[Rhodes22-list] Modifying the Rhodes to be a little quicker

[David Culp]

I posted a few months ago that I had discovered a leak in the bilge near the
CB trunk.  I think we have found it and it is in the process of being
repaired-I suspect a crack in the joint between the hull and the trunk where
they were joined.  Anyway, shouldn't be a big deal.  I had removed some of
the interior to find the leak and took the boat on a final sail for the
season over to the trailer ramp.  I noticed that the boat seemed faster
and/or more nimble with some of the weight out. My question is:

Has anyone on the list ever sailed the Rhodes with the interior completely
stripped out?  Probably Stan has.  I was just wondering about what would
happen if you removed the entire galley-what the sailing characteristics
would be and how much speed or acceleration that you might gain?  I am
thinking about removing the portions of the interior that we never use like
the entire galley.  I would leave the seating, the table and the fore peak
area in tact.  I have already removed the toilet in the head area and
replaced it with a Porta-Potty because Texas state law forbids an overboard
drain-able toilet system on fresh water and requires a permit for a pump out
system.  That's too much trouble to deal with considering there is no pump
out station on our lake accessible to sailboats.

My layman's guess is that the boat would be slightly more stable as a
greater percentage of the total weight would be in the keel, but don't know
for sure because total weight vs. sail area would also change and figure in
there somewhere.  I also understand the concept of a displacement boat and
LWL calculations, but faster acceleration would help Vmg wouldn't it? I
don't intend to do any (formal) racing, don't want to change any sails or
anything else about the boat; but our lake is a little narrow in some places
requiring some extra tacking on occasion and it would be nice to be able to
accelerate more quickly out of the tacks.

Looks like everything would come out fairly easily and I would temporarily
plug the sink thru-hull drain.  I would store everything so that it could be
put back in.

Anybody ever done it or want to take a guess?

Thanks,
David Culp