New (plastic) Boat!

[Frank Hagan]

I found a used Potter 19 at the right price. The Potter 19 has a good sized cabin for a boat her size, and will fit on the side of the house (a requirement that aced out several other choices). Here's a pic of her a couple of years ago, with her previous owner:

We brought her home Thursday night, but I haven't been able to sail her yet. Jan is away for a week, so it gives me some time to get her ship-shape. She's been in a slip for the last few years, so the gelcoat is now "chalky" and not too presentable. Here's a shot after several hours getting materials and polishing the stern. I thought this was going to take forever:

The stern was the hardest to get polished; too many things in the way to get the random orbital polisher in there. I did the starboard side in about 2 hours (and although it does need a coat of wax this morning, you can see the difference with the shot above):

The companion-way boards need refinishing, but that will have to wait. I'll need to polish up the port topsides this morning, then see if I can learn how to step the mast and make sure the rigging is OK. I hope to launch next weekend, if I don't have to work! Then I need to build that Catspaw or the Spindrift from the plans I have to provide a dinghy for her.

[capt jake]

Sweet!!!! :)

[Guest]

She looks like a lot of boat for the size. Enjoy.

[Greg Luckett]

The P19 was the first boat I got serious about buying a few years ago, then decided I could get more for less buying used. Lots of neat things about the Potters, and some not so nice things too. There are at least a couple of active groups on the web and lots of fun together too. I still may get a Potter 19 someday.

[Charlie Jones]

Great boat Frank. Now go to TSBB and find the Potter forum. From there find Judy Blumhorst's website. She's got a TON of info on rigging and handling the P19. Sails hers (named Red Wing) in San Fran bay, often singlehand I believe.

You did know that one of those was recently sailed single hand from Calif to Hawaii do you not? Boat's name was Chubby. He deck cargoed the boat home though

[Frank Hagan]

Stepping the mast is pretty easy. Feel free to call me if you have any questions about it.

I may do that if I get into trouble!

Also' date=' Make sure to either load some weight up forward or direct some crew up there. P-19's are sensitive to for aft trim. If all are in the cockpit you can find an inability to tack through wind and stall out and turn around to direct downwind. Can be rather disconcerting in any descent wind.[/quote']

I sailed her a few weeks ago, out of Long Beach, CA. It was a light air day, and we were doing 3 knots or so (the knotmeter "wheel" was gunked up, and working intermittently, so that's a guess). There were three of us in the cockpit. The battery is located on the starboard side, under the stove, so I expected some trouble tacking. I was surprised when she tacked easily. The boat is "stock" without any modifications ... it won't stay that way but I wanted to start that way. I may move the battery up there and add a second one, like we do in the Weekenders, to give it some forward trim ballast!

[Frank Hagan]

Great boat Frank. Now go to TSBB and find the Potter forum. From there find Judy Blumhorst's website. She's got a TON of info on rigging and handling the P19. Sails hers (named Red Wing) in San Fran bay' date=' often singlehand I believe.

[/quote']

Judy has a ton of stuff! I have followed the forum for a while now. I've had my eye on Potters since before I built my Weekender. We looked at a few trailerable boats, and my wife really liked the MacGregor ... it won't fit on the side of the house, and I'm frankly thankful for that. I would have bought a Mac if it was the only way to get my wife out on the water, but I don't really like the way they sail. I prefer the Potter, or a Catalina 22, but then that gets a little hard to launch without a lift.

You did know that one of those was recently sailed single hand from Calif to Hawaii do you not? Boat's name was Chubby. He deck cargoed the boat home though

Saw that in Sail Magazine. Having been in a Potter 19, I thought "what an idiot!"

I'll be more comfortable in the ocean with the Potter 19 than my unballasted Weekender, but I would never try blue water cruising in one! I'm a "coastal cruiser" kind of person with this boat, along with trailer sailing to lakes, etc.

[Charlie Jones]

LOL- I understand. But I also understand he was very well prepped.

Our 21 footer isn't an offshore boat, but the Rhodes Meridian sure is and my wife is about to die to split the jetties in it. Like a popular song down here says- she wants "'the Reds on the left and the greens on the right"

I'm working on it SHE'S already looking at courses to Grand Cayman, via the Dry Tortugas..

[tomstock]

Robert Manry sailed a 13ft boat across the atlantic in the early 60s. Seems being prepared is more important than the boat.

[Frank Hagan]

I think all those guys are idiots. Very brave, but very foolish. Usually, the reason they make it is that they don't get caught in a large storm system. I don't care how many papayas you've packed, surfing up a 40 foot wave in a P19 is not a wise thing to have to do!

It is easier today with EPBIRM (or whatever that acronym is!), satellite phone and email service, and SSB radio.

[Russ Sylvester]

Congratulations Frank! She looks really sweet. Sounds like you're getting a taste of what I've been doing for the last month. Fixing or replacing a long list of items, today alone is a list of no less than six things to do.

Now I'm not the only one that owns a clorox bottle. :wink: Sorry, just passing on some of the grief that I got.

Russ

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

Very nice boat Frank! Enjoy!

