I am so sorry your first experiance was so negitive and so costly. I
lost my mast way out in the ocean on one of my first sails (the pin came
out) and everything went into the drink. I could not understand why that
happened. It made me think something was telling me I should not pursue
sailing. I know the more my desire to sail the more negative things kept
happening. That was 2 years ago when I first got my potter. I kept at it and
now I love sailing my Potter. Its what I dream about when I am at work and
what I always want to do in my spare time. Its almost like an innitiation. I
can tell you what you did wrong. The potter is very stable but someone your
weight (and mine) cannot walk on the side of the cabin. If you have to go
forward (you can rigg your boat so you do not have to) you have to keep your
center of gravity over the center of the boat (crawl over the cabin. When
you are in the cockpit you are fine on either side of the seat. The problem
is when there is to much weight at the side when you are forward. When you
are sailing however the wind in the sails helps to stabalize the boat. The
boat is stable for 14 ft but its still a 14ft boat.
To rigg your jib so you do not have to go forward you tie a rope (very
small diamiter) to the head of the sail and run it inside the hanks down to
the tack. Through the eyelet there and then back to a cleat in the cabin.
that way you release the small diamiter rope and pull on the jib halyard to
raise the sail. To lower the sail you release the halyard and pull on the
small diamiter rope. To keep the sail from flapping on the deck you pull
hard on the jibsheets and that secures the sail down on the deck. It will
only cost you the price of a small diamiter rope and maybe a cleat. My cleat
is mounted in the cockpit just before the cabin on the lip of the cockpit.
To anchor I tie the end of the anchor rope to the cleat in the center of the
deck. I then bring the anchor back to the cockpit and store it in the
storage area in the cockpit by the transom. that way when I need to anchor I
just throw it over from the cockpit. To pull it up I can reach the anchor
rope by standing in the cabin with the hatch open and reaching over to the
cleat in the middle of the deck. I am tall so I can reach it. If you cant
you might want to have a small boat hook or something like it to reach the
line.
Again I am very sorry about your accident. and hope you have many fine
sails after the memory of this incident fades away.
Dave Lang p14 hull #554 "Go West"