Re: I'm talkin' 'bout pottering!

Ted Duke (tduke@cfw.com)
Thu, 29 Oct 1998 21:01:11 -0500


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Derek,

I loved your story, I think each one of us has one. I have several, some of which I
would rather not remember. I bought my WWP19 From Cliff Stoneburner and about 45 days
later finally got to get it wet. A friend and I put in on the Potomac below
Alexandria. He had to get the boat over to the small pier and try to keep it out of
the way while I parked the truck and trailer about 1/2 mile away. I RAN back (very
busy ramp) got into the boat, started the outboard and we shoved off. I didn't have a
chart, wasn't going out of sight of the landing, only going to practice going back and
forth across the river. My mate had NEVER been in a sailboat. There was little wind.
I motored about 1/4 way across the river. cut the motor, cranked the keel down, raised
the sails with his help. The sails filled with wind, but after a long minute or two I
realized we were not moving. Finally realized the keel was in the mud. I had to crank
it all the way up to get free and then motored SHEEPISHLY down near where the training
sailboats were sailing. Everyone waved and probably snickered. I waved and stayed
well out of their way. My mate was very understanding. I got smart and follwoed
another sailboat back in to the ramp when we were ready to leave. Later I checked a
chart and found I had motored right to the middle of the mudflats. I never go on the
water anywhere without a chart. Shouldn't have then, but forgot to buy one when I was
at BOAT/US and figured I didn't really need it. I wasn't going out of sight ....

Ted Duke
WWP19 #626
Virginia

Derek Jensen wrote:

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> West Wight Potter Website at URL
> http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> I have a little anecdote to share with fellow potter'ers, if for nothing else
> then to get back to sailing.
>
> About a month ago, I was out sailing on the Columbia river, which has
> become my defacto cruising ground for the Portland area. The stretch
> of river frequented by sailors is "between the bridges", in that it is between
> the I-5 and I-205 bridges, about 2-3 miles of river with approximately
> .5 mile of river width. The prevailing winds on this stretch of river
> are almost always from the West, making it possible to run up river
> and beat back down to the ramp.
>
> It was a great day, and I was enjoying the 5-10 knot breeze as I
> slowly crawled up the river, receiving the usual bemused hellos from
> the much larger sailing craft around me. After about 1 hour of sailing,
> I noticed something that should have been a warning to me: My fore stay
> seemed very slack. Now I have seen the shrouds go slack on the lee
> side of the boat while reaching, so I figured that since I was running
> wing-a-wing, I must be putting a great deal of stress on the mast and
> rigging, and the fore stay would pop back as soon as I began to reach
> down the river.
>
> I decided to head on down the river, and brought the boat about and
> sheeted in the sails. At this point, I realized that my slack fore stay was
> not a function of the rigging stress ... It had detachted! Visions of the
> mast tumbling down on me appeared in my mind in a flash. I think If
> I had thought about it a little, I might have been a little calmer, but I
> did the first thing that came to mind ... DROP SAIL. I popped the
> main down and let it crumple into the cockpit as I scampered up
> on deck to drop the jib. Now it should have occured to me at this
> point that the jib was the only thing holding up the mast, as the halyard
> was now my fore stay! As I uncleated the jib halyard, I did realize that
> fact, and it was driven home by the fact that my mast was now teetering
> precariously in my hand. Using my hand to hold up the mast, all the
> while laughing hysterically, I managed to pop open the jib halyard
> snap shackle and attach it to the pulpit. Picture me on the deck of
> my P-15, holding the bitter end of the halyard with a single turn on the
> cleat, trying to wrassle the halyard onto the pulpit. I got it secured, and
> cleated the halyard, thus ending the immanent crash of my mast onto the me
> and the fore deck. The whole time this is going on, of course, the boat is
> heaving up and down in the wakes of power boats and barges on this
> rather busy river!
>
> Once the mast was secured, I looked down, and too my surprise, sitting inocently
> by the toe rail was the SS pin for my fore stay shackel. I snatched it, jumped
> back into the cockpit and grabbed my pliers out of my engine tool kit. Thank
> god for those babys! I re-attached the fore stay and reefed down on the pin
> insuring that I would not undergo that exercise agian, at least not that day.
>
> I got back into the cockpit and tried to get my heart out of my throat. I looked
> around me and realized that there was no reason not to raise sail and continue
> on where I left off. I raised both sails, but had spun sufficiently around that I
> was accidentally backwinding the jib. A sudden realization came over me ...
> I had finally "heaved-to" in my boat. The feeling was great. I had tried to
> heave-to before, but had always had too much speed through my tack and ended
> up overshooting the small window of balance to get her to heave. I saw
> now the beauty of this maneuver: I could stop the boat dead ( virtually) with the
> sails fully powered. I began to experiment a little, and found that by popping the
> windward sheet and bringing the jib back around I would immeadiatly begin
> surging forward. Backwind the jib and throw the helm to lee, and I would
> again come to a full stop.
>
> I spent the rest of this glorious day going in circles on the river, testing out
> my new found ability. It turned out to be a great confidence builder and
> another great day of sailing.
>
> Hope you enjoyed my story ...
>
> Derek Jensen
> P-15 #694 "El-Nino"
> Portland, OR