1958 Rhodes Bounty II TELEIA

[JDOradio]

Hello fellow liveaboard sailors. Two months ago I closed on a 1958 Rhodes Bounty II called TELEIA (hull number 13). I'm a 46 year old retired attorney who spent most of my professional life in an air conditioned office, wishing I was somewhere else, doing something else. MY former employers spent a ton of money paying me to look at boats on yachtworld. I was squarely planted on the suburban grid, sort of content with the disneyesque existence that I lived, but acutely aware of it's failings. Then a series of unfortunate events conspired to push me into a corner. At first I acted as if I would obediently cower there. However I had spent 20 years drawing the bowstring and when I saw a way through, I let fly. I made a Jim-shaped hole in my office wall.

I sold or threw away all my crap (except most of my tools) and with my truck packed to the rafters drove to Annapolis. After a month on the hard I launched TELEIA and, still unable to sail, motored to a slip on the Severn River. I have been here ever since, working working working to get the boat ready for sea.

The yard where TELEIA had been for the 6 years prior to my purchase did not allow people to stay overnight on their boats, so I officially moved aboard June 1, 2018.

I have been working 12-15 hour days refitting, repairing, and building anew. The month in the yard was spent on un-freezing and rebuilding 11 seacocks, inspecting the fuel and water tanks, and working on the engine, which is a Farymann R30. I repaired the rudder, which was compromised. I hit all the usual suspects: water pump">raw water pump, fuel lines, hoses, belts. I repacked the stuffing box, installed a new battery bank, and got the electrical systems functioning to some extent. Fresh water systems, and refrigeration too.

The boom was rotten, and one of the spreaders had some rot in it, so as soon as I got to the the dock I started building a new boom. As I type I am 8 coats of varnish in and the end is in sight. I repaired the rotten spreader, and tomorrow I expect to install the new boom, put the spreaders back on, and go sail the boat. First time for me, and I am very excited.

Aside from mechanical and safety issues, there are a ton of aesthetic problems. The bottom was freshly painted before I launched, but the topsides and the deck are a mess. The interior was thoroughly disgusting. I am living aboard but it's more like camping at a construction site. No shower yet, and many many other inconveniences. And 46 stairs from the dock to where my truck is parked.

But I am very happy with my situation. I have a good friend nearby who allows me to use his garage as a workshop and to use his shower when I get so dirty I can't stand it anymore. I have enough money to continue with the refit, and the boat itself is solid glass - no core anywhere - so I'm building on a good foundation.

By way of background, I have been sailing my whole life, and have owned a succession of cruising boats similar to TELEIA. I have restored old boats, built new ones, and even campaigned in an offshore race series on the east coast. My happy place is twisting my body into a pretzel and wedging it into hard to get at spots to do dirty, fussy work. I am a wooden boat fanatic, and a history buff, making periodic forays to Maine to work on wooden boats.

TELEIA has a long way to go, but every day I make progress. I go to bed tired and wake up ready to go. I feel like I have gotten 20 years younger, and this self-imposed boat repair boot camp makes me strong. After years of princely living I find myself rising to challenges that surprise me. Each success builds confidence. Each failure is merely a lesson. No serious injuries.

My dream is to one day become a charter boat, and to do deliveries. I do not have a captain's license yet, but that is in the offing. On that note, I have not even bothered to return to documentation, or register the boat in any particular state. It's hard to make jumping through government hoops a priority when I can't even sail the damn boat. But hopefully in another few days that will change.

My hat is off to Phillip Rhodes, William Garden and the faceless workers who built TELEIA. There is so much that was done right. So much foresight. Its a comfortable boat to be aboard. As ugly as she is still, I love her.

My plan is to get the boat sailing, install a water heater and shower, and head north to Massachussets for the duration of the summer, where I have a job waiting when I feel like working for money again. I'm not in a particular rush though, and before I ship out I plan to take friends and family cruising a bit down here in the Chesapeake.

[gjordan]

Best of luck. They are a true classic cruising boat. Congrats. ___Grant.

[john61ct]

Wow, what a great design!

Another one named Restless won the Bermuda race in 2000, almost 50 years after the initial design!

