Re: Am I insane or what??
Rich Duffy (duffy@maui.com)
Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:20:35 -1000
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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> Someone needs to stop me before I do something crazy! Got my P-15 back
> from the repair shop a few days ago, and have been looking it over.
>
> Noticed that inside, where the seat cusions end there were vertical
> pieces of fiberglass sticking up to prevent items from rolling under the
> dead space of the cockpit seats in the bilge. Nice idea thought I, until
> I got a flashlight and saw how much room was being wasted back there for
> these big flotation strips.
>
Jeff -- Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but my guess is that those
"vertical strips of fiberglass" are structural in nature -- a
partial bulkhead, intended to provide torsional strength to boat and
to reduce flexure in the hull panels. At least that's what I've got
on my considerably older Potter. There's an accessible and semi-
illuminating discussion of bulkheads and other hull design issues at
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/TopTwenty.htm
Regards, Rich
P-14 #362
Kula, HI
> So I got to thinking........ It looks like I could remove the flotation
> blocks, saw them in half longwise and replace them under the dead space of
> the floor of the cockpit. Glue them in place so they are secure.
>
> Net result= identical amount of flotation
> in the stern, but now able to make use of the dead space under the
> cockpit seats for storing things (i.e. an oar, a boat hook, ice chest
> tool kit etc.) It looks like it would almost double the usable space on
> this boat.
>
> The only thing I would have to do would be to cut those damned vertical
> plastic flotation stoppers.