Florin

[tomstock]

Seems like a smaller boat (providing it was built strong and self righting) would be endure rougher weather than a larger boat. Speaking from no sailing experience here, but when I'm surfing for example, my shortboard is nearly indestructable and easy to manuver in large waves... the longboard (9'6) is a beast in the waves and can get broken in half fairly easily by water alone.

My sailing instructor sailed a 16ft boat across the atlantic. When I asked about it he said that since the boat was so small it tended to just bob around on the waves like a cork rather than drop from one wave into the face of the next. Lightbulbs which are very fragile make ocean crossings all the time. Makes sense I guess? Doesn't mean I'm going to try it, just repeating what I've read.

[Charlie Jones]

Tom- many people confuse comfort with seaworthiness and size with safety.

The smaller boats aren't necessrily unsafe and are perhaps even safer in a weird sort of way, but you AREN'T gonna be real comfortable in heavy weather

Reading Guzzwell in "Trekka Round the World" I'm sure he glossed over much of the discomfort of being in a severe storm in a 20 foot boat, but he didn't really seem bothered much. He went through a hurricane in the Pacific too. After his circumnav, he sold the boat to a couple, who promptly went round again in her!!!!

Gary Speiss in Yankee Girl spent a bunch of time testing, to the point of carrying canned goods that would float in water, so they would act as ballast normally but not weigh down the boat should he take on water. He crossed the Atlantic, then later did the Pacific in the same boat.

Oh- Yankee Girl was 10 feet long

Swen Lundin has made many long voyages, including doubling the Horn (twice) in his series of boats called "Bris". Most of them were (and still are) under 22 feet. His wife goes along on trips with him too.

I think with careful preparation and planning you can make long voyages in small boats with real safety.

Not saying of course that *I* would want to do it- I'm too old and like a TAD more comfort than that.

[Frank Hagan]

Ray's just given the best review of the Potter 19 I've seen yet ... it reads like an honest appraisal and not coming from either a "defensive" or "offensive" mode.

You can do a lot in a small boat that seals up completely ... like the life boats they have on cruise ships now. The P19 is, as Ray indicates, not made for blue water. The lights ... the port lights ... are simply plexiglass bonded to the opening in the hull with a trim piece ... not unlike what we build on our Weekenders. The main hatch above the companion way not only doesn't seal against water if the boat capsized, it often doesn't seal against a light rain! The front hatch over the v-berth is also of very light construction.

Properly sealed, it would probably bob around like a cork and be relatively safe. But like Charlie says, I'm certain I don't want to be in it when that happens.

[Frank Hagan]

Other concers I would have with Blue water would also be the hull rigidity. Oilcans with pressure on the hull sides. Not a problem with coastal cruising' date=' but in open seas. I would also be rather nervous about the daggerboard arrangement. This is your ballast weighin g in at 350 lbs. Some of the stock holdown arrangemnts on the daggerboartd were rather flimsy. I think I saw somewhere where Judy outlines solutions for making this beefier.

[/quote']

The centerboard trunk in the Joe Nelson boats, built between 1981 or 1982 and 1992 when he sold to International Marine, were "cost reduced". There's uneven build quality in Joe's boats, from what I've heard. I visited the plant recently and saw one hull in the mold with one layer of glass on it, one just popped out of the mold, and several being fitted out. I was impressed with the build quality in the areas you can't see ... like the integral metal plate in the transom to mount the outboard bracket to. As to the oil-canning, it would be hard to make a boat with slab sides NOT oilcan; I was actually surprised at how little it oilcanned while I was buffing the oxidation off. But, like you say, it argues against blue water sailing with the boat.

If both rear bunks are not needed' date=' conversion to one of them to a cockpit storage locker is a great idea as well. Lack of cockpit storage is an unfortunate price to pay for all the interior cain space. Of course with your build experience with the Weekender, creation of a cockpit storage spoace would be reasonably straightforward. If I were to do such, I would do so on the port side, and then extend the galley sink to the cabin bulkhead to create some much needed counter top space and hgalley cupboard space.. I got these ideas from reviewing Grahams Belhaven accomodations. I was contemplating such a conversion myself as well as converting sail plan to a cat ketch rig with Grahams assistance when a major life change made purchase of the Cal 28 feasible.[/quote']

Good ideas. I was thinking of installing waterproof hatches on the seats, to allow storage on the bunk underneath in laundry baskets. That maintains the seal for the cabin, but utilizes that space without changing the "4 - berth" layout. But I'll have to look at putting in a realistic galley on the port side.

[Charlie Jones]

I wish to be sure that what I've been saying isn't construed as calling the Potter 19 a blue water boat. I'm not. That some one made a successful Pacific crossing in one not withstanding.

What I AM saying is that long open ocean voyages in PROPERLY BUILT AND PREPARED small boats is NOT idiotic nor patently unsafe. Not comfortable perhaps, but NOT unsafe just because the boats are small. Size does not make seaworthiness, design and construction does.

THAT is the point I wanted to make.

Oh- and I'm really happy you got a good coastal boat Frank. I understand they sail very well.