[Rhodes22-list] highest comfortable wind speed

[Stan Spitzer]

I generally try to stay away from List/Boat discussions for a host of 
reasons; including the fact that I am an undergraduate seat of the pants 
sailor so most Rhodies are more technically positioned than I.  However, 
in honor of Alex and as a dose of home therapy, I'll offer a few unasked 
for comments re Rhodes sails and related hardware.  All with a little 
selling on the side:

IMF masts (only available from GB) want to be straight and set 
perpendicular to the water line.  You will note a minute extruded groove 
in the mast's leading edge.  If you rest your head on the cabin top and 
sight up this 26' long groove, you can adjust your stays to transform 
this groove from a curved to a straight line.

The Rhodes has 9 stays, a record for this category boat. This eliminates 
mast pumping. Adds a degree of reserve safety as in Chris's Med. 
misadventure.  In most boats our size, if a jib stay (forestay) gives up 
its job, there is nothing to stop the mast from falling back and 
bruising the boat.  Of course, if you are fortunate, the mast will make 
a soft landing on your guests. The Rhodes 9 stays also allow for the 
straight mast, needed for IMF.

6 side stays (shrouds) need only a one time adjusting of their 
turnbuckles, which should be done by *Hand*.  With the mast straight and 
perpendicular, all 6 shrouds are tightened (worth repeating) by *Hand*. 
When wind hits the sails and heels the mast, the 3 appropriate shrouds 
automatically tighten the precise amount needed to take the hull along 
for the ride.  Over tightening these 6 shrouds drives the mast down into 
the boat, distorting hull shape, possibly even trapping a guest in the 
enclosed head.

Adjusting the jib stay and double back stays, is another story.  For jib 
sail efficiency you need the jib stay to be as straight as can be.  With 
the Rhodes mast head rig design, this is quickly and easily doable by 
drawing the two back stays together with its rapid tension adjuster 2:1 
mechanical advantage built-in set up where its pulling line then secures 
to one of the 2 idiot proof tiny cleats on each outer corner of the 
transom.  "Idiot proof" because only one cleat is used.  Should you 
attach the back stays in reverse at the mast top, no need to lower the 
mast; the opposite transom cleat is ready for use. You undoubtedly will 
come up with a creative use for the unused cleat.

The Rhodes points amazingly well.  Here are the issues a 
boat-blaming-skipper needs to be tuned into:

The Rhodes proper, lasts beyond a life time.  Its sails of cloth, do 
not.  Sail shapes, and thus efficiencies, change. Racing extremists get 
new sails each year.  Relaxed Rhodies can let the next owner make a new 
set decision. The point I want to make clear here is that saving a few 
dollars to have sails made by a local sailmaker or a Doyle franchise 
loft is fine, as long as you don't then turn to GB with furling or 
performance faults.  The shape of the Rhodes IMF main has been designed 
by GB and is manufactured to GB's specs. Rhodes IMF mainsail is 
specifically designed to work with the IMF's internal furling mechanism 
and it being hard connected to the Rhodes boom outhaul car; all only 
available from GB.  If you bought a used Rhodes or had new sails made 
for your Rhodes by a noted loft, you will not be getting the same ease 
of operation or sailing performance of the collective original 
manufacturer's IMF system... Just something to be aware of before making 
any dollar savings trade-off call.

The jib sail should be connected to its furler so that its end pressures 
allow a smooth leading sail edge while not causing a crease in its 
fabric slightly aft of its luff. Rhodes furling jibs have some sort of 
an additional filler strategically positioned along the luff to help 
reduce excessive sail draft when being used partially reefed.  Using a 
175 reefed to 130 vs a 130 fully deployed, the 130 is the better sail.  
The downside being it can't get bigger for lighter airs. The bottom line 
is probably for non racers to go with the sail size that would get the 
most use based on the more prevalent wind velocities they sail in.

Your Rhodes should have 3 separate jib sheet leads hardware systems as 
part of your boat and readily available for either tack. This unique 3 
leads availability is what contributes to greater pointing ability by 
allowing the jib sail to be trimmed progressively closer to the boats 
centerline. When employing a genoa size that has to pass outside 
(beyond) the end of the mast spreaders, the sheets can only be routed 
outside of all 3 shrouds and used with the gunnel genoa cars on the 
genoa tracks. While delivering maximum driving force, pointing is 
limited by the limited degree the jib can then be trimmed towards the 
boat's center line.  With the jib reefed so its leech falls just short 
of reaching a spreader, the in play sheet routs inside of the mast-top 
shroud to a cabin-side fair lead and cam cleat, for markedly closer 
pointing.  But wait.  If you act right now the Rhodes offers a third 
lead positioning for amazing pointing ability.  The sheet routs inside 
the upper shroud *and* inside the aft lower shroud to the large fair 
lead and cam cleat on the aft cabin trunk top.  In all of these 
different lead positions you should take note of a diagonal stripe on 
the sail itself, that runs to the sail's clew.  This is your guide for 
having the angle of the jib sheet being set as close as possible to 
being a continuation of this sail marker's angle.

In response to the coming about jib thinking, mine is, the wind is my 
friend. I do not release the jib sheet until the boat has come about far 
enough for the wind to have stated backwinding the genoa so that wind 
force is now great enough to propel all that material past the mast. To 
aid my friend I slacken the released jib sheet so at no point will the 
sheet itself be working against our common goal of aiding in the big 
guy's struggle to make it to the other side. Of course if an 
enthusiastic helping deck hand prematurely starts pulling on the 
opposite sheet, there is the lazaret brig. This is a job for the wind. 
If the wind is not up to it, then the calmer situation allows for simply 
partially furling the jib and unfurling it back to its full splendor 
once on the new heading, where you will appreciate its huge size in the 
calmer breeze.

A General Boats IMF mainsail's clew is designed to remain close to, and 
continually parallel to, the boom. This is critical in making the clew 
hard-attached to the outhaul car so that space between sail and car does 
not vary (as it does in other systems).  This unique GB design insures 
that no matter the draft size you set in the main sail, the sail remains 
in the same plane as the boom.   This improves pointing even more since 
it gives more meaning to the basic value of a traveler, which is to 
provide as straight as possible downward force on the sail's leech to 
remove as much twist in the leech as possible.  The GB new traveler 
system works with the latest GB outhaul car design to advance the IMF's 
revolutionary closing in on sailing perfection.  The IMF internal 
furling mechanics are so simple and bullet proof, it requires no 
maintenance and will last a life time.  If the sail or its mounting on 
the IMF furler is not an issue, an errant IMF system invariably turns 
out to be the result of external expert intervention, luckily reversible 
by internal experts.  We had a call for a mast replacement from a yard 
that had inadvertently bent a customer's mast. I explained to them that 
if they bent the mast to that degree, they needed to replace its 
interior.  They insisted the furling parts were OK.  No need to tell the 
rest of the story.  You can't have one without the other.

One of our slogans has been, and remains, if something on a Rhodes does 
not work easily, best to look first at all crew hands (or feet).  
Furling the main isn't working?  Release the quick outhaul release that 
is so easy to release it is forgettable. I know. Taking out the main is 
this time beyond your strength?  Take your foot off the black outhaul 
line you left on the cockpit floor.  I know. I know.

Of course everyone knows how delightful it is sailing with the pop top 
up.  But sailing with it down does increase /all aspects of sailing 
performance/ by allowing the lower level of the boom to position the 
sail's center of effort closer to the water line.

I know you all know all of this stuff, but if there is one sailor out 
there who finds one thing new to her or him, all this verbiage was 
probably worth it.

stan