[Rhodes22-list] highest comfortable wind speed

Tue Sep 4 09:10:31 EDT 2018

Stan,

Thanks for sharing your comments.  They are always appreciated.

Some of us actually remember why there are two cleats on the transom.  On my original Rhodes 22, delivered by you in March 1981, one cleat was for the backstay adjuster and the second adjusted the "traveler" which was nothing more than cotton line and a block attached to the main, between the two backstays.  Somehow, we were able to sail the rig, although not nearly as well as my '91 with the much improved traveler.

Now you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.

Mike
s/v Wind Lass ('91)
Nissequogue River, NY

-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of Stan Spitzer
Sent: Monday, September 3, 2018 5:20 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] highest comfortable wind speed

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

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