| West Wight Potter Owner's Home Port Technical Articles ____________________________________________________________________________________ |
West Wight Potter 15 Hull Evolution
by
Dave Kautz
The latest change in the P-15 mold was made in 2003. The design of the boat wasn't changed much at that time.
The non-skid on the new molds is better. The "big" changes were all earlier in the evolution.
And, you may be asking, what were the "big" changes and when did they occur?
The earliest boats, including early Mk-IIs, had a lot more wood in them and had a centerboard trunk with parallel
sides that was fabricated separately and then glassed in. These will have a very narrow centerboard slot when
the hull is viewed from below.
As the design evolved, much of the wood was removed and the centerboard trunk was molded as part of the
hull. To get the hull out of the mold, this necessitates that the sides of the trunk be tapered and this is visible on
the bottom of the boat as a wider slot.
At the same time, there were changes in the hull-to-deck joint. During the 1980s both the hull and deck had a
horizontal flange which protrudes and is covered with a large rub rail.
That changed sometime in the 1990s, long before the latest set of molds, and a "shoebox" joint was adopted
where a vertical flange on the deck overlaps the top edge of the hull. That joint is also covered by a rub rail, but
it is considerably smaller.
On the inside of the boat, the liner also had some changes. Older boat have no accommodation for a porta-potty
and have an access hatch to the bilge on both sides. Boats from the '90s and on have a hatch on just the port
side and have a recess for a porta-potty on the starboard side.
Based on my sailing experiences with the Wednesday crowd in Alameda, the boats all perform very much the
same.
Dave Kautz
by
Dave Kautz
The latest change in the P-15 mold was made in 2003. The design of the boat wasn't changed much at that time.
The non-skid on the new molds is better. The "big" changes were all earlier in the evolution.
And, you may be asking, what were the "big" changes and when did they occur?
The earliest boats, including early Mk-IIs, had a lot more wood in them and had a centerboard trunk with parallel
sides that was fabricated separately and then glassed in. These will have a very narrow centerboard slot when
the hull is viewed from below.
As the design evolved, much of the wood was removed and the centerboard trunk was molded as part of the
hull. To get the hull out of the mold, this necessitates that the sides of the trunk be tapered and this is visible on
the bottom of the boat as a wider slot.
At the same time, there were changes in the hull-to-deck joint. During the 1980s both the hull and deck had a
horizontal flange which protrudes and is covered with a large rub rail.
That changed sometime in the 1990s, long before the latest set of molds, and a "shoebox" joint was adopted
where a vertical flange on the deck overlaps the top edge of the hull. That joint is also covered by a rub rail, but
it is considerably smaller.
On the inside of the boat, the liner also had some changes. Older boat have no accommodation for a porta-potty
and have an access hatch to the bilge on both sides. Boats from the '90s and on have a hatch on just the port
side and have a recess for a porta-potty on the starboard side.
Based on my sailing experiences with the Wednesday crowd in Alameda, the boats all perform very much the
same.
Dave Kautz
