How to rig Rhodes 19 Spinnaker

Mar 9, 2018
5
O’Day Rhodes 19 Nantucket
Bought a 1974 Rhodes 19 with a pole/kite. Have used a kite on a 420 with no pole, but can someone provide a detailed step by step process on how to rig/control a kite on a Rhodes 19? Can’t find anything online. Appreciated.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Welcome to SBO. I own a Mariner 19, it uses the Rhodes hull and the rigging is similar. I hope to get the chance to set my spinnaker, this Summer. I found this link to a very brief tuning guide on the Doyle Sails Web site: http://www.doylesails.com/onedesign/rhodes19/tuning.html
It doesn't really give you what you want, but it may lead to more info. There is plenty of information, in general, on flying a poled kite. The Rhodes is a pretty basic rig, I would think the information should transfer well. Practice the setup without the kite, both on the trailer and on the water. Pick a calm, almost windless day to try it with the spinnaker. It all seems pretty straight forward. Again, without any real experience doing it myself. I would clip the pole to the mast first so the pole doesn't jump out of your hands, then to the spinnaker by running the sheet through it until the clew was in place.
Someone, who actually knows what they are doing will come along and correct me, but take it slow and you will work it out.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Jan 1, 2006
7,040
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
swallowsandamazonforever - Welcome to SBO. We once had a thread on how folks got to their online name. For instance mine is the first four letters of my last name followed by the first four letters of my first name. So, I gotta ask ...
 
Aug 22, 2017
1,609
Hunter 26.5 West Palm Beach
I don't know that boat specifically, but I'll give some general info on flying a chute with a pole on a small boat.

Usually I get the sail up first, then clip the topping lift to the pole center, then the clip on the downhaul to the bottom of the pole center (assuming that the boat has a topping lift & downhaul for the pole). I then clip one pole end onto the spin sheet, then clip the other pole end into the ring on the mast. I then slide the pole forward on the sheet until it hits the knot at the end of the sheet, where the sail attaches.

I usually connect the topping lift to the downhaul with about a foot of shock cord when rigging the boat. I do this for ease of handling. This way, once the topping lift is attached to the pole, the downhaul is right there waiting for you to grab it. Handling the pole can be cumbersome on a pitching fore-deck. Leaning against the mast to steady yourself can be a big help. I usually store the pole clipped to two deck rings on the fore-deck