[KJB]

Congrats! I just looked it up and very nice design. Please keep us informed as to your progress. Thanks for posting.

[JDOradio]

It's official: Teleia is a sailboat.

About a week ago I got a coat of varnish on that I could live with as a final coat, and rigged the boom and spreaders up. With a nice breeze and sunset I pottered around Round Bay on the Severn. It was wonderful. I've been out a few times since and I'm starting to work through the running rigging, etc. getting the sheet leads in the right places, the jib furler set up properly, etc. The boom is set up for slab reefing, and I still need to run those lines.

There has been great progress on many fronts. My fresh water system was a bit of a mystery to me, but I've got it all figured out now and working well. I had a few leaks in the tanks that I repaired, and I opened the inspection ports, cleaned them, epoxied then, and re-installed them after scrubbing the tanks. Took a few tries but I got the inspection ports sealed up tight again. I found an old spec sheet that says I have 173 gallons of water in three tanks. A little hard to believe, but OK.

I also fabricated a shower drain pan in the head, which leads to a gray water tank that will eventually pump overboard via one of the thru-hulls. Still need some parts to complete that job, but the basic shower drain works a treat.

I've also made some progress covering the ugly inside. The big cabin windows (hard to call them ports) aft need to be removed, cleaned, and re-bedded properly. Even so, there was no frame or treatment for them on the inside, and the Naugahyde liner around them was browned, cracked, and broken. It looked truly disgusting. I managed to get interior frames made up (using some old leaded glass I took out of a cabinet years ago) and it has made a HUGE difference. Now when you come below instead of looking at yuck, you see wood. Not sure I love the design, but it will do for now.

Projects on the horizon include rebuilding my ABI windlass, which appears to be a copy of a Simpson Lawrence Seatiger, and painting the deck. I've also decided to cannibalize an old wooden boom I have, and use the wood to make things I need aboard. Caprails for the cockpit coamings are high on my list.

I will try to attach some pics of the boom being built, etc.

[JDOradio]

[Gafferfan]

Looking like you are having a great time.
Go for it and congrats for your escape!

Old wooden boat guy here looking for a glass gaff rigger. Can’t do the wooden thing anymore which breaks my heart.(I understand your boat is glass) and great work regarding the boom.

Rhodes sure designed a lovely boat.

[KJB]

Very nice indeed! I am also a wooden boat guy and own one. I enjoy how you have a very timeless design married to a very stable medium (fiberglass) in this vessel though. That hull should still be good for at least another 60 - 70 years.

If you aren't a craftsman, you should be! Congrats and thanks for the pics and keeping us posted.

[Don C L]

Boy do I get your passion for that boat! Hull number 13! Wow! I'm hopelessly attached to my well-aged and cosmetically challenged classic too.... and the Bounty and the Rhodes 41 and Reliant are dream boats for me too. Congrats on her and I envy the work you are doing on her!
Why not start a thread with photos in the Plastic Classic group also?

[Don C L]

BTW, I am sure you know that no matter how ugly she looks in the slip, she's going to be gorgeous once she is scudding along, heeled over under her big wings.

[sailpower]

Is the leaded glass strong enough for that purpose?

[Gary Mc]

Congrats. I first sailed on Teleia in the 70s. A good friend of mine has owned her since then. Did not know she was sold.


Please to see you are bringing back to sailing condition.

[JDOradio]

On Monday I was helping a friend do some electrical work at an art gallery. It was midday and the sun was shining, wind was blowing. Nice dry breeze and the forecast was for wind and a cool night. What perfect weather for a cruise over to St. Michael's! My friend has a Pearson Vanguard (also a Rhodes boat) and it didn't take too much to convince him that playing hooky and going sailing was the right thing to do.

Once we decided to go, we almost dropped our tools in place and ran out the door. After some hasty prep, we met in Round Bay and sailed in tandem down to Annapolis. We had a steady breeze of 10-12 knots from the NNE and delightful champagne sailing all the way - a broad reach to Bloody Point, then on the wind up the Eastern Bay, then off the wind all the way down the Miles River. We dropped our anchors at about midnight and went right to sleep, exhausted and a little sunburnt.

