Stan, one of the original Potter Yachters, is something of a legend. He and
De Marsh were avid Potter sailors and scuba divers and had many adventures
in their Potters. Stan and De in De's boat and I with a friend in Manatee
had a memorable sail across Monterey Bay many years ago. Stan and De also
sailed their P15s out to the Channel Islands (story on PY web page).
Stan's first Potter, a Mk I P14 (if I remember correctly), was totaled by a
sneaker wave in Bodega Bay when Stan and De were diving for abalone on a
Potter Yachters weekend there. They were anchored in what they thought was
flat water, but a breaker suddenly rose up and clobbered the boat, as Stan
and De jumped off. The boat was insured, and Stan soon had a new Mk II P15.
(The abalone was delicious, by the way.)
Stan is a machinist, and before his retirement he headed the machine shop
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. With his craftsmanship, he
created a particularly well instrumented P15, with knotmeter and wind
velocity and direction instrumentation of his own construction. He still
lives in the house he built in Redwood City. Stan sold his Potter, _Oh
No!_, a few years ago to someone in Colorado. His current enthusiasm seems
to be bicycling.
Stan tells me that the other legend, Stan's good friend, De Marsh, is doing
OK. He has some disability from a stroke some years ago, but is still
active, working as a volunteer docent at the Monterey Aquarium. De is best
known to us for _The Many Ways to Potter_ and also authored a book on
retirement careers.
Many years ago we had a half dozen Potter 15s sailing down the Sacramento
River on a long weekend outing. The goal was to sail from Sacramento to
Pittsburg, but the morning after our second night afloat, we were motoring
against a stiff headwind and pounding chop, so before we reached the broad
part of the river, which promised to be worse, we all turned back to a
convenient launch ramp and called it quits. Everyone except De, that is,
who slogged on alone all the way to Pittsburg. On another occasion, De
sailed out the Golden Gate and down the coast to Half Moon Bay.
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA