[Rhodes22-list] splash and more splashes

[The Rhodes 22 Email List]

  Due to a broken leg that is still mending, my son and his very, very good
friend agree to help me splash Country Rhodes Saturday. We got to the lake,
backed down the ramp, I was sitting on the tailgate of the truck, directing
this comedy of errors. As the boat floats off the trailer, I tell my son to
lower the motor and start it. The motor dies, and after several pulls Jeremy
looks and sees the fuel line hanging down almost in the water. It broke off
the fitting as he lowered the motor. Up to the marina buy a universal fuel
line kit and R&R'ed both ends at the courtesy dock. Fire up motor and cruise
to my new dock and tie up.
  To set the stage for what happens next, my son and his friend, both great
guys, but neither are sailers. I start directing the boys in taking off all
but the last three bungees on the mast, mount the antenna, wind direction
thingy and the spreader tubes. My son says "are there screws to hold the
tubes into the sockets?" I said they should stay in there by themselves, and
they will, IF you have the moved the mast up into the mast step! The next
thing I hear is a heart sinking PLOP. Into the drink the tube goes.
  To set the stage for what happens next, it's been a looong cold winter in
Ohio this year, the water is still very cold, it's 48 degrees air temp,
overcast and raining off and on. My son's friend, Tom, brought a swim suit
that he thought would fit Jeremy better than him. Jeremy suits up and jumps
into the water that I thought was about 6 feet deep. Buy the time he swims
down to the bottom which is really 9+ feet deep he is out of breath and
comes back up. Jeremy thinks the only way to have any search time is to dive
off the boat for a faster decent. After two more unproductive dives, he asks
if I have a pole to try to locate the tube to have a location to dive to.
The boat hook was under the water before it touched the bottom, so out came
the whisker pole. After ten minutes of poking around, he felt  the tink of
metal on metal. He pushed the pole into the muck, dove down following the
pole and came up shivering, smiling, spreader tube in hand!
   While Jeremy was wasting away the day swimming, Tom and I pinned on the
backstays  and lengthened all six side stays, to compensate for the rebuild
of the compression post-cabin floor-stringer. We attached the upper stays
and set up the mast hoist. With Jeremy cranking, Tom and I steadied the
mast, it went up a little wobblely, but the wind and rain had increased
also. When it was all the way up, the upper stays were really loose and I
noticed the spreader tubes in the heel groves of the seat. Down comes the
mast, I stick in a spreader tube, push in the plastic plug on the shroud and
turn to Jeremy and say "see they hold themselves in". He was not amused.
  The rest of the job went by without a hitch, but due to time constraints,
I'll have to tune the rig later.

      Jerry Lowe
    Country Rhodes



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