[Rhodes22-list] New subscriber intro

[John Lock]

Hi folks,

I'm brand new to sailing in general and Rhodes in specific.  Don't 
own a boat yet, but we're gonna fix that.  I'll be moving to a 
largish lake in central Georgia this fall and discovered a latent 
passion for sailing... and I want to eschew the powerboat madness I 
see on weekends <ugh>.

I've been reading like a fiend, everything I can get my hands on plus 
the web, and gradually narrowing my choices for brand of sailboat.  I 
ran thru the obvious first-choices pretty quickly - Catalina, Hunter, 
O'Day, etc.  All good starter boats.  Considered Seaward too, but I'm 
not ready to put that much in a boat yet.

Then I found the Rhodes 22 and it just struck the right chord with 
me.  I like the customer focus and "sideways" thinking put into the 
many features and design solutions.  I have yet to read anything bad 
about the Rhodes 22 (as opposed to lots of griping about other 
brands).  That's a powerful indicator in itself!

My wife and I will mainly be cruising the lake, don't have an 
interest in racing.  Mostly daysailing, but the occasional 
long-weekend out on the water will be inevitable.  It's a long, lake 
in a river valley with lots of fingers to explore, gunkholing will be 
a major activity.  My new home has a dock on 9 feet of water, just 
off the main lake area.  So, easy access and dockage.

In the future, if/when we retire, we may be interested in trailering 
down to the Gulf Coast and exploring the shores from Cedar Key down 
thru 10,000 Islands and Florida Bay.  I'll need a lot more experience 
before we'll attempt that, but the Rhodes seems ideally suited for such a trip.

So, I just wanted to stick my nose in and say "Hey!".  I hope you 
wont' mind the occasional ignorant question on sailing and the Rhodes 
22.  As the saying goes "Ignorance can be fixed, stupidity is 
permanent."  I did find the archives and FAQ page, so I'm "fixing" as 
fast as I can!

P.S. My wife and I run a graphic design and web development business 
(see sig).  I'll be researching wireless Net access from the water 
very shortly ;-)

Cheers!

John Lock
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