Matt,

Welcome to the Rhodes 22 family.

I used to have a 175% genoa, and had this problem to some extent. 

You mention stanchions and lifelines.  My boat doesn’t have these, and I think I’m on safe ground saying that most Rhodes 22’s don’t.  You could consider getting rid of them.  

As to shrouds, putting a length of PVC pipe over the turnbuckles and a couple of feet of wire will reduce the likelihood of a hang-up there.  

Also, the ‘proper’ way to rig the jib sheets is to use a single line for both port and starboard, attached to the genoa clew with a ‘larks head’ or ‘cow hitch’ knot.

This season I switched from the 175% genoa to a 135%.  I did this for other reasons, but it does seem that the smaller headsail is much less likely to get hung up when tacking.

Peter Nyberg
Coventry, CT
s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)
 

> On Sep 26, 2020, at 4:52 PM, Matt Berman <matt at mattmail.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi, all,
> 
> I've been sailing for most of my life, but only just got a Rhodes 22 this week. I went for my first sail today, light breeze, and encountered a number of things that are different from other boats I have sailed. Here's the first:
> 
> Every time I came about, the genoa (170) hung up on everything it could find -- stanchions, lifelines, shrouds. This was not a minor, momentary clip -- it stayed hung up until each time I had to crawl forward and release the genoa by hand, not fun when you're single-handing.
> 
> I made sure the sheets were all on the outside of everything, and that the sheet on the opposite side was loose and free, and I wasn't standing on it (more about that in another post). I tried jiggling both sides, and sawing both sheets back and forth to try to release it, but no go.
> 
> Is there some trick or technique you use on a Rhodes to get the genoa to move smoothly from one side to the other during a tack? I didn't even try a jibe.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> --Matt
> 
> 
>