Thanksgiving sail with the So. Cal Potters 11/24/12

I met up with the Southern California Potters Saturday for a sail in Mission Bay, San Diego. The "Potters" are a loose association of sailors with predominantly West Wright Potter sail boats. Both 15 and 19 foot models. Here is a link to their web site http://howies.net/socalpotter. I had a fun time sailing in Sail Bay. Sailed 12 miles in the Bay and top speed of 7.4 knots. The wind was brisk, steady at 10 mph with gusts 20+ mph. My neighbor Brad joined me for the sail. I did not use ballast and was at the limit of my comfort a few times when the gusts were strong. I learned to be adept at spilling the wind from the main. Had consistent 6 knots + speed for quite a while and it was great fun? Heeled over and the boat demonstrated great acceleration with each wind gust that was exhilarating. We droppoed the main with the wind really gusting and sailed for a while on just the jib and mizzen. Was fun and had a consistent speed of 5+ knots with just the jib and mizzen. Fog started to roll in around 4pm so we returned to San Juan cove to put the boat on the trailer. I dragged the rudder on the ramp and scratch off a little of its surface. I will post on the Swallow Boats forum to see if anyone has a good way to add the surface back and fix it. Just minor and more cosmetic. Really just a bruised ego that I did not judge the depth of the water well and pull up the rudder. We had dinner with the "Potters" in the Mission Bay Yacht Club. Nice group of people and good food also. Enjoyable time and I plan on meeting up with them again.