[Rhodes22-list] I just got my new old Rhodes

[Jeff Kantor]

Hi.  I just got a '73 R22 and have I got questions...
But first on the subject of engines, I installed a mid 2000's Nissan 8hp 2 stroke with remote.  Nice, quiet, powerful.  I live in a land of currents and tides, so I was happy to put one on the larger end on my boat.  Hull size and weight would likely be met by a 5 or 6 hp engine.  I think Stan once mentioned that the larger hp 4 strokes were favorites because of their electric start and remotability.  In mounting the engine, I found a reinforcement on the port transom which was too wide for my motor mount.  The PO had installed a backing plate on the starboard transom, which fit my Fulton motor mount's pattern.  However, it seems to oil can back there.  This boat was manufactured with the engine well in the lazarette.  The starboard backing plate actually covers more area than the reinforcement on port.  Does anyone have opinions or guidance as to where to mount my 60 pound motor?
The rigging of the stays on my boat seems off.  The backstays are quite loose.  Many inches!  I have no traveller.  Nor can I figure out the backstay adjustment.  There isn't an adjuster per se,  Again the PO said he always ran them very loose, and felt the boat to be quite well balanced.  The halyard is boom end and runs along a traveler wire, just like my Sunfish and West Wight Potter.  I'd like to rig an addjustable traveler with car and wonder how that might rig and be supported by the aft stays.  
The rig is a standard main (no IMF) and a hank on genoa of about 120 size (not cut for R22, but borrowed from another craft). The jib is just a couple of feet short from sweeping the deck when it is flown to the masthead.  
Is there a pictorial guide to rigging the boat that I may not have come upon.  I have rread the 1988 manual that is available, but it's not a picture book so I'm lost.

 Thanks,
Jeff Kantor
c. 917.825.5380
sirius1 at canusmajor.com