[Rhodes22-list] New addition to the family: Nautisaurus

Tue Oct 5 10:45:01 EDT 2010

Ron and Lisa,

Neat, and welcome to this motley crew.  You will find this really is a crew because if you have any burps or bumps everyone will very willingly make their contribution to find the solution.  You are in a perfect area, lots of Rhoadies around, although most are planted at their own marinas, never again to be moved.  I won't say that it is simple to use the trailerability of this boat at setup and breakdown, but it is simpler than most of the same size, and not really difficult.  It would be fun to assemble the fleet at some point, it has happened, because everyone in the fleet would have their stories to tell.  You ought to try to make lunch at the Friday show and meet Mary Lou, Fred, and Lee, among others that will probably be there.  You may even get pressed into voluntary service with the Spitzers in the show itself.  Do you sing?  Do you dance? On that note, I am sure I join others in wishing GB the ultimate success in selling many boats at the Annapolis show.  I and others have worked the booth or the water demos, Cowie may have his personal boat at the waterfront this year. I did this in '07 with hospitality hot dogs, and found out from a new skipper many months later that this tipped the scale for his decision!

We will look forward to pictures and your location on the Potomac in a future post.  I locate at Lake Hartwell, which is where our famous Rummy keeps his yellow hulled Rhodes and sips Mt and Diet Coke; also sail on Boca Ciega Bay (St Pete) when winter weather arrives.  The lake is fine when the COE allows the lake to stay near full, and with an adjacent shop gives me a perfect site for the boat canvas work I enjoy.  My Mary Jane is also an '86, a primo year from what I have heard.  I have been very pleased, as I'm sure you will.  Are you a project guy?  A few of our skippers enjoy working on their boat.

I look forward to bumping into you, not in the water.  Be sure to let fly with any questions, everyone is ready to speak up!

R,

Art

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ron Kaye <ronkaye343 at gmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 5, 2010 12:18 AM
>To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] New addition to the family: Nautisaurus
>
>Hello all
>
>So... my future wife, Lisa, and I were going to sell our places and buy a
>single house together this last Summer.  And move the kids, dogs, and cats
>all in together.  That idea turned out to be complex, frustrating, expensive
>and too difficult to do in one Summer.   So of course we decided to do
>something simple and fun - and what else could that be but buy a sailboat.
>
>I had owned a sailboat for a few years long long ago when life was simple
>and there were no children about.  When that life changed and children and
>jobs crowded for time and money, the sailboat had to sail out of our lives.
> That was a 27' Balboa, the Kundalini Express.
>
>I took Lisa out on a Flying Scott over the Summer and she was hooked.
>
>Our recently purchased (then unnamed) Rhodes 22 is a '86 hull, refurbished
>and bought by the previous owners in 2005.  We had Stan's crew do quite a
>bit of additional and refurbish work on her after we bought her out of
>brokerage in Sept of this year. She looks brand new now.
>
>We have yet to launch the Nautisaurus since we burned a hub bearing on the
>trailer on the way up to Maryland from NC (we are going to dry-sail).  The
>Nautisaurus arrived on top of a roll-back flatbed wrecker (remember to take
>the mast off the crutch if this happens to you, or it will tear down all the
>road signs - but we lowered it).  Then the Yamaha 9.9 need a thermostat that
>had to be manufactured deep inside Japan by an irritable and distracted
>Ninja.  More than two weeks to get a part.
>
>Question: Is there any advantage to converting the 9.9 to a 15? I'm told it
>is easy to do, but would we just going to burn fuel against hull speed?
>
>Raising the mast this weekend was some kind of adventure, arriving on the
>scene with about 45 minutes of daylight because of other life complications,
>and ending up confused with tiny flashlights panting and squinting at the
>instructions (ever heard of a simple illustration Stan - ok sorry, Stan we
>love you).  It got better in the light of the following day and we did the
>deed.  Next time around it might be a lot easier.
>
>The best part was when we were wallowing around in the cockpit trying to
>figure things out in the dark and the bimini was sitting in there and
>suddenly the motor lifted up and was grinding at the end of the lift and we
>had no idea why it came to life like that.  It was the bimini (in the case)
>pushing against the switch that we couldn't see.  The lift seemed to be
>undamaged by that accidental activation. Kevin at GBX told me not to run it
>up to the end of the lift with the motor or it would break.  I said OK.  I
>told Lisa this.  She said OK.  The Nauti has a mind of her own.
>
>We have been reading the discussions here.  Interesting! We are going to ask
>a bunch of questions.  Brace yourself.  But for now we just wanted to say
>hello to fellow Rhodies.  We love our "new" Rhodes.  She's a beaut.  We'll
>try and get a picture or two on here soon.  We are on the middle Potomac.
>
>
>Ron and Lisa
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