[Rhodes22-list] Another owner grateful for positive flotation

[Mark Whipple]

Please take a look at the attached picture. In the picture it appears that
someone connected the hose from the bilge pump to the sink drain. You might
ask yourself, who would connect a through-hull to a bilge pump hose
without a loop up to the waterline? I can only say someone did it before I
bought the boat. Then you might say, well, didn't you see the problem when
you bought the boat? Yup, I do remember making a mental note of it when I
originally inspected the boat. The problem is, at my age you need to
physically write stuff down (or at least make a note on the phone) because
mental notes are fickle things. I know the through-hull is actually above
the waterline, but read on.

The rest of the story:

Last Friday my son made a rare visit to Boston from his home in Manhattan,
and asked if we could go sailing. So, I launched the Rhodes last week and
we took her out on the harbor for the first time since I've owned her. A
good day overall, but not without some of the traditional first sail
"thrilling" moments.

Side note on the saildrive: I was able to easily get the boat up to 5 kts
under power and nearly 6 kts when motorsailing on a broad reach. Over about
4kts the stern begins to squat as boats often do at some point under power.
There were also three adults in the cockpit (my daughter was with us). We
would get a little water in the cockpit while motoring but I attributed
that to the stern squat. Toward the end of the sail there was more water in
the cockpit when motoring but that didn't quite register at the time.

While sailing we occasionally had a tough time rolling in the main when I
wanted to. I had recalled Stan's words from just last week: if it's hard to
roll in the main then something's wrong. We didn't really solve the problem
until we were almost back at the mooring. There is an extra halyard I have
for the asymmetrical spinnaker that goes on the bowsprit (that I broke in
half). That halyard runs down the back side of the mast, and was loose
enough to get caught in the main as we tried to roll it in. I'm going to
try to shift that halyard to the port side of the mast and make sure it's
pretty taught.

When we got back to the mooring my son told me there was water above the
cabin sole. At that point we had just picked up the mooring and I was still
struggling with the main. We got the main sorted and the mooring pennants
secured. I then checked the bilge pump and it wasn't running. I suspect a
flaky float switch, but there were also leaves down there so I had to keep
clearing them from the base of the bilge pump. It's possible that while we
were sailing the pump clogged and became overheated. After we got most of
the water out we had to rush off the boat to drive down to meet my wife on
Cape Cod (I know, such problems).

My conclusion: it was a pretty gusty day and I saw the boat heel 20deg or
more on both tacks. I'm reasonably confident that I was taking water in
through the bilge hose on port tacks. The through-hull is above the
waterline but only 6-8" if memory serves. I'm also thinking - wouldn't the
person who plumbed this realize that the drainage from the sink would end
up in the bilge? In any case I have a project that just became a little
more urgent.

Mark

-- 
Boston, MA

2000 R22 *Luna Mia*
1987 Nimble 30 *For Sale*
1982 Com-Pac 16 *For Sale*
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