We looked around for Dave, even going around Coast Guard Island. Finally
we headed N. toward the show, once we figured out where it was. We finally
saw Dave coming back down the estuary as the wind started to build. We
were tacking up the channel and I was very pleased with the way we were
making our turns - very snappy with Evan at the helm. All that practice in
the dingy paid off. We met up with Dave and ran back down the channel
toward the ramp, deciding to put in and go see the show as the wind was so
lackluster.
Back at the ramp things go well for us until we start to get the boat on
the trailer. Oh yeah, the centerboard is down! We back the boat off and
Evan begins to lift the center board. He cranks, complaining it is too
hard to do. I am still with the winch on the trailer and think to myself
"This is when the darn cable breaks like Larry warned on the listserve."
I no sooner complete this thought than clunk! The cable breaks! Evan
says, "dad, I think something broke".
I think the cause of the break was either a jam due the cable jumping
track on the centerboard mounted pulley and/or the cable fraying through
and then causing the pulley to break. It may have been that the keel was
jammed in the trunk and too much force was applied to try to raise it.
In any event I'll never know because I wasn't on board. Evan had
difficulty and then it broke. We dismantled the winch and removed it along
with the cable. I took the broken unit to Svendsons Marine. Their rigging
shop was closed, but a nice guy by the name of Joe Davis helped us to
attach a new cable to the winch and swedge an eye. Verdict was the cable
was junk (lots of fish-hooks?)
Little David and I got to go into the rigging shop with this fellow and it was
as good as a boat show for me. The riging bench was longer than our house!
We made the new cable, and I bought a new Harkin pulley for the one on the
keel that broke as well a new backing washers and locknuts. The spacing of
the bolts on the new pulley does not match the IM spacing. I'm not sure
what to do. I need to either buy different tackle or drill a new hole
through the centerboard (ugh!). Total bill at Swensons was $58. I figure
the show would have been $36 for three, so I was only out a net of $22!
I spent most of the afternoon lieing on the quarter birth, doing the winch
R&R. It was fun to do it on the water rather than in the driveway. We met
another Potterer - Robusta was the boats name, and John Hunolt arrived at
about three looking for the Potter fleet, and stuck with us until we
finished the job. We witnessed some interesting and ammusing dock
situations, full of local color.
Anyway, the new rig works better and now has proper backup washers. We had
sealent. tools etc. so things went pretty well. Evan got too much sun
waiting for David and I to return from the chandlery and helping with the
winch R&R.
We were out of the water at 6:00, four hours after we first tried. Take
down went well an we were unrigged in about 38 minutes. We had dinner at
our favorite chinese buffet in Alameda and went home. Arrived at 9:30.
A few interesting notes: 1). The pulley on the ceterboard was quite worn
by the cable. The outboard side of the pulley housing acually snapped. 2)
According to Evan, the board was about 1/3 of the way up when the cable
snapped. There was no damage to the centerboard trunk that I could see.
3) The cabin top did not seem to have too much difficulty with the strain
put on it by the winch up to the force required to snap the weakend cable.
Another note: I think the man overboard retrieval would not work using the
backstay because the spreader at the top of the mast could not bear the
lode. Looking at the boat rigged, the best anchoring place for tackle
would probably be the base of the mast or perhaps the cockpit rails.
Eric E. Zilbert
Agricultural & Environmental Education Program
Dept. of Agronomy and Range Science, UCD
Davis, CA 95616 (530) 752-5943
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