The next morning we hit the dock for fuel, and headed back home. The wind had shifted to the SSE and it was a slow, hot run up the Miles River. Collapsed sails, wing on wing, that sort of thing. Moving at between 3-4 knots, whistling for wind and scratching my backstay.

We opened up the Eastern Bay about noon, and hardened up to beat up to Bloody Point. The conditions changed dramatically and instantly. Once we were exposed to the fetch of the bay proper, the wind blew at a steady 15 knots with frequent gusts to 20, and the seas had built up a steep close chop that was a thrill. TELEIA took off in a most satisfying manner, sailing unperturbed through the swell. But after the first two tacks, I was getting worn out from handling the loads. With the main sheeted in the weather helm was heavy and constant and I was skating on the edge of being overpowered. I couldn't leave the helm alone long enough to get that big jib sheeted in properly, and without self tailing winches it was a strenuous dance of shoving the tiller to windward, getting a few cranks on the winch, and then while still tailing the winch with one hand, pushing the tiller up with the other until I would stay down long enough to get a few more quarter turns on the winch. It took me almost the whole tack just to get sheeted in, and then it was hard alee again. Exhausting. Eventually I gave up and eased sheets and ran off a bit, which helped some. But off the wind even a bit, the speed picked up and it did little to give me some rest. I eased the main to ease the weather helm, but even doing this while on the port tack was a gymnastic feat because the main sheet is made fast near the aft end of the cockpit on the starboard side, and I was steering from up from where I had good leverage on the tiller. It was a real handful. I was looking forward to getting up above Bloody Point, then cracking off and screaming down to Annapolis.

On port tack, bowling along like a freight train, leeward rail awash, I was nearing shoal water and getting set up to tack again when I looked aloft. My windward spreader - the one I had repaired with a dutchman, had collapsed like a crazy straw. It remained in collumn, but the wood that I had not replaced had simply disintegrated.

After a split second of dumb shock, I rounded up. I tried to roll in the madly flogging jib, but the furler line had gotten fouled on a cleat and I had to scamper forward to clear it. In the time it took me to do that, the shaking rig liberated the remains of the spreader with enthusiasm.

I got the engine started and the main down, and kept the bow upwind. The boat was pitching dramatically, and just staying on deck was a big priority, but I managed to get everything under control and began to motor directly into the wind and waves. The mast seemed secure with just one cap shroud, the lowers keeping things steady. I let Mike on Sea Wolf know what had happened, and settled in for a long chug home. I was so looking forward to that downwind run to Annapolis!

I was able to make about 3.5 knots of headway to weather, and the motion of the boat was mostly pitching, but when I finally got around bloody point, I began to take the seas abeam or on the quarter, and the rolling started. Anybody who has ever been in a seaway without a scrap of sail to steady things will know how the motion felt, and now on the leeward roll, the top half of the mast was bending and then snapping back into column with a dull thud on the opposite roll. It was sickening to watch, the leeward shroud flopping loose like a noodle on every roll. I was sure the mast would snap at the spreaders, but I couldn't do anything but steer as best I could to avoid rolling. I couldn't leave the helm because I had a shoal directly under my lee and had to steer to get away from it - had to steer across the seas, which of course made the rolling much worse. I could reduce the motion to mostly pitching by running directly off downwind, but had to wait to do so until I cleared the shoal.

After a very very long time, I made it to open water and could afford to drift downwind. I left the tiller and spent a good long time on deck getting things squared away, the boat dancing around with wild abandon and I hanging on for dear life. I ran the main halyard to the wounded chainplate and cranked it a tight as my muscles would make it so I had at least something supporting the top of the mast. Got the boom in the crutch. Started steering between two anchored freighters.

The wind was stronger, the waves continuing to build, and I was seeing 6.5 knots of boatspeed when the motor gave a weak sigh and died. Instantly on the radio to let Mike know. At first I was pretty well alarmed, going through the scenarios in my head, but then I noted that I had steerage and was still going 4 knots, with no engine and no sails up. Just the windage from the rig and hull, and the wind was blowing me directly to Annapolis. What fortune!