That's how I usually do it on a small boat. Some guys rig the pole first, & lean it up against the head stay before deploying the sail.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,040
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
For the Rhodes 19, which I've sailed on but didn't fly the chute, you are probably going to launch from the cockpit, not the foredeck. (What ever you do, do not send your significant other up on the foredeck to rig up the spinnaker.) This means that the spinnaker will go up under the boom.
1) You need sheets, of course, and they should be pre-run at the dock or mooring. To launch from the cockpit one sheet, call it the windward, will run from the turning block on the transom, outside of the shroud, around the forestay and back to the cockpit where it can be secured until the launch. The leeward sheet would run from the turning block, outside of the leeward shroud, and back to the cockpit where it can be secured. The tail of the leeward shroud should be pre-set to an average setting gleaned from experience. This setup is to launch the spin forward of the shroud. You can launch it aft of the shroud too, but that is a longer way to haul the sail forward and it is during the trip forward that a lot of mischief can occur.
2) The spinnaker halyard should be secured near deck level on the mast.
3) The spinnaker pole can live on the foredeck. The up and down can be attached if there is enough slack in those control lines to allow it to sit on the deck. The lazy jib sheets run over the pole so that you can tack on the upwind before the spin launch. A bungie chord could attach the pole control lines (And spin halyard) to the mast and take the slack out.
4) You are going to do a bear away set so that you do not have to contend with a last minute tack before the set. It is much easier. All you do at the helm is head off to a deep reach and let out the main. The boat should be pretty flat by now making each step easier. You will have set the spinnaker sheets up for the lee side when you bear away.
5) As you approach the turning point, or even after, Attach the spinnaker sheets to the sail, which has been pre-packed into the sail bag ( For packing you have to run at least two of the sail edges from clew to head to make sure they aren't twisted and secured so they can't twist), or gathered into a laundry basket or whatever contains it. The sheets attach to the sail , windward to windward and leeward to leeward. The halyard is removed from the mast and attached to the head of the sail.
6) Release the pole control lines from the mast and attach the pole to the windward spinnaker sheet. Put the pole up on the mast. You will need slack on the lazy jib sheet. And enough slack on the windward spin sheet to raise the pole. So now you have the pole outward end somewhere near touching the headstay, attached to the windward spinnaker sheet raised and on the mast. The leeward sheet is attached to the sail.
7) Pre-feed the spinnaker windward sheet to near the forestay by pulling the windward sheet back. The pole may want to follow it back so you may have to shove the pole forward a couple of times. When the windward sheet is at or near the pole outer end it is time to launch.
8) Haul the spinnaker halyard up with gusto but stop if there is no progress because something is caught and your day is going downhill.
9) If the spin is going up smoothly, when it approaches the top, haul back on the windward sheet which will pull the pole back too and bring the sail out of the shadow of the main where it will inflate if it hasn't already. The leeward sheet should have been pre attached to a cleat, stop or winch for an average setting so you do not have to contend with it during the launch.
10) The spinnaker should be flying with a curl in the leech (Because the sheet hasn't been trimmed) with the pole approximately square to the wind. Did I mention that the pole down should have been pre-set to not allow the pole to sky? Well, I should have. The up is less important and can be slack. There are so many different set ups for the up and down it's hard to be more specific. On my Bandit 15, the up and down was just one line with knots in it that a jam cleat on the pole caught at approximately the right height. The pole ring did not go up and down.
11) So you should be sailing with the spinnaker up and drawing the jib underneath it in the shadow of the main. Release the jib halyard and drop it. If you sheet in tightly you can probably reach forward and haul it down enough. You do all this while sailing the boat with the tiller between your legs. Easy.
12) Want to talk about the take down?
This has been fun to write since it going through it by memory was almost like doing it out on the water. Apologies for details I may have got wrong, or were incomplete, and descriptions which may be unclear or not recognize the OP's experience level. It was a good mental review for me.
 
Mar 9, 2018
5
O’Day Rhodes 19 Nantucket
A book series written by Arthur Ransome in the 30s about kids sailing adventures on a pond in Northern England. Great books, very nautical, got me into sailing. The two boats names are Swallow and Amazon (I named my Rhodes Swallow)
 
Aug 22, 2017
1,609
Hunter 26.5 West Palm Beach
When gybing, you need to change the pole from one side of the boat (& one sheet) to the other. I usually take the pole out of the mast ring first, then drop the sheet, then hook the pole onto the other sheet, then clip the other side of the pole into the mast ring. The pole goes straight across the boat, without twisting. I would only gybe a chute in fair weather on a little boat unless I had a good reason to do otherwise.

For take down, pull the pole off the mast ring, drop the sheet. Detach the downhaul & topping lift, then secure the pole. After that, it should be very similar to the way that you dropped the chute on your 420.

I normally have lines connected to the latches at the ends of the pole, so that I can open the latches from the center of the pole. This makes things A LOT easier in many conditions.
 
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
You need a stout spinnaker ring on the mast about 30 or so inches above the deck for the spinnaker pole. Also a block above the fore-stay for the halyard and a block midway up the mast for the pole hanger line. Two turning blocks, port and starboard, about a foot off the stern and some kind of a cam-cleat that you can manage in your sailing position. Mine is in mid cockpit, mounted on the coaming. Use light line about 30 feet long for the sheets. I run the halyard and pole lift lines back to the cockpit. When stuffing the turtle. make sure the clues and head of the spinnaker are not twisted and keep them attached until you launch the spinnaker. Launch and retrieve form the cockpit, with the sheets inside the shrouds and fed through a snatch pad eye mounted just abaft the shrouds with the snatch part facing inside. Figure how to use the spinnaker without a pole first. Then graduate.
 
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Nov 8, 2007
1,523
Hunter 27_75-84 Sandusky Harbor Marina, Ohio
Wow! Great help, guys.

My major contribution is the picture of the Admiral, pregnant with our first child setting the spinnaker on a Rhodes 19 on Narragansett Bay while I was on base liberty from Navy OCS. We could get a Shrimp Pack and a couple of beers from the O-Club, and disappear into a different world. We loved it!

I’ll see if I can find the picture tomorrow and post it.
 
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