Hi Paul and Cathy!
Welcome aboard and all that stuff. Is your P14 a gunter rig (wooden mast
and two wooden spars)? (I can't remember offhand if the gunter rigs
continued as far as #494.)
If you do have a gunter rig, you might start with the original rigging and
sailing instructions written by Herb Stewart and provided with the gunter
rigs. They are on the West Wight Potter web page at
<http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/articles/GunterRig.htm>.
There are also some photos there of other gunter rigs and various
modifications. There are copies of some of the gunter rig brochures on the
Potter Yachters web page at
<http://songbird.com/py>
and also more photos of all varieties of Potters.
I have a first generation gunter rig, #234, built in 1967. The sail rig is
the same as the second generation gunter rigs built in the 1970s, but it is
otherwise less refined. Mine has no cabin liner and no sliding hatch. The
centerboard trunk intrudes into the cockpit more than yours does, and there
are some other differences.
Your boat, like mine, whether it is a gunter rig or the "Mk I," has a
lazarette, a storage compartment in the aft part of the cockpit. The newer
Potters, Mk II and subsequent, don't have a lazarette. I like the
lazarette, but you have to remember not to carry heavy things there as the
boat does very poorly when loaded down in the stern. By the same token, sit
forward in the cockpit when sailing. The lazarette is designed to stow the
British Seagull outboard that was standard issue on the Potters of the 60s
and 70s.
If you don't have a gunter rig, your boat is a "Mk I." It wasn't called
that at the time it was manufactured, but it was replaced by the Mk II, so
that is a convenient way to identify the model. The Mk I was just sold as a
West Wight Potter 14. The Mk I had a three-sided mainsail like the gunter
rig but was rigged loose-footed and had an aluminum mast and boom. The sail
area was the same as the gunter rig. The Mk II introduced the larger,
four-sided main used on the current Potters, and that sail can be used on a
Mk I or even a gunter rig. The Mk II was marketed as a 15-footer, but had
essentially the same hull as the gunter rig and Mk I.
Hope that info will help you get started. Please tell us where you are
located. This is a very cordial and helpful group, so feel free to ask any
specific questions you might have. You will find a lot of information and
pictures on the two web pages referenced above and there are links there to
other Potter pages including those of several regional clubs around the
country and the pages of individual Potter owners.
It is helpful to include your hull number and location in your signature
when posting to the mail list.
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA.