[Rhodes22-list] ANOTHER first sail on my R22

[Mark Whipple]

Hi Stephen,

It's great to have another R22 owner close by! I belong to Savin Hill YC in
Dorchester and that's where my mooring is located. SHYC is fortunate to
have a yard where I can store the boat over the winter. Unfortunately I'll
be paying storage for two boats until I sell my 30' Nimble yawl.

My boat is currently in the water although I really hope to haul it out
this weekend. Engine troubles have caused some delays, but I hope to
install a new starter relay and carburetor this week. I've made a few short
sails between the SHYC docks and my mooring. For me it's a little like
sailing a dinghy again! That's a good thing.

I'm sure I'll be in touch. It would be great to take a look at your boat to
compare.

Thanks again,

Mark Whipple
S/V Tiny Dancer
Milton, MA

On Mon, Oct 14, 2019 at 8:47 AM Stephen Staum <snstaum at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Mark. I know your boat.  When my friend Ed was looking to buy a
> sailboat a few years back we looked at a Rhodes 22 at a club in Everett,
> MA. It had wheel steering, an inboard w sail drive & a self tending jib. It
> was above his budget so he passed on it. A couple of years later, the same
> boat showed up on a neighboring mooring where I was based at Squantum Yacht
> Club in Quincy (off Wollaston Beach). We were neighbors for several years
> but I never got to sail on this unique boat. Maybe now I get another
> chance. This year I moved my Rhodes to Hingham Shipyard Marina due to the
> low tide delays at Squantum Yacht club. Where are you sailing out of?
>
> I have owned a Rhodes 22 since 2003 so can help you with anything you need
> assistance with. I will be floating until November if you want to get out
> on a Rhodes before next season.
>
> Stephen Staum
> s/v Carol Lee 2
> Needham, MA
> 781-704-1037 (cell)
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 10:40 PM Mark Whipple <mark at whipplefamily.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > I'm jumping on the bandwagon to tell you about my first sail on my R22!
> > This is a long post so only read it if you have the time to be
> (hopefully!)
> > entertained for a bit.
> >
> > I purchased this boat at the beginning of July in a town in central
> > Massachusetts. For a variety of reasons I did not launch this boat until
> > 10/1. I a some fun stories about raising the mast for the first time but
> > I'll save that for another time.
> >
> > I currently own three sailboats, as long as you don't count the two
> > dinghies that can also sail. My largest boat, a Nimble 30 yawl designed
> by
> > Ted Brewer, is currently for sale. I really love the boat but I wanted to
> > downsize as I approach retirement. I did not launch the Nimble this year
> > although she was in the water last year. My third boat is a Com-pac 16
> that
> > lives most of the time on Cape Cod. This year I was granted a mooring in
> > Pleasant Bay on the Chatham/Harwich/Orleans border.
> >
> > I wanted to downsize from the Nimble 30 to sailboat on a trailer and
> after
> > some research it seemed the Rhodes 22 was a good fit for me. I came close
> > to purchasing a Seaward 25' but I'm very glad I ended up with the R22
> > instead. Currently I own a RAV4 Ltd with towing package, and I will be
> > using that vehicle to launch and haul Tiny Dancer at my boat club on
> Boston
> > Harbor. The long term plan is to replace the RAV 4 with Highlander that
> can
> > tow the R22 on the highway. BTW this R22 is a little unique: she has
> wheel
> > steering, a self-tending jib with a Hoyt jib boom and an internal 15 hp.
> > gas engine with a Saildrive underneath. She will soon receive the name
> > "Tiny Dancer."
> >
> > After hauling the Compac 16 on 9/14 I then set my sights on launching the
> > R22. I at least wanted to have a test run before the winter. I'm a middle
> > school technology teacher and I had two days off from school on 9/30 and
> > 10/1. I first tried to launch the boat on Mon. 9/30 (we had raised the
> mast
> > a couple of weeks earlier). Unfortunately we ran out of time. It was a
> plus
> > tide so the boat yard became partially flooded at high tide. Getting the
> > tongue extension to come out took  quite a bit of time and effort and was
> > the main cause for our delay in launching.
> >
> > The next day a friend and I went down closer to low tide and tried to
> > launch the boat. We were on the boat club's main ramp which is long and
> > fairly flat. Unfortunately it was too flat. It didn't look like we were
> > going to get deep enough to launch until I backed up just a bit more and
> > the trailer seemed to fall into a hole on one side. Then the boat floated
> > off. Later analysis suggests that I either backed into a big hole in the
> > ram or I actually went off the end of the paved ramp.
> >
> > Once the boat was floating I started the engine. It ran but didn't idle
> and
> > would stall when I put the boat in gear. I decided I would just haul the
> > boat back out and be done with it until next year. However by this point
> I
> > couldn't get the trailer in deep enough because now the water was much
> > higher. Boston Harbor typically has tides around 9 - 10 ft., but this
> tide
> > was close to 12 ft. It even flooded the main artery road next to the boat
> > club. I knew even if I could, I shouldn't put the trailer back in as far
> as
> > I did when launching. There was a good chance of causing damage to the
> > trailer if I tried to pull it past some kind of obstruction with a 3100
> lb
> > boat on it.
> >
> > The boat sat on the floating dock near the launch ramp overnight. I came
> > back the next day and the direction of the wind was now much more
> favorable
> > for sailing to the club dock or even my mooring. The forecast said NNE
> > winds 10-15 kts gusts to 20 kts. I don't think I saw whitecaps but it was
> > pretty breezy.
> >
> > My first sail was getting the boat from the launch doc to the leeward
> side
> > of the club doc. After that it got too dark to get out to my mooring -
> > especially because I wasn't certain where the mooring had been dropped
> this
> > year. When heading to the main dock had just the bare minimum of jib and
> > main out, in part because I was sailing almost dead downwind. I reached
> the
> > dock and immediately realized my boat would be much better off on the
> > leeward side (the dock was essentially perpendicular to the wind).
> >
> > I got the boat around to the other side of the dock but had trouble
> tacking
> > (because now the dock was upwind) so I turned the boat by gybing.
> > Eventually I realized I needed to roll out more main, but by that time I
> > had got the boat on a good tack which let me land it on the dock. A bow
> > line, stern line, springer lead from the bow cleat and a couple big
> fenders
> > secured her until I could get back to move her to the mooring. Of course
> I
> > never found my mooring but picked up another that wasn't in use.
> >
> > I hope to haul Tiny Dancer on the trailer this coming Monday (Columbus
> > Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day). I've been told there's a second ramp at my
> > boat club that is twice the slope of the main ramp. The secondary ramp
> has
> > no dock, so the logistics promise to get interesting, especially if I
> can't
> > rely on the engine. Updates to follow!
> >
> > Looking forward to learning much more about this boat!
> >
> > Take care,
> >
> > Mark Whipple
> > S/V Tiny Dancer
> > Boston, MA
> >
> --
> Stephen Staum
> Pariser Industries, Inc.
>