New Kid on the Block

Yarbrough, Linton (lyarbrough@doeal.gov)
Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:54:23 -0600


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Greetings to All in the Potter WebGroup:

My name is Linton W. (Lin) Yarbrough & I must confess to lurking behind
the scenes of this informative/friendly site for the last few weeks.
I'm truly looking forward to your answers to my inquiries and my
contributions to yours , based on my sailing (somewhat limited) and
construction/building (somewhat extensive) experiences.

Where to start ?? I guess it's best to just jump right in.

After several years of searching for the boat to fit my criteria, the
WWP-19 was selected. Living in Albuquerque, NM required something that
could be trailered and launched easily (approx. 80k acres of lakes w/in
5 hrs. drive time, but the key word is DRIVE). My wife of 31 years
still hasn't overcome her childhood fear of water (stability was VERY
important). Comfort for 2 people, or the occasional 3, for extended
periods (large interior vol.= hard chines = great initial stability,
that S word again). Etc., etc, etc. (Does anyone remember Yul
Brynner??) Y'all've heard the litany before- I'm just preaching to the
choir. Anyway, the WWP-19 had everything except a decent interior
layout for our needs.

We picked up the boat 1/97 at the factory and pulled it back to Alb.
behind my 93 Suzuki Sidekick (the bigger one w/4 doors). Could cruise
at 65 in 5th gear across the AZ/NM flats, even with the Baja Trailer
from Garges.

I had planned on extensive mods to the interior. After studying the GRP
liner molding and refining my thinking for several months about what I
wanted to do with the boat, I wheeled it into the garage; hoisted it off
the trailer on a 4"x4" post assembly (there's a story in that, I'll
assure you); and promptly gutted the interior. Yup, cut out the entire
liner (pan) molding and flotation. Yup, brand new boat, an aquatic
virgin. Babe (see above reference to 31 yrs.) gathered all her faith in
me and tried not to cry too much. She's been sitting in the cradle I
built on the garage floor since 6/97. (She = boat, not Babe.)

Well, what's been done over 2 yrs?
1. Interior (liner, pan) mold removed, along w/all hardware on boat.
2. Entire interior surface of hull and deck/cabin ground down through
GelCoat to bare FG/Resin and smoothed out. (104 lbs of grinding dust,
so far!!) I thank the Great Power that's over & done with. Can I get a
terminal case of FG itchies???
3. Hull bottom interior covered with 3/8" exterior grade plywood set
into 8 oz FG mat & wet resin. Forward, deeply curved sections of hull
bottom interior filled in with wood shavings/resin mixture to make
surface for plywood that was co-planar w/aft sections of hull bottom
interior. (Co-planar in the sense of a simple curve as opposed to a
compound surface- id est TWISTED plane). Hull side-walls covered with
1/4" plywood, as above- simple surfaces all. Transom interior covered
wit 1/2" plywood & 2 mat layers, as above.
4. Hull/deck joint groove filled with shavings/resin and covered with 3"
wide strips of 1/4"plywood set as above to overlap hull side-wall
plywood.
5. Cabin side-walls beefed up with 1/8" mahagony plywood, as above.
Rest of cabin walls with 1/4" plywood, as above.
6. Built a gas-tight, aft compartment for 8 gal gasoline & 20 lb. butane
tanks. Compartment reduced cockpit sole area by 23%, but gave a new
seating surface across the transom between the original seats. Great
additional support for transom and cockpit.
7. Worked on beefing up the cabin roof in prep for installing a
mast-bearing bulkhead in place of the compression post.
8. Tons of other, smaller jobs plus many hours of reading, thinking,
drawing and calculating.
9. Two major renovation projects in the house that cut 9 months of
weekends out of the boat project.

Well, I've taken up enough of your reading time in briefly discussing
this project. I have a bazillion questions about outboards, sail plan
mods, etc. They'll just have to wait.

However, I'm sure there are 3 central questions running through the mind
of anyone who has stuck with this rambling missive thus far-
Q1: Why even buy the dang thang if you're jus' gonna tear it apart?
A1: Loved the outside; hated the inside.
Q2: Why all the plywood lining the interior surfaces?
A2: Drastic increase in hull and cabin stiffness plus thermal and sonant
insulation plus smooth, easy-to-build-on surface for the furnishings
(bunks, cabinets, bulkhead, shelves etc.)
Q3: What about all the weight changes- redistribution, addition or
deletion?
A3: Being a quintessential techy-nerd (PhD in Phys. Chem. and all that),
I have essentially memorized Skene (and done the hull calcs, sail calcs,
calc. calcs) and believe the redistribution will be balanced properly.
Records of all material removed or added have been kept (accurate to +/-
0.1 lb). Thus far with all the changes above, the net is 13.4 lb gain
(that GRP liner molding was surprisingly heavy, as were the puddles of
resin and GelCoat hidden under the liner mold in such a craftsman-like
manner by IM). Determination of center of mass, center of buoyancy,
lateral resistance, center of effort and other Skene factors have been
critical in my hopes for the boat. I believe that the net dry weight
will be 150+/-50 lbs above what she was from factory (again, she = boat,
not Babe). "Dry weight" as in no food/water, supplies, un-attached
equipment, fuel, motor, etc. Since she is being re-done for typically 2
people AND she is designed to sleep 4 (Naw, too obvious !!!), I think
I'll be just fine.

Looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial cyber-relationship,

Lin Yarbrough
WWP-19 #928, (waiting for the name Muse to caress my throbbing brow)
Albuquerque, NM