Random Suggestions for Getting Started Sailing Your Potter
Random Suggestions for Getting Started Sailing Your Potter
Harry Gordon
Owner of P-14 #234 Manatee
Taken from messages posted on the WWPotter Yahoo Group June 1, 2003.
A Potter Owner wrote:
"I have a 2002 Potter 15, yet since August (I haven't) had the courage to run up the sails on her. I have had her in the water numerous times and have always run a 3.5 Tohatsu as auxiliary power. How do I break this phenomenon that won't let me run up the sails? I don't know if I don't trust the boat or what; it is a situation that I have to deal with, but I sailed a 26' MacGregor, yet this boat scares me. How can I get over it and learn how she really performs?"
Harry Gordon responded to the Potter Owner:
Did you own the MacGregor or just go sailing on it once or twice? If you're basically a novice sailor, there are many how-to-sail books available in libraries, bookstores, and marine stores. Sailing the Potter 15 is in the category of dinghy sailing, which is somewhat different from sailing a keel boat or a larger boat like the Mac 26, although the basic principles are the same.
If you have a friend with substantial sailing experience in small boats, ask him/her to go out with you. Don't take anyone else along.
Take a few sailing lessons if they are available in your area.
With the boat on its trailer in your driveway, practice hoisting, trimming, and reefing the sails to make sure you have everything rigged correctly and are clear about how the halyards, sheets, and reefing operate.
For your first on-the-water attempts, don't go out if it's windy or if strong winds are forecast. Best is under 10 knots of wind while learning. A reef in the main will calm things down if the wind is 10 kn. or a little more. If the wind is 15 kn. or more stay home until you have more experience.
Don't take other nonsailors with you on your first attempts. Have the jib rigged, but leave it down at first and sail with just the mainsail, possibly reefed.
With the sails down, motor out into an open space where you don't have anything to run into while you are getting things working. KEEP THE CENTERBOARD DOWN. WEAR A LIFE JACKET.
Head into the breeze and raise the mainsail all the way and cleat it. Leave the mainsheet loose temporarily, shut off the motor, and raise the motor out of the water. With the mainsheet, pull the sail in until it starts to fill and the boat begins to move. Steer the boat more into the wind, trimming in the sail just enough to stop it from luffing (fluttering).
When you get the feel of it, try tacking by turning the boat into the wind and beyond so that the sail swings to the other side. That will take practice. You will find that the boat will sometimes not be able to continue through the "eye of the wind" if you do not have sufficient speed when you start the tack, or if you move the rudder too far or too abruptly.
Steer the boat in a direction you want to go, let the sail out until it starts to luff, then pull it back in until the sail fills and smooths out, no more. You won't be able to sail directly into the wind, of course. The highest you will be able to point is about 45 degrees off the wind, so tacking upwind will consist of a series of approximately 90-degree turns.
If a gust hits, causing the boat to heel (tip) more than you like, steer the boat up into the wind a little more and at the same time ease the mainsheet to spill some of the wind. ALWAYS BE SURE THE MAINSHEET IS FREE TO RUN, that is, the line is not likely to snag on something and nobody is sitting on it. Tie a knot in the end of the line so that it won't unstring itself if you let go of it.
When sailing downwind, try to keep the boat headed so that the wind is coming from the side opposite the side the sail is on. Otherwise, a little shift in direction can cause the sail to swing abruptly to the other side, called a jibe. A deliberate jibe can be done in a controlled manner by pulling in the boom amidship, then letting it out on the opposite side, but an unexpected jibe can be startling, and even painful if you happen to be standing up at the time. (The Potter boom is normally well over your head if you're sitting down.)
Most of this stuff and more you will find in the sailing books. I taught myself to sail in a 10 ft pram with lateen rig so never had the benefit of the orderly instruction I might have received from an instructor.
When you're comfortable sailing with just the main, hoist the jib and practice trimming both sails together. Use a small jib, not a genoa, while you are learning.
Potter Owner wrote:
"There are no instructions with the boat."
You can get a PDF (Acrobat) copy of a Potter 15 manual at
P-15 Manual
The normal mainsheet rigging for a P15 is shown at
Original Sheet Rigging
Jerry Barrilleaux's P15 Sailing Tips:
P-15 Sailing Tips
Tips for sailing the Potter by the designer, Stanley Smith::
Stanley Smith Sailing Tips
Harry Gordon
WWP 14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA