglas has buckled. When I installed
the port side bulkhead I jacked up the ceiling to force fit the bulkhead in
place and that straightened out the buckling in the companionway by a large
degree. The first week the boat was in the water the rigging had the slack
taken out but was loose otherwise. We got hit at night by a cold front with
30 mph wind gusting to 50 the inside of the cabin creaked and groaned and I
wondered if my modifications were a mistake. Week 2 I snugged the rigging up
some more relying on feel and not using the gauge yet. Then went out in 10
to 15 mph with gusts. Boat seemed fine. Week 3
brought the rigging to present tension checking with gauge. Sailing in same
conditions boat has no problems. Over night we were hit again with 30 mph +
winds and the cabin noise was much less. I will continue to monitor the
situation and will chime in on this if something happens.

John Shulick