[Rhodes22-list] Sacrificial Toothpicks

[Stan Spitzer]

Mike and followers:

As you can see I stay out of these things, mostly because boats that 
have passed through other hands have often been altered by other hands 
that I am not familiar with.  2,000 years ago Rhodies came to their 
elders when they had a serious question - today they just put tribal 
elders in an old Rhodes, set it on fire and push it out to sea.  So this 
is by way of a patriotic service - and a public notice to listen to 
Rummy since he now is getting very old.

1.    The Rhodes mast is supported by 9 stays.   You could lose 6 of the 
right 9 stays and the mast will not come down. The jib stay on any boat 
is usually the most likely to fail.  In most boats, that are our size, 
this means the mast comes down on the skipper, who probably deserves 
it.  But this does not happen on a Rhodes, even with a deserving 
skipper, because of the forward lowers.

2.    The mast step is a HINGE.  Hinges allow things to move.  So even 
bolting the hinge step all the way to the keel will not stop a mast, 
hell bent on coming down, from pivoting in its new, infinitely secured, 
mast step.   NO stays and it will pivot down. Its in a hinge.

3.    OK, you want the mast to stay up in your now bolted-on mast step. 
    So you do away with your mast step's hinged action by putting two 
horizontal holes through the mast base and insert two 3/8" bolts instead 
of the single bolt design that previously allowed the mast to pivot.   
Now, with your non moveable mast step, and non pivotable mast, you feel 
secure that even with no stays, the mast will stay.

My father once told me that if I give him a fulcrum and a long enough 
pole, he could move the earth.   The Rhodes mast is 26 feet long - IMHO 
I think it could move a Rhodes.  I will leave that math to the better 
minds out there but my guess is that with a mast step that can't pop and 
a stayless mast, somethings got to give, even something as modest as the 
mast itself breaking or bending instead of lifting the now impossible to 
lift mast step.

Do we have a rough weather water volunteer?  Also need a camcorder 
volunteer to settle this List issue for eternity.

ss


On 6/20/13 11:36 PM, Michael Hellyar wrote:
> I appreciate all the feedback and we will consider all the comments. I explained our logic for through bolting and I hope someone will explain why we are wrong.
>
> Mike Hellyar
> sent from my iPad
>
> On Jun 20, 2013, at 11:44 AM, R22RumRunner at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Mike,
>> Please follow the advice of the list (and Stan's) and DO NOT through bolt
>> the mast step.
>>
>> Rummy
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 6/20/2013 9:06:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> mdh007 at wowway.com writes:
>>
>> We are  re-attaching the mast step fitting. The holes were left uncovered
>> for years.  We are going to through bolt. Yes, we know Stan's theory. We used
>> a simple  process described in West System Boat Maintenance. Cured epoxy
>> can be hard on  drill bits so Steve came up with the idea to slobber match
>> sticks with some  paste wax use clear tape over the filled holed and stick the
>> match sticks into  the epoxy to create a pilot small starter pilot. Tape
>> hold the matchsticks  vertical. And it worked like a charm. And the epoxy
>> wicked quite a bit to  repair any core damage in the area. By taping the hole
>> opening in the cabin we  prevented in leakage. Given the strength of epoxy we
>> could just as well have  re-drilled and screwed into the epoxy.
>>
>> Mike Hellyar
>> Steve Congdon,  Rhodesmaster I
>> sent from my iPad
>>
>> Begin forwarded  message:
>>
>>> From: sjcclu <sjcclu at msn.com>
>>> Date: June  19, 2013, 7:49:17 AM EDT
>>> To: Mike Hellyar <mdh007 at wowway.com>,  Mike Hellyar <mhellyar22 at yahoo.com>
>>> Subject: <No  Subject>
>>> Reply-To: sjcclu <sjcclu at msn.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE  Smartphone
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