Guess I forgot about the bit west of the Appalachians. Also forgot how touchy
folk are when others refer to their boats, cars, backyards, dogs, guns, women,
politicians, habits .............
Forgot too that the WWPotter was designed here and someone made commercial
capital by copying it and then used the name over again for another bigger but
different boat just for symmetry in his catalogue.
Gentle humour is an unwelcome thing too, to some. Point for me to remember:
Not all those who get e-mail from me are friends!
Perhaps you should go and read a play by a certain Irishman, THE APPLE CART.
George Bernard Shaw. It centres on the world's second largest democracy
wanting to rejoin the empire which after much struggle led to the
establishment of the world's largest democracy. Dated about 1910 and
therefore a little old fashioned but quite interesting.
As for my 'hostility' to the P-18/19, please note that I was not expressing my
opinions on this topic last year but those of a sailing friend who started the
WWPA. He has no access to the 'net and at some risk of churlish responses
aimed at me, I agreed to pass on his thoughts in a free-thinking medium. I've
never even seen an American Potter of either type, but I can see from pictures
that they do not have the same designer. Also, we, and that particularly
includes sailors of 14 and 15 foot boats, and more so those who sail on tidal
and sometimes exposed waters, that the Potter, as conceived by Stanley Smith,
is a dinghy with a lid on it.
Going back to Potters and sailing [which is where we came in], as one who has
fallen into the water from the foredeck of my Potter in a dead calm, in a
harbour, I am sensitive to the balance of the hull etc. I have added more
strong points for life lines, at the base of the mast, and both ends of the
cockpit. On the foredeck I always clip on now. I also ALWAYS have a self-
inflating life vest on, even on the dock. Again, I slipped and fell from a
pontoon in a Royal Navy yard once, banging my head but not actually going in
to the water. I broke my fall with a sturdy navy long boat and my nose.
I've also added a single folding step on the outside of the transom, just
above the waterline. Hopefully, if I ever fall in again it'll help me get
back aboard. The 2 hand-holds for the cabin top are waiting in my workshop to
be fittted.
Bruce Longstaff
Uxbridge GB