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2022-03-20; 11:51:20 EDT
Member Since
2004-08-07
Posts: 88
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 McNeelySee the original archive post
-----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 > > > > > > >
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