Novice sailor needs advice. Purchased Rhodes-19 with drop keel last year. My dock is in a bay with shallow water and I need a way to get out into the channel. Original plan was to use an electric trolling motor to get to deeper water then drop keel and hoist sails. This is a difficult task in any kind of decent wind. Getting good enough anchorage to hold the boat into the wind is hard apart from wrestling with the uphaul. Also a 55lb thrust trollilng motor does not have enough power even in Force 2 conditions; about the minimum for decent sailing. Putting a larger motor on, apart from the expense, has a large foot print on the back of the boat and the motor will interfere with sailing. So my question: Would it be feasible to sail straight from the dock with the keel part way down perhaps with a reef in the mainsail?
Getting out of the shallows.
- Thread starter mrharris@rogers.com
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I would buy a small Tohatsu four stroke outboard. Tie your tiller off so that the tip up rudder is centered to keep it away from the prop.
I don't know about your boat but my boat doesn't maneuver well in tight places with a reefed mainsail. She'll do extremely well with just a full mainsail but my boat has a keel/centerboard which makes a big difference even with the centerboard up, I think.
I don't know about your boat but my boat doesn't maneuver well in tight places with a reefed mainsail. She'll do extremely well with just a full mainsail but my boat has a keel/centerboard which makes a big difference even with the centerboard up, I think.
I assume you are refering to the centerboard version of the R19, since the only other version was the 3'3" draft fixed-keel.
Depending on the wind direction, and just how shallow your area is....you should be able to sail out under just the mainsail with the CB mostly up (again, you really will need about 2' of water to sail). I would not complicate things be tucking in a reef, for one thing it is a bit of a bother EVERY time you sail, second of all unless the wind is strong enough to require reefing...you will be sailing under reduced sail (less power) and when you reef...you will move the center of effort of the sail forward, which may cause lee-helm with the CB raised most of the way. I would wait until out in deeper water (when you can also lower the CB) to raise the jib. I'd get it ready to raise while at the dock, but wait until out in the deeper water to raise it. As you get more used to the boat and the sailing area, you may find that you can sail away from hte dock with both sails set.
Mounting an outboard should not interfere with sailing, I've never found the 4hp outboard on my Day Sailer to be in the way, the Rhodes 19, being bigger should result in the motor being even less in hte way. The 2hp outboard was in hte way (sort-of) on my old 12' Widgeon, but my present motor has never been a problem on my DS or on our old CAL 21.
Even with a motor, especially if alone...you may want to raise the sails (or at least the main) before leaving the dock if you can point the boat nearly into the wind while still at the dock.
Depending on the wind direction, and just how shallow your area is....you should be able to sail out under just the mainsail with the CB mostly up (again, you really will need about 2' of water to sail). I would not complicate things be tucking in a reef, for one thing it is a bit of a bother EVERY time you sail, second of all unless the wind is strong enough to require reefing...you will be sailing under reduced sail (less power) and when you reef...you will move the center of effort of the sail forward, which may cause lee-helm with the CB raised most of the way. I would wait until out in deeper water (when you can also lower the CB) to raise the jib. I'd get it ready to raise while at the dock, but wait until out in the deeper water to raise it. As you get more used to the boat and the sailing area, you may find that you can sail away from hte dock with both sails set.
Mounting an outboard should not interfere with sailing, I've never found the 4hp outboard on my Day Sailer to be in the way, the Rhodes 19, being bigger should result in the motor being even less in hte way. The 2hp outboard was in hte way (sort-of) on my old 12' Widgeon, but my present motor has never been a problem on my DS or on our old CAL 21.
Even with a motor, especially if alone...you may want to raise the sails (or at least the main) before leaving the dock if you can point the boat nearly into the wind while still at the dock.
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