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Magazines Write

a frequently asked question is: Has the Rhodes ever been written up in a publication ?

          Analyze this line of inquiry.   Do you believe any magazine, surviving on advertising revenue, is really going to tell you not to buy a product from one of its important sources of money?  It takes a Consumers' Union to take on a General Motors.

          Practical Sailor is the Consumers' Union periodical for the serious sailing shopper.  Back issues or annual subscriptions may be obtained by writing to:
 
 

          Practical Sailor is also one of the toughest critics when it comes to writing boat reviews - they are merciless.  And we were convinced our unconventional ideas would be torn to shreds.  So, when they advised us of their intention that we were to be next, we fought them tooth and nail.  But they said, "their readers had a right to know the truth".

          On a small-craft warning March afternoon, Practical Sailor sent its test sailor to examine and sail a Rhodes 22 at the Miami boat Show.  We were giving public demonstration sails so we could not stop them.  When we read the review, we were astounded.  Compare it with any other review written abut any other competitive boat, ever, in the pages of this no-nonsense, non advertising publication.

          Like most magazines, reprinting of articles is frowned upon. although there is a gray area that allows some amount of quoting. If we get carried away and end up in jail, you will at least know where to send us our mail:

On the front page of the issue is this feature:

"The Rhodes 22.  Called by some the ultimate family trailer-sailor, we find much to like, though some of its clever ideas are occasionally troublesome."

Editors note:  It is interesting that throughout the entire review does the test sailor find any of the Rhodes clever ideas troublesome.

All of the following quotes are from the reviewer who sailed the boat:

          "We invited owners of Rhodes 22s to comment on its design, construction, quality of workmanship, performance and customer service from the factory.  We received a greater response, and a more uniformly enthusiastic response, than we've had to any similar request in recent years.  Impressive.  When we got an opportunity to take one out and put it through its paces, we gained some insight into just what prompted all this loyalty."

          "The Rhodes 22 is a trailerable cruiser for a couple that wants the amenities of a larger boat without putting up with the hassles and expenses of a larger boat.  It has a fairly long water-line - 20".  Overhangs are minimal.  The flare provides a few notable advantages:  The compound curvature stiffens the hull, provides a hiking seat to reduce heeling, helps deflect spray and provides some extra buoyancy when the boat is heeled over, helping to prevent capsize."

The PS reviewer did not have too much to say about the cabin interior, although prominent in the article was a picture of the Rhodes "real" galley:

          "The cabin layout of the Rhodes 22 is roomy and remarkably livable.  Spitzer (who has a weakness for puns) describes the Rhodes 22's head as The Swell Head.  When we compare it to the primitive accommodations on most small cruisers, we must agree.  It's fully enclosed, with a clever multi-paneled door."

          "The Rhodes 22 has two molded foam sections glassed into the hull; one under the forward bunk and one under the cockpit sole.  Spitzer said that these make the boat unsinkable, an important safety feature not found in most small cruisers."

PS does not have too much to say about construction because they did not visit the factory:

          "The Rhodes 22's construction is best described as conventional, with good attention to detail.  Hardware is of good quality throughout.  Cleats, for instance, are four-bolted 8 and 10" stainless steel open-base models; handrails, including a unique one at the aft end of the cabin trunk, are stainless steel, though teak is available.  Winches are made by Lewmar.  Chainplates are mounted solidly."

The reviewer could not help but be impressed by the Rhodes cockpit:

          "Working on the theory that most cruisers spend much of their time in the cockpit, the Rhodes 22 was designed with a huge cockpit that's 7-4" long and nearly 8' wide.  It's self-bailing with a full-length bench seat on each side.  The benches have open fronts which makes for comfortable seating (closed-front benches force you to keep your legs extended), are independently self-bailing and there's room underneath for plastic storage bins.  Aft, there's a transverse bench covering a lazarette, which opens to a 6' wide area that provides access to transom-mounted hardware as well as a great deal of storage space.  The Rhodes 22 has so many gadgets that it's hard to list them all.  One particularly nice one is its adjustable motor mount."

Since the reviewer did take the tiller in hand and sail for as long as he desired, a good part of the review turns its attention to controls and performance:

          "All the controls are cockpit mounted and fall readily to hand.  The roller furling control line for the genoa is cleated on the cabin top.  The mainsail roller furling is controlled by the out-haul and a control line that passes through the boom, with boom-mounted cleats.  The boom can be raised via a topping lift to clear the pop-top or lowered to reduce heeling.  There is no vang, which is unfortunate.  The jib sheets run through adjustable track-mounted blocks to a pair of winches located aft so that they can be handled conveniently by the helms-man for single-handing.  The traveler is very unique.  It rides on a stainless steel rod mounted transversely across the twin backstays.  The mainsheet cleat is mounted on the traveler block; the traveler controls are at the ends of the rod.  This arrangement, odd as it may look, keeps the traveler from intruding into the cockpit space and provides a bit of shock absorption in case of an accidental jibe.  We tried it and it works."

Editor's note:  Our experience is that anyone who sails the Rhodes from the Skipper's Swivel seats, never goes home.  So we did not let the PS reviewer get distracted by this decadent luxury option.  His main job was to review performance:

          "We took the Rhodes 22 out on a breezy day - 18-20 knots, with a 1' -  3' chop.  Getting underway was as easy as advertised. We started out with the full 175% genoa and full main. The boat is initially tender but stiffens up quickly as it heels. The flared gunwales make hiking-out easy (and not particularly demanding athletically).  We tried sailing under jib alone, which worked fine, with no problems tacking.

