I got a replacement outhaul car with Charles’ help about 5 years ago for my 2014 Rhodes. I didn’t need to cut any corners, worked as is - I used a piece of line looped around several times to attach the clew to it, as I’d forgotten to order that metal tang which had broken.  Works fine.  That may give you the extra spacing you need.

Larry

> On Dec 7, 2023, at 8:50 PM, bobfcohen at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> I think I am the "other Rhodes owner" that Peter referred to.  I bought a new outhaul car through Charles Gabriel without any problem.  He is easy to work with.  Like Peter I had to cut it down (all four corners) to get it to fit into the slot on the boom.  
> 
> But there turned out to be a problem once the new outhaul car was in place and connected.  The carabiner on the outhaul car could not be attached to the clew of the mainsail without using the topping lift to raise the boom.  With the boom at an angle, the sail did not unfurl cleanly, and the IMF mechanism got jammed up.  I waited for a day when there was virtually no wind on the theory that I could somehow get it loosened, but it did not work.  I think the problem was that with my old outhaul car, the foot of the sail did not have to be close to the boom.  The old outhaul car worked reasonably well - I was able to unfurl and furl the mainsail -   so I put it back on.
> 
> At some point I will probably take the mainsail out of the mast.  In putting it back, if it is lowered a few inches, the new outhaul car might work on my Rhodes.  Until then, I chalk it up to an improvement tried and failed.
> 
> Bob Cohen
> "Silver Bay"
> Onekama, MI
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of peter beckerman via Rhodes22-list
> Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2023 2:33 PM
> To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Need IMF Outhaul car
> 
> As Scott said, Charles Gabriel is the guy you want.Email him and keep a close eye on your spam folder.  I had a devil of a time getting in touch with him at first, and ultimately his reply ended up in spam.  Once we connected he was very responsive and I had a new outhaul car on my boat in short order.I did have to file a wee bit off of a corner to make it fit, and I know of one other Rhodes owner who had a similar experience.
> Peter
>