RE: Floor/bilge

Tiffany, Doug (TiffanyD@phibred.com)
Thu, 14 Jan 1999 14:29:58 -0600


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Just brought home (To Fargo, ND) a new P19. No floor, unless you consider
the cabin sole the floor, and no bilge that is readily accessible. There
is space between the liner and the hull where H20 could accumulate, but from
the little crawling around I have done so far it would be hard to position a
bilge pump of any kind near the "lowest" point. I have only motored her
around Los Alamitos bay a bit before the loooooooong trek back. Had a few
problems which I'll relate below.

Have to say the folks from IM who were in the week after Christmas, Glenn,
Bruce and the factory staff (I met Felix, Oscar and I think Jesus), and the
Garges (trailer) staff, were very helpful. More on that below as well.

I had 3 problems that the factory folks fixed before I left Inglewood:

1) My trailer lights were not working correctly. Symptoms were, left turn
signal did not work at all with headlamps off. With headlamps on they
flashed, but fainter than the right side but either way my "SERVICE ANTILOCK
BRAKES" light on the dash stayed on (You don't want to begin a 2500 mile
trek with your brand new Potter w/o 100% confidence in your brake system).
The Garges folks, after first checking out the wiring on my '95 Lumina APV
w/3.8 V-6 (which by the way had absolutely no problems on the way home via
I40, I25 and I94), then on the trailer, switched a wire on the port side (do
trailers have a port side?) and all was well. Interesting place, Garges.
Basically a typical (large) welding shop, the usual disaster everywhere you
looked, they build Baja Racers from scratch and lots of other custom one-off
stuff. The original owners wife, I guess that who she was, had a desk in
the back room where she was busy reading the paper. She looked to be 80
something and was a bit hunched over. She would get up and walk through the
shop whenever someone was carrying something from one part of the shop to
another and in the loudest voice she could muster say "heavy stuff coming
through, heavy stuff coming". It was pretty amusing.

2) My Depth Sounder, a Hummingbird 200, worked for only a few minutes,
reading depth intermittently and then not at all. Oscar was the
electronics expert and after he and Bruce fiddled with it they just replaced
it. They don't skimp on the caulk, let me tell you!!!

3) As I brought her into the ramp area and toward the awaiting trailer and
winched up the centerboard the most awful sound reverberated throughout the
hull. It sounded just like fiberglass being ripped apart. I was petrified.
After going below and under to look at the winch and cables, everything
appeared okay, except that the cable was not wound neatly on the drum. I
had Bruce and Jesus look at that and they determined the winch was a bit
crooked and binding on the cable as it played out. Under such tension it
created the sound I heard and since those pulleys are located up to the mid
section of the hull, the whole hull acted as a sounding board. They removed
it, enlarged the holes, repositioned it, rewound the cable and checked it
and it seemed to work fine, no more noise. It had caused some stress cracks
in the Gelcoat, however, and they gave me some Gelcoat in hull and deck
color along with some hardener.

All the while Oscar, Bruce and Jesus were in the boat working on the Depth
Sounder and winch, Felix was outside rubbing and polishing and cleaning. It
was sort of amusing.

Well I could go on and on about the factory, the molds, the boats ready to
go out, the flow of perspective customers, the neighborhood and the Burrito
Lady, but I'll save that for a later note as this one has gotten way to
long.

Appreciate the incredible following the Potter has, it was one of the major
reason for me picking this boat over a Nimble 20. I know I will benefit
greatly from the experiences of all of you and perhaps we'll run into one
another as we're out Pottering.

Regards,

Doug Tiffany
Fargo, ND area.

#1067 Bonnie-Lea

-----Original Message-----
From: Spooner [mailto:spooner@gateway.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 1999 1:29 PM
To: wwpotter@tscnet.com
Subject: Floor/bilge

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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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I am wondering if the new P19 has a floor and or bilge?
Thanks..John Spooner
Wherever I go there I am.