What an interesting day this was! The local SoCal Potters agreed to put on a kind of boat show at Marina Del Rey. At first we considered just coming by, but not bringing Slowdance as we didn't have time to do any spit an polish work on her. This, of course, was mainly due to the fact that we went sailing last weekend rather than doing any work. Some of the other folks participating in the message board talked us into it, anyway, so we picked up Slowdance and headed over to Marina Del Rey, arriving a little after 9:00. Most of the folks were already there and rigged up. This is when the P15s really show an advantage. I think some of these guys can rig a P15 in about 15 minutes without breaking a sweat. We rigged Slowdance and chatted with the people in the group and learned a few things from those who have been sailing these boats for a while.

Being this close to a launch ramp, boat ready to go and with reasonably nice weather, it finally got to us and we had to go sailing. Marty, one of Donna's coworkers had come by to check out the Potters and this also looked like a good opportunity to take him out for a sail, to experience the boats the way they should be seen. The weather was a little on the edge. Winds were about 12-15 kts and the Southern California coast was running a high surf advisory.

Marina Del Rey doesn't have a very large area inside the breakwater for sailing, so we decided to go out into the open sea for a bit. The swell was running about 7 to 10 ft and there were a few whitecaps, but nothing serious. We tucked in a reef before launching and when we set sail near the breakwater entrance we unfurled the jib to about working jib size. Both of the new sails set very nicely when reefed or partially furled, which is a credit to the sailmaker.

The entrance to the Marina Del Rey harbor has two openings in the breakwater - one to the north and one to the south. There were a bunch of boats coming in the north entrance, so we headed out of the south one. The wind was blowing almost directly on shore, so we sailed a close reach out about a mile, or so, then came about and sailed up the coast past the Vinice Beach pier. Slowdance was sailing beautifully and was very well balanced and well behaved. The swell was suprisingly steep, for some reason - probably the wind, although the water may have been shallow enough to start steepening a swell this size. We were probably a mile or mile and a half from the beach, so it was still fairly deep but the swells seemed to tower above Slowdance before passing under us. The chop was still fairly small at about 2 - 3 ft. so we weren't getting tossed around too much and were only taking spray in the cockpit occasionally.

There were few boats still out, and even the larger ones had tied in a reef. From what I saw, none were handling any better than Slowdance. I still can't get over how comfortable this boat feels at sea for a 19 footer. It compares favorably to the Cal 25 I crewed on in high school and has some similar sailing characteristics. We're in love with the CDI furler, too. Being able to effortlessly change jib sizes or take the sail in without having to crawl out on the fore deck is great. The infinite range of jib sizes makes it possible to balance the boat well in just about any wind conditions, too. So far, I'm putting this device at the top of my "best upgrades" list for the Potter.

There was one surprise on this trip - and it was something I probably should have expected, but didn't. We headed off the wind a bit and headed in towards Vinice Beach, then brought the boat around and headed back to Marina Del Rey. The wind was strengthening slightly at this point and it was probably time to come in, anyway. The surprise was the current as we approached the north entrance to the MDR breakwater. Whenever there is a heavy surf, the waves push tons of water up against the beach and this comes back out in the form of "rip currents". This is what sucks hapless swimmers (and clever surfers) out to sea, making the surf dangerous for the unaware. Most surfers (including us really old ones) know that there are almost always rip currents next to jetties and piers. This was true in this case as well and I would estimate that the current was running across the MDR entrance on this side at about 2 kts, or so. This is not a problem, but must be taken into account when sailing back into the harbor - you wouldn't want to get too close to the breakwater and lose headway.

There were only a few folks left at the Potter Show when we got back in. We de-rigged, said good-bye to Marty and headed for home. It was a great day and one that we will remember for a while.

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