Potters Ain't Slow (or Jerry Dials in for 6.5 Knots) (or "Sunshine" wins the race) Well, folks, Jerry and Carol Barrileau took us out on their P-19 "Sunshine" yesterday, leaving from Richmond Marina a little after 9 am. We left our "new" P-19 "Redwing" in the marina at Alameda for the day. We sailed across SF Bay to Angel Island, in reasonably warm weather. By the time we got half way across, the winds were blowing nicely, about 9-12 knots (at least at the San Francisco Airport according to the reports from NOA on the web). There was very little chop, and the rollers were less than one foot high. We headed out on a close haul towards Angel Island. Jerry let me and David sail "Sunshine", since it was the first time we had decent wind since David & I got Redwing ready for sailing last about a month ago. We're dinghy sailors, and, Dang! , is it hard to stop old habits! Every time "Sunshine" started to heel past 10 degrees, we'd react by leaning backwards to "hike out" and flatten the boat. Hiking has absolutely no effect on a fully loaded P-19! Quite disconcerting to us. The first time it happened, I instinctively reacted by easing the sheet -- I've capsized my racing dinghy WAY too many times in SF Bay -- which made Jerry laugh. And, of course, it slowed the boat way down. He told me to look at the inclinometer and instructed me to "set her on her lines at 15 degrees". He coached me on setting the jib (I have a tendency to oversheet the jib because it looks funny to me, compared to my racing dinghy) and main. Then Jerry dug out his "knot-meter". It's one of those 3-foot long tubes with a "J" on the end and a floating ball in it. You guessed it, it read 6 and a half knots. So you still don't believe a Potter can do 6.5 knots???? OK, here's some more evidence. We were really pointing high into the wind, and it looked like we would make it on one tack right to the marina on the island. We had a thirty-foot something-or-other chasing us (ask Jerry, I forget) about a 1/4 mile behind us. And it wasn't gaining much on us as we sailed on a very close reach towards the cove on Angel Island. About 3/4th of the way to Angel Island, the other boat started to gain on us pretty rapidly, but it did so by falling off at least 5 or 10 degrees. Jerry kept coaching me as the wind shifted as we approached the island. By the time we were about a 1/2 mile from the marina, the other boat was almost even with us, but way downwind. He tried to point higher to catch us, heeled WAY over, but gave up after a few minutes when it became obvious that he couldn't pull it off. Rather than "lose face" he gave up, and sailed sedately down the strait between Angel Island Tiburon. Accoding to Jerry, the wind goes clockwise inside the cove. I declined to bring "Sunshine" into the dock and turned the helm back over to Jerry. I decided it was the better part of valor to let the master show me how. And besides, if I smacked his boat up on the dock, he might not let me sail her ever again and I'd miss lose the opportunity to sail with Jerry coaching me. Epilog: At my request, Jerry demonstrated "heaving to" out in the middle of the bay on the way back. Very nice -- the boat just nods along at 2 or three knots in 10-12 knot winds, with no appreciable heel. The weather was fine; we even had a little sunshine occassionally. The dark clouds stayed far to the northwest all day. I'll leave it to Jerry to write up his speech on "potter's aren't slow boats, just Potter's sailed badly are slow" Judith Blumhorst, DC WWP-19 #266 "Redwing" Danville, CA