[Rhodes22-list] Wow this is a boring night

Thu Jul 6 09:53:13 EDT 2006

Wow.  Interesting story.  Thanks for sharing it.  Hopefully we can all
learn from each others mishaps.

I am back on the list after being out of town for yet another two weeks.
Man, am I behind but as promised will post my Bahamas notes and pictures
soon.

Bill Wickman

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             07/05/2006 09:25                                      Subject 
             PM                        Re: [Rhodes22-list] Wow this is a   
                                       boring night                        

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Wow, you should ask just as I had the most fun in a long time on my boat
Sunday

My wife (of almost three years and came after I got the boat) and I went
out on my ‘72 Rhodes Continental, Pleiades last Sunday. Now mind you it may
have been blowing a little too hard. Actually they did say there were SCW.
(Small Craft Warnings) To me that means the there is a bit of so me wind
for a sailboat. Kind of like a bigger engine.

Well we were about 15 minutes out and my wife. Mind you know she is not
much of a sailor and actually likes it when I keep it flat and not tacking,
well she comments how it is a beautiful day, even though it is blowing
about 15 knots.

Then after a bit of a gibe I look and the bottom of the roller furler has
come loose. Oh what a bummer. That dang this is now flying in the air and I
basically don’t have any steerage. Oh not that it has come off before so
this is a new experience. Best part was my wife did not know that there was
a problem but trust me when she figured it out, Boy was it a problem.

Well first I thought I would go forward and see if I could get it
reconnected and roll in the jib but after almost going in myself I was
forced to retreat to the cockpit. First tying a quick knot in the furling
line so as to keep the bottom of the furler from completely flying all over
the place.

I then tried to start the Honda 9.9 (Oh Michael that baby is doing great
most of the time. You know once I got it home from down south. That in
itself was an adventure. Flying to CT and then not being able to get on the
plane and having to fly back to Maine, driving 10 hours with a car that had
a blown head gasket. Got rid of that car very shortly after that adventure.
Next time you get board I can tell you about my adventure with the hood
popping up on us two weeks ago.)

Well I think that since we were rocking so much I could not get it started
and by this time Susan, That would be my wife who was all calm and sitting
on the float cushion 5 minutes earlier is pressing for me to call someone.
Like her mother....

At this point I got to the mic for the radio and called for the CG. No
response. I look up and the antenna to the radio, which usually sits
happily on the top of the mast, is bending north and not straight up north.
I find out later that if you want to call the CG on a cell phone that you
can dial *CG and it will get you to them. (Disclaimer: I understand today
that this is at least for the first district which is up here in the
northeastern US. I do not know if this for all regions)

Well I started to look for my handheld which I could not find right away.
Susan, had found her cell phone and requested me to call someone, One of
her suggestions remember was her mother.

I finally found my handheld and was able to call the CG. One of there first
pieces of advice was to drop an anchor. Oh what a novel idea. Once I did
that most of the excitement went away.

Well kind of. Turned out that since there was not any pressure on the mast
cap that it came out of the mast and this allowed both the jib and back
stays to come down. Now I have the jib and roller furler in the water. Yet
help is on the way. I tried to start hauling the jib out of the water yet
you would not budge. I found out a bit latter this was due to one of the
jib lines had a figure eight in the end of the line to prevent it from
coming out of the block. Therefore preventing me from pulling it from under
the boat. This in turned helped to bend the reefing tube under the boat the
boat as well. Now I have a 25 foot curved roller furler.

For those that may be a little new to the list and this vintage of Stan and
Phillip Rhodes design. This model had a roller furler design that has a
long, about 25’ 11/8 inch aluminum tube with a flat round plate on the
bottom. The sail is cut with a sleeve and the tube is put into. On mine I
then have it attached with screws at the top and the bottom.

Thanks to Stan I have started to try and figure out what I am going to do
to repair the furler. I am trying to find a place that maybe able to
straighten it but I think I am going to have to build one from scratch. Any
ideas on straightening the furler would be welcomed.

Long story short, we were towed to our mooring and then I was able to get
the boat to the dock, by this time the motor was starting again on one
pull, and demast the boat for now. As we did this my loving wife commented
how my beloved boat now was a MB (motor boat). Oh it may be a while before
I let her on the boat again.

Well for the most important point no one got hurt and Pleiades is still
floating.

As for that, when this first started to happen we were healing at one point
almost with water coming in the cockpit. (Actually I have been on the boat
when we had water coming. For the person on the helm was not letting go of
the tiller as we took on a great header. No neither myself nor my wife were
at the helm at the time.) at least 35 to 40 degrees and the boat just came
down on its own. I personally felt comfortable that it was not going to go
over.

First thing is to have a surveyor look at the boat and work out with the
Insurance Company a claim. Then get it repaired so I can get on with the
season. Up here in the north they are short.

Well, that was my excitement. I may not be a regular on the list here but I
have always enjoyed the posting and knew I had to tell my story. Especially
since Michael thought it was little boring around here? Not to mention
there are repairs needing to be made.

I wish you all the best and I hope you are having a better season.

Scott and Susan
SV Pleiades

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Meltzer <mjm at michaelmeltzer.com>
To: 'The Rhodes 22 mail list' <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 21:28:12 -0400
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Wow this is a boring night

Everyone is out sailing?

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