The way I talked myself into doing the race was to use it as a good
side-by-side comparison of how much Tilly Lucy's performance would suffer with
the masthead float attached. For those of you who weren't around or weren't
listening when I was first toying with this idea last summer, the float is a
"dirigible" shape white plastic contraption that is std. equipment on the 13
ft. Hobie Wave catamaran. It displaces about 1/2 cu. ft. , providing 32 lbs. of
flotation according to Hobie (with 16 ft. of lever arm, that's almost 500
ft-lbs of righting moment once the float hits the water). It's mounted to the
masthead fitting via a pair of stainless steel brackets.
Since the only P-15 still in front of the "Tilly Lucy" at the end of the race
was Todd Barrilleaux in "Breezy" I think it's safe to assume at this point that
the performance sacrifice is not great. My perception is that the boat is a
little more sluggish going up wind, which would make sense since the apparent
wind is higher, but that may just be a self-fulfilling prophecy on my part.
The only complaints I have about the float, other than the fact that it looks
kind of goofy, is that you really feel those few extra pounds on the end of the
mast when rigging the boat. Tilly Lucy is one of those Joe Edwards "minimalist"
Potters and didn't even have a masthead fitting before (just a cheekblock at
the top of the mast for the main halyard) so I picked up not just the weight of
the float and it's brackets but a chunk of cast aluminum up there as well.
The other dis-advantage is having to answer all the questions - At first I did
a good job of describing it's function, then I would just say it was for
"turtle-proofing" but by Sunday morning the dialog went something like this:
Mitch Carnes' sleepy head emerges through the forward hatch of his P-19,
"What's on top or your mast, Dave?"
"Radar".
"You're sh**ing me"
"No Mitch, I wouldn't do that - do you think the P-15 is too small to need
radar?"
The expression on his face told me he wasn't buying it, so I gave in. But if I
find some "Raytheon" or "Furuno" decals........
The social event part of the weekend was delightful. I met a number of Potter
Yachters that I had never seen before and they were fun, pleasant and
interesting folks, just like you'd expect. At dinner a couple with a Montgomery
15 shared two bottles of a delicious Merlot that they had made themselves from
grapes grown on their own property in Napa. The Marina was in a very nice
park-like setting, had some of the nicer bathrooms that I've ever encountered
in a marina and was just a short walk away from a nearby shopping center where
Harry G. and I went for coffee and donuts on Sunday AM.
Harry and I didn't join the others for breakfast as we had originally planned
to start early and do a circumnavigation of the island of Alameda. But, as it
turned out, the weather would not cooperate so sailed in the estuary with Scott
and Glenn from IM for a couple of hours instead. By the time I quit the wind
was in the twenties and gusting to over 30 (this is for real, as measured at
the end of the dock with a Dwyer wind gauge). I was down to only the reefed
mainsail and making very little progress to weather so I decided to be prudent
and fire up the motor for the last short stretch to the dock.
The afternoon was spent shopping with our discout cards at Swendsons (cool
place!) and the
West Marine discount room followed by a late lunch with Larry Steffen, Harry
Gordon, and Eric Zilbert - a pretty salty group, you have to admit. Good fun.
Once again, many thanks to Judy and the others who contributed to putting this
very succussful event together!
Dave Kautz
P-15 #1632 Tilly Lucy
Palo Alto, CA