[Rhodes22-list] Cockpit Waterproofing

[thebooker]

Hi Jay,

Sounds like you are sailing in conditions never experienced by most Rhodes
22 owners, but fairly common for you. They remind me of the quote: "He would
go to sea for pleasure, would go to hell for a vacation."

I've sailed the Chesapeake Bay area 12 years now and encountered similar
conditions one time in a 27 ft trimaran (F27) and once in a 30' keel boat (a
gale but I was going downwind double reefed - one of the best sails of my
life). Both of these boats boats were designed to handle these conditions.
Your Rhodes 22 wasn't. Now I stay home if such conditions become a
possibility and miss out on very little sailing. 

I think you are asking the boat to do far more than the designer intended.
The Rhodes 22 is a great boat, nigh perfect for 99% of Rhodes owners and the
area they sail in. The Rhodes is even designed to recover from a knock down
from wind, as from a sudden thunderstorm. It's not designed for sailing in
long term large waves AND high winds. It's the waves that can cause even
well designed keel boats to capsize or turtle. A very experienced ocean
racer single handing in Pacific put out an SOS to be rescued because he knew
the weather system he was in would last for several days and his autopilot
could not be counted on to handle the conditions when he had to get rest. He
had had the boat for many years, loved it, but scuttled it when a ship came
by to rescue him. He basically knew he would die if he continued and felt he
owed it to his family to bail out. 

Why not get an International Folkboat, or another boat designed almost
specifically for your sailing conditions?

Brooks Bridges
Choptank River Cambridge MD
"Changes"



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Brooks Bridges
1986, Recycled 2006 "Changes"
Cambridge, MD
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