| West Wight Potter Owner's Association Potter Articles Technical ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ |
Potter 15 Launching
by
Harry Gordon
Owner of P-14 #234 "Manatee"
Manatee is easy to launch. Here is a typical launch sequence (taken some time ago, before I repainted
the trailer). In this photo I have backed the trailer in until the hubs are just above the water, and I have
attached one or two lines from the boat to the dock. One mistake: the rudder should have been set the
other way to deflect the boat away from the dock when it comes off the trailer.
After unhooking the winch strap, I give the boat a shove, the trailer tilts, and the boat slides down the
ways and splashes into the water. I've tried restraining it by holding onto a bowline, but that results in a
rope burn.
Here I'm checking to see how much damage I did to the dock. I then move the boat out to the end of the
dock to allow other boats to launch, and return my tow vehicle to the parking lot.
My procedure could be improved to make this process more controlled, but the trailer works perfectly. I
have replaced the bunk carpet with some low friction plastic glide strips sold at West Marine, but that
wasn't really necessary.
by
Harry Gordon
Owner of P-14 #234 "Manatee"
Manatee is easy to launch. Here is a typical launch sequence (taken some time ago, before I repainted
the trailer). In this photo I have backed the trailer in until the hubs are just above the water, and I have
attached one or two lines from the boat to the dock. One mistake: the rudder should have been set the
other way to deflect the boat away from the dock when it comes off the trailer.
After unhooking the winch strap, I give the boat a shove, the trailer tilts, and the boat slides down the
ways and splashes into the water. I've tried restraining it by holding onto a bowline, but that results in a
rope burn.
Here I'm checking to see how much damage I did to the dock. I then move the boat out to the end of the
dock to allow other boats to launch, and return my tow vehicle to the parking lot.
My procedure could be improved to make this process more controlled, but the trailer works perfectly. I
have replaced the bunk carpet with some low friction plastic glide strips sold at West Marine, but that
wasn't really necessary.
