Re: mooring

Gordon (hlg@pacbell.net)
Sat, 24 Oct 1998 12:33:34 -0700


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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>Hello --
>
>Does anyone leave their Potter 15 at a mooring? I live near Tomales Bay in
>Northern California. It is a beautiful natural area, fairly protected, but
>still often subject to winds above 30 knots and rough water in the spring
>and summer and during winter storms. Since I have a gunter rigged Potter
>14 and need to sail singlehanded for most days of the week, I'd like to
>avoid rigging, launching, and retrieving the boat by myself. But I don't
>know if the Potter's forward deck and its hardware will withstand the
>beating it will frequently take on a mooring. Will the towing eye and its
>glassed-in backing take the strain?
>
>I'd be grateful for any information anyone can offer.
>
>Ed Herson
>Sebastopol, CA

Hard to say, Ed. It depends on how well your individual boat was built.
I've always trailered my gunter-rigged 1967 Potter, but the bow eye is
still solid after 31 years of winching the boat onto the tilt-up trailer.
(I don't submerge the trailer.)

When I first got my Potter, I had occasion to be pulled off a shoal by a
harbor patrol boat. They insisted that I attach their tow line to the mast
instead of a cleat. As a backup, perhaps you could tie your mooring line to
the mast as well as the bow eye. Chafing of the rope at the bow eye might
be a more likely failure than pulling out of the bow eye.

Does it get as rough further down the Bay? (I've never sailed Tomales.)
Maybe a slip at Inverness would be a better choice if not too expensive.

Or you could do what I've done: install a lateen rig, which greatly
simplifies the rigging and derigging.

What is the hull/sail number of your Potter?

Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA