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

[Stephen Staum]

Thanks Dennis.  My wife's first comment when I took her sailing in 2002 on
a Pearson 26 (which has a full heavy keel) was:  This is very nice but does
it have to tilt like this?
I knew I was in trouble.  The next year we got our first Rhodes 22, an '87
with IMF.  Needless to say, it is far more tender than the Pearson 26
(which was a club boat) so I learned to reef early and often.  We are now
on our 3rd Rhodes.  Last year we bought the s/v Pinafore, a '90 that was
refurbed by Stan in 2016 and sold our beloved Carol Lee 2.  The CL2 was an
'83 that I converted to an IMF main using the mast salvaged from the Carol
Lee which swamped and turtled in a hurricane in 2011 and was totaled by
Boat US Insurance.  The Pinafore has the fully enclosed head with flush
toilet instead of the porta potti, electric motor lift to save my old back
and a 2016 (very quiet) 4 stroke Evinrude outboard to make motoring to and
from the mooring far more pleasant than our old (but very reliable)
screaming 2 stroke.

Also worth mentioning,  my wife Carol does not swim well and is terrified
of the water.  I bought her an offshore automatic inflatable life vest when
we first started and she has sailed with me almost every weekend since.
The little boat is our on-the-water summer home.  We often sail with the
Genoa (now a 130) only and I even reef that if the wind gusts get over 10
knots.  We survived a sudden squall 2 years ago with 70 mph winds and 5
foot seas!  I was tethered at the helm with Carol in the cabin with the pop
top down.  It was terrifying but the seaworthiness of the Rhodes 22 (with
some credit to the idiot at the helm) carried the day.  Carol even came
back and sailed with me the following weekend!

So Dennis, if you want to give the Rhodes another try, come on out to
Massachusetts this season and sail with us on the Pinafore.  I don't know
if I'll get it together but I am scheduled to launch the first week in May
and the launch service continues 7 days a week from 8 am to 9 pm until
October 31.  We sail out of the Hingham Shipyard Marina which leads to
nicely protected waters and the lovely Boston Harbor Islands.  Best weather
is from July through September.  Let me know if and when you want to come.


*Thanks and Stay Well,*

*Stephen Staum*
*s/v Pinafore*

*Needham, MA*



On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 11:51 AM Dennis McNeely <mcneelyd at site-solutions.com>
wrote:

> Salute Stephen -
> I'm on an island in the Detroit River - in Gibraltar, Michigan. I really
> enjoyed my Rhodes 22, but then I met a lady who didn't deal well with the
> boat when heeling - so now we have a trawler and I sail a pair of Detroit
> Diesels. A bit of a bummer, but I'm still out on the water, and she's happy
> with it!
> Dennis McNeely
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of
> Stephen Staum
> Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2022 11:15 AM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] How to improve Rhodes 22 upwind performance?
>
> Dennis that was a great comment.  In addition to performance, I noticed
> years ago that my lazerette would fill with water when the boat sat stern
> low on the trailer in my yard (it is a slight hill causing the bow low
> condition).  It never filled on the mooring as the boat normally sits with
> the bow lower.
> Where are you from Dennis?
>
>
> *Thanks and Stay Well,*
>
> *Stephen Staum*
> *s/v Pinafore*
>
> *Needham, MA*
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 10:36 AM Dennis McNeely <
> mcneelyd at site-solutions.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Greetings all -
> > One other thought... if you don't have enough weight forward, the bow
> > of the boat can't provide enough lateral resistance to counter the
> > force of the sails.
> > Put differently, if too much weight is aft, the wind will push the
> > sail, mast, and boat forward - but it will also push it sideways. That
> > lateral push is countered by your rudder and centerboard, but it's
> > also countered by the submerged bow of the boat. If the bow is too far
> > out of the water or the stern is submerged too much, trying to balance
> > your rig is a non-starter.
> > Stated differently, if the stern is weighted down and the bow is
> > riding high, you'll be continually pushed off the wind, because you
> > won't be able to get the center of effort (the place where the force
> > of the wind pushes your boat) over the center of resistance (the spot
> > on the keel where the water resists force from the wind).
> > The tighter you sail to the wind, the worse the effect will become.
> > Having said all the above, I'm back to lurking :) Dennis McNeely
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of
> > ROGER PIHLAJA
> > Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2022 8:47 AM
> > To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] How to improve Rhodes 22 upwind performance?
> >
> > Mike,
> >
> > Here’s an experiment to determine if you have too much mast rake.
> > Assuming light to moderate wind so you can put up full sail, establish
> > a close hauled point of sail, and trim both sails as good as possible.
> > Take note of how much weather helm you have.  Assuming you have the
> > IMF mainsail, reef the mainsail a small amount, say 6 inches.
> > Reestablish a close hauled point of sail and trim the sails as good as
> > possible.  You should now have less weather helm or maybe neutral or
> > even lee helm.  Keep reducing mainsail area until you have eliminated
> all the weather helm.
> >
> > By shortening the forestay, the weather helm can be tuned out of the rig.
> > I like the helm to be neutral to very slight lee helm in light air.
> > As the wind strength builds, the hull is going to heel over no matter
> > how much rail meat you pile onto the windward rail.  I won’t go into
> > the physics of why and how; but, the asymmetric wetted shape of the
> > heeled over hull just naturally generates weather helm.  You counter
> > this tendency towards weather helm by reducing mainsail area.  This
> > moves the rig’s center of effort forward and reduces weather helm.
> > You want to leave the foresail at full area as long as you can keep
> > the boat sailing on her lines and use the mainsail area to balance the
> helm.
> >
> > In light air, there is very little feel to the helm no matter how the
> > rig is tuned.  The easiest point of reference is to have the rig tuned
> > for neutral helm, especially for a novice helmsman.  So, even though
> > the helmsman isn’t getting any feedback thru the tiller, he/she knows
> > to simply center the tiller, and the boat will go straight.  As the
> > wind strength builds and sail area is not reduced, the hull will begin
> > to heel over, and weather helm will build.  The helmsman is now
> > getting plenty of feedback thru the tiller.  If the weather helm gets
> > to be tiresome; then, the mainsail area can always be reduced to take
> the pressure off the tiller.
> > Even a few degrees of rudder angle off center develops an amazing
> > amount of drag.  This slows the boat down and reduces pointing
> > ability.  Remember, the boat is making leeway even when the tiller is
> > centered, and this leeway is enough for the shoal draft keel,
> > centerboard, and rudder blade to work together to develop the required
> lift for the boat to be able to point.
> >
> > Roger Pihlaja
> > S/V Dynamic Equilbrium
> >
> > Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> > Windows
> >
> > From: ROGER PIHLAJA<mailto:roger_pihlaja at msn.com>
> > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2022 7:32 PM
> > To: The Rhodes 22 Email List<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] How to improve Rhodes 22 upwind performance?
> >
> > 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
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>