[Rhodes22-list] What's up with my mast?

[John Lock]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to understand exactly what I have.  I knew from the 
beginning that my boat did not have a standard GB mast on it.  Who 
knows where it came from.  As I attached the boom and read more about 
how these things work. I'm beginning to wonder about what's going on 
with my particular mast setup.  So, here are some photos and 
questions. TIA for any sage advice -

Photo #1 - Base of mast - http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-base.jpg

You can see in this photo that the sail track has a "kink" in it 
about a foot up from the base plate.  It looks like it may have been 
twisted or broken in the past and repaired.  Notice that there is no 
slider for the poptop (see next photo).  You can see the remains of a 
slider just below the kink with threaded holes still 
intact.  However, it can't travel up past the kink.

Photo #2 - Poptop connector - 
http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-popcon.jpg

Here you can see a pad eye that's been screwed into the sail track 
above the kink.  I insert the pin for the poptop bracket (see 
previous photo) thru this pad eye to secure the poptop up.  It's a 
little awkward, but manageable.  Also, I don't have anything close to 
6-foot headroom under the poptup.  I'm 5'9 and I can almost stand 
straight up under it.

Photo #3 - The boom connector - 
http://www.pandion.com/rhodes22/photos/mast-boom.jpg

This is where things get seriously weird.  There is no slider for the 
boom.  It attaches to the mast with the swivel bracket you see in 
this photo, which is screwed securely to the mast.  Consequently, the 
boom is always in the "up" position and cannot move vertically in 
either direction.


Given these new insights, I'm beginning to wonder what kind of 
sailing quirks I might encounter.  For example, the boom vang issue, 
that R22 owners try to solve in various ways, is a non-issue on my 
setup.  The boom is permanently "vanged" in place!  Once the main is 
up, I suppose I can ease or trim the main halyard to adjust tension 
on the sail, but that's about it from what I can see.

What kind of problems can I expect to face if the boom is always set 
that high?  Are there advantages to being able to set it lower with 
the poptop closed?

Would it be a worthwhile project to re-engineer a slider for the boom?

Cheers!

John Lock
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s/v Pandion - '79 Rhodes 22
Lake Sinclair, GA
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