[Rhodes22-list] How to improve Rhodes 22 upwind performance?

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Mike,

A couple of things to check:

1.   Is your centerboard all the way down?

2.  Is your rudder blade all the way down?

3.  In 5-15 knots of wind, you should use the mainsheet and traveler to center the boom.  Make certain the boom is not rising up and there isn’t too much curl on the leech.  Make certain the mainsail foot out haul is tight.  Without battens, there is only so much you can do with mainsail shape; but, this will set you up to do the best that is possible.

4.  Use your backstay adjuster to get the sag out of the forestay.  It takes quite a lot of tension on the backstays to remove the forestay sag.  Don’t be afraid of cranking on the backstay adjuster.  A mast head rig needs the forestay to have little sag in order to properly form an efficient slot with the mainsail.

5.  Refer to my rig tuning procedure in the archives to adjust the tension in the standing rigging.

The Rhodes 22 sails best to weather if it is regarded like a big sailing dingy, as upright as possible.  There should be zero to very slight weather helm.  If you have too much weather helm; then reduce the mast rake angle.  ie Make the mast rake more perpendicular to the deck.

My guess is you have too much mast rake, which is giving you a lot of weather helm, and killing your ability to point to weather.

Hopefully, these suggestions help.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 18, 2022, at 1:49 PM, mm.bizlist1 at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Now that I've been sailing my Rhodes for about a year, I'm starting to focus
> on getting the best performance out of her.  While I mostly sail for fun, I
> do race every couple of weeks and want to be more competitive.  In
> particular, I have found that she does not go to windward very well for me.
> 
> 
> I have a 130 genoa and the IMF mainsail.  Until very recently, I have been
> routing the jib sheets outside of the outer shrouds and handrails. That
> limits how much I can trim the genoa. Consequently, I can only tack through
> about 100-120o.  
> 
> Recently, I tried running the jib sheets between the outer shrouds and the
> inner shrouds.  That definitely improved my pointing ability significantly
> at the expense of less than optimal headsail shape on some off wind points
> of sail.  However, this configuration lets me use my jib cars to adapt to
> wind strength and whether or not I am partially reefed.  I think this will
> retain the ability to use a whisker pole on downwind legs.
> 
> I did briefly try both of the inboard jib sheet fairlead/cleat alternatives
> but using those would seem to require having a second set of jib sheets and
> probably going on the foredeck to switch between them after rounding a mark
> (I often race solo).  Also, those options eliminate the ability to control
> the sheeting angle to the clew with the jib cars.
> 
> I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts and comments about what you have
> learned about how to optimize your boat's performance.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> Mike McKay
> s/v Liber (2006/2018)
> Allatoona Lake
> Acworth, GA
> 
>