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

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Rick,

Is this a joke?  With you I never know.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 21, 2022, at 1:22 PM, Rick Lange <sloopblueheron at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.microsoft.com%2Ffwlink%2F%3FLinkId%3D550986&data=04%7C01%7C%7C3d0483627edb440749cb08da0b5f55af%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637834801342317279%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=pj5DU32tWH%2B7tD5D5V7UY6fGG2Y%2FPQNmMwuhdJvXJw8%3D&reserved=0> 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
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>>