I got the topping lift off the boom, ran it to the mainsail, and hoisted it up to the height of the spreaders. The sail wouldn't set properly for want of a tack and clew, but it gave me more speed and control, and I could actually sail on a broad reach. Which is exactly what I did, straight past Annapolis, through the cloud of dinghy racers, past the naval academy and up the Severn. I made it as far as the Rt. 50 bridge before the wind died away and I slowed to drifting with the tide.

Mike towed me up the Severn, into Forked Creek where I dropped the hook about 10 PM. Made dinner, ate, guzzled my tot of bathtub gin, and took a caulk.

Of course, the engine failure was a clogged fuel line from sediment that was shaken loose in the tank during all that rolling and pitching. The next morning I got to work changing the fuel filter, and discovered that the clog was actually at the screen in the tank on the end of the fuel pickup tube, not in the filter. I set a speed record for chasing that down and clearing it. Took me all day. But finally I got the line primed, new filter in, and the engine running. I plucked my hook and motored the half mile or so to my dock, arriving just at dusk last night. It felt awfully good to secure my web of dock lines and be home safe with the boat mostly intact. Can't say all in one piece, because I littered pieces of my boat all over the Eastern Bay. But no major injuries, and I can build a new spreader.

So what failed? My ability to assess the strength of wood. The spreader failed all around the dutchman I put in. I didn't cut out enough compromised wood. I tried to keep as much of the spreader as I could to avoid time consuming shaping, which was a mistake. I should have replaced much more of the wood. Or rather, I should have recognized that the wood I was leaving in was not good enough (I ignored the ice pic test in places) and added way more new wood. Actually, I should have built a whole new spreader. Which is what I have to do now, with the added fun of getting to machine the bronze fittings that I lost when the spreader went by the boards.

The fuel tank is still full of fuel and sediment. Some of the sediment is from age, some of it is the result of me cutting an inspection port into the tank to assess it's condition. Another mistake. I convinced myself the tank was pretty clean. Apparently it is not. So something has to be done there as well.

About the leaded glass - it is downright fragile. However it is merely cosmetic inasmuch as the regular port remains in place, functioning as the barrier to the elements. The leaded glass isn't exposed to the outside world. Someday it may shake apart, or someone may touch it and it will crumble. But for now it looks a heck of a lot better than nothing. I'm still not sure I love the design of the window treatment, but it's basically a wood and glass curtain.

I spend a good deal of time wandering around my deck and looking at hardware and thinking "What the hell was that for?" This is an old boat, and there is a ton of stuff aboard that I have no clue how to use. I know the boat was sailed and raced a lot, and now I am looking at it all with wonder. I would be overjoyed if someone who knows the boat could tell me, for instance, why I have two mainsail tracks - one for slides, one for a boltrope. All the way to the masthead. Why? What are all the halyards for? There is no spin halyard, but there appear to be two staysail halyards. But no inner forestay, baby stay, etc and no attachment points on the deck for that stuff.

To that end, anyone who would enjoy sailing TELEIA is welcome to come sailing. I'd love to get in tough with the prior owner too, since I have benefited a great deal from past prior owners information about other boats I have owned. Who better to point out all the little things one needs to know to operate the boat and systems safely and effectively.

One last note: my heart was filled with pride for TELEIA, viewing her on the hook from Mike's boat. She's a beauty, even with faded topsides and a ragged deck. I love this boat, and and so happy I get to look after her for a while. I'll do my best to get her ready for a long life with the owner who comes after me, which hopefully won't be any time too soon!

[JDOradio]

One more - in St. Mike's

[Don C L]

What a great tale! Those old masts are, as someone here commented, like old street light poles. I know mine is. And I can imagine the cockpit acrobatics necessary to singlehand her. I usually have one knee or foot on the tiller to steer while I am tailing my non-self-tailing winches too! And I know about loving a raggedy looking boat! I just started prepping my deck, removed old paint and primed in one section and now the rest of the deck looks so much worse! But I am still gong sailing.
Keep us posted with your tales!
BTW have you seen the refit of a Rhodes 41 that was posted in the Plastic Classics group under "refits of note?"