          The Rhodes 22 is an easy boat to sail with enough basic adjustments to satisfy most sailors, though we do wish for a boom vang.  (We could not stand this one negative utterance so now there is a boom vang.)  Controls are very well laid out for sailing from just about anywhere in the cockpit.  We found the Rhodes 22 to be a lively-feeling boat that's fun to sail.  As a cruiser for two, it's hard to beat without going up considerably in size and price.  The reports we've received from readers are almost universally enthusiastic."

By now you know how we feel about anything hinting of negativity when it comes to our Rhodes so, after choking on the "almost", we did some investigating.  It turned out that the one or two "owners" who had a negative to report to PS either did not buy their boat from us or never got the instruction booklet or never had a test sail to learn the proper handling of sails or bought a used 20 year old version or may have even got stuck with a forged or altered Rhodes.
 
 

NORTHERN   BREEZES

          To our surprise, a popular mid-west boating publication that survives on advertising and who had tried and failed to get us to advertise, nevertheless did review the Rhodes at the risk of offending its bread and butter advertisers.  Stumbling on this article by chance, we found it a joy, even though we know that advertising periodicals are much gentler with boat builders than tough old Practical Sailor.  And, we are delighted that Northern Breezes has posted their review of the Rhodes on the internet.  Go to http://www.sailingbreezes.com/rhodes22.htm for a printout of their article and http://www.sailingbreezes.com/ for their full website.
 

          From time to time the Rhodes does show up in other publications.  They just do not feature the Rhodes by name.  For instance, Sail did an article on trailering sail boating some time back and the boat pictured throughout the story happens to be a Rhodes.  You would have had to use a magnifying glass to find the name mentioned.  We understand the economics of it and are not complaining.

          With not too many publications acknowledging the existence of the Rhodes 22, you may want to go to http://www.sailnet.com/list/rhodes/ where the Sailnet organization has graciously set up a Rhodes-list feature that lets you talk to active owners for comments that we cannot edit.  Still, for the most part, the e-mail back and forth between owners and prospects, has been mostly accurate, fair and flattering.

          Cruising World has a service called "Another Opinion " that allows you to ask owners what they think of a boat you are considering.  The worst comment we saw here from a Rhodes owner commenting to a prospective's inquiring letter was:  "The boat is everything they say it is but we did have a flat on the trailer".  Honesty does pay.

          So, Caution:   If you should ever be fed less than perfect feedback on the Rhodes 22, come to us. We have good answers for inappropriate propaganda.

From time to time, articles do appear in magazines that can be of collateral interest to Rhodes interests.  Here are a few:

          From a cover page of Practical Sailor re an inside feature on a competitive boat:

          "Following our evaluations of the MacGregor 26 and Catalina 250, we continueto feel that water ballast is a compromise with a high price to pay in terms of stability and performance."

          Re-print of a rare letter to the editor from GBI:

          "DOUBLE  LOWERS
Double lower shrouds are probably more important on trailerables where a hinged mast can lead to a big headache for cockpit crew when a forestay gives up and easily avoided (like the fabled hatchet hanging over the doorway) by forward lowers.  Yet, with the exception of the Rhodes 22 and few others, double lowers are not to be found on today's trailerables.

So, while Stainton's rule for single lower shrouds is 'Never ever sail under jib alone,' sailing with a 175% genoa is repertoire #101 for Rhodes 22 owners.

Spitzer refers above to reader David Stainton's admonition not to sail under jib alone, a letter appearing in the July 1, 1997 issue.  Stainton, a marine surveyor from Cranberry Island, Maine, said he has surveyed at least three boats which had lost their spars while sailing with just the headsail.  In each case, he said, the boat had single lower shrouds."

          In Professional Boat Builder, James McCrory covers all the reasons why deck/hull joining with holed horizontal flanges are not used on well built production boats: "After a short time in service, the fiberglass mating flanges become eroded at the bolt holes, sometimes cutting completely through the flange sections to the outer edge."  The Rhodes is joined in the conventional "shoe box" manner that has served many other small boat builders without failures for these many years.  Very early boats were joined by rivets, construction long since replaced by stainless screws and bolts.

          Practical Sailor did a report on what makes for good cockpit seating and how various boats measure up.  While they did not include the small Rhodes 22 in their study, Rhodes fans will recognize their discovered truths:

         "You spend most of your time on the water in the cockpit.....steering, sail trimming, navigating, sitting while eating, lounging while socializing or reading and sleeping...round corners are the first step toward a well designed cockpit ....Beneteau 350 cockpit is well proportioned at 7'..of course there could have been kick spaces, but this feature is rarely found on production boats."

          Ho hum.....  Nothing here that isn't old hat to the Rhodes' cockpit.  Even the 7' size on the 35 footer is shorter than the Rhodes 7'-4".  The article goes on to point out that angled aft cabin walls make for more comfortable lounging.....and gunnels without those thin raised coamings are better for hiking. Sounds familiar to Rhodes students.

          In another article Practical Sailor talks of stick building:  "preferable (tabbing in sectional parts), we think to FRP pans. (now used by almost all trailerable boat builders)." The Rhodes again fits PS's "preferable" mold with tabbed-in molded hull-shaped flotation foam cores under the bow bunk and under the tabbed-in cockpit liner with a tabbed-in cabin floor support unit amidships, leaving the FRP pan for the bright, mold-free headliner.

          There have been numerous articles about fins, universally coming out with the combination keel/centerboard as the best way to go.

          If you do run across any other published articles that you may feel appropriate for this Magazines Write menu section, we would certainly appreciate your bringing them to our attention.

Thanks/gbi

For a current list list of magazines an book articals about the Rhodes22 Email:   stan@rhodes22.com