Solar Fry is right. It is very easy to underestimate the amount of time and expense that a repair project is going to take, and very easy to bite off more than you can (or want to, or can afford to) chew.
In my case, my project boat was my P-14. As some of you know, a major difference between the oldest Potters and the modern Mark II's is that the spars are wood instead of aluminum and the interior is wood instead of fiberglass. All of the interior wood had rot in it, and all of the exterior wood had to be sanded extensively and be refinished. It took me an estimated 300-350 hours of work and about two and one half years to get the boat where she could be sailed.
I refinished the spars and replaced all of the rest of the exterior wood, and replaced all of the interior wood (including all of the plywood that was bonded, sort of, to the interior of the hull for stiffness. I made cardboard templates to make sure that each piece of wood would fit, cut the wood, refined the fit, sealed each piece with WEST epoxy, and glued everything in place.
By the time that I was finished and had the boat sailing, I was heartily sick of the whole thing. My wife was even more sick of boats, I think, than she was when I started.
I have the satisfaction of knowing that everything is right inside my boat, and I have reason to believe that the boat is better and stronger than it was when it was new. But, DAMN it took a long time to get it that way, and it's not really finished now! I freely admit that I didn't know what I was doing when I started, and that I underestimated the size of the job. I also freely admit that I am slow and uncoordinated, anyway.
I am happy with the boat that I have and don't regret doing what I have done to fix it, but I know that if I paid myself minimum wage for the number of hours that I estimate that I have worked, I would have spent enough money on my boat to have bought outright any one of several Mark II P-15's that I have seen on the market. On the other hand, I did not want a Potter at the time badly enough to spend that much cash.
I have a friend who built a Nancy's China, a boat much like the Potter 15. It took him two years, and he is happy with the boat. It does not have sitting headroom in the cabin, or much in the way of storage space, or built-in flotation. His materials cost (not labor) was $6000.
As I said, Solar Fry is right. On the other hand, if you enjoy building a boat, or extensively repairing one, go ahead.
Remember, though, that my project was a very small boat, not a 20-some-odd footer, and that it had a fiberglass hull--I only worked on the interior and the spars.
Regards
Tom Grimes
P-14 #363 Far Horizon
Muncie, Indiana