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

[Rick Lange]

Hi Roger,

The IMF mast does not rake.  It stands for In Mast Furling.

Regards,

Rick Lange


On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 8:46 AM ROGER PIHLAJA <roger_pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
>
>