Some thoughts...

Eric Johnson (eric@theftnet.net)
Mon, 21 Sep 1998 09:45:46 -0700


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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I just got back from yet ANOTHER trip to Flathead, and wanted to share a few
unrelated thoughts that I discovered durng the trip.

1: Genoa: I just bought a used Genoa from someone on the list and WOW, what
a difference, in all but the windiest conditions. Definitely an improvment,
especially in light air and downwind, but it sails well in heavy air too.
Visibility is reduced, however. It will by my most-used-sail I'm sure. The
balance was nice as the wind picked up one day, and we tried genoa and
reefed main. It worked well, but later as the swells got to several feet and
the winds picked up we went with the lapper and reefed main.

2: Read some books from the library on vacation:

"This Old Boat" by Don Casey is excellent. I'll buy this one soon. In one
volume, it discusses all the maintenance things and modifications we might
do in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand manner. Unfortunately, it
really made my realize just how poorly my P19 was constructed (no backing
plates anywhere, for example, and almost nothing was bedded, except by me)..
but the design is good and I can beef up the weak points.

I finally read "Tinkerbelle". Great story, and inspiring.

"Adrift" by Steve Callahan scared the bejeezus out of me.

I read some book called something like "Sail Magazine's Book of Sailing"
which i didn't like as much. It was mostly about the history of sail racing.

I picked up "Wind in the Willows" but didn't finish it.

I tried to read C.A. Marchaz's (?) "Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics of
Sailing" but it was very heavy reading so I didn't read the whole thing.

3. Some cheap foam weatherstripping around the daggerboard trunk absolutely
works wonders at keeping heavy seas from splashing up through there. I was
hoping to just >reduce< it, but it really eliminated basically all the water
that normally would come through there, and quieted it down quite a bit. And
I don't have a hold-down system for the daggerboard.

4. A little polysulfide around the chainplate slots keeps a lot of rainwater
out.