Favorite Mods: Potter Asymmetrical Spinnaker
Your most satisfying or successful modifications
Reader Paul Topper writes:
For me, making modifications to sailboats is almost as enjoyable as sailing them. My latest modification was to add an asymmetrical spinnaker to my Potter 15. Light wind days are a frequent reality at my local sailing grounds and the little Potter is under-canvased when the wind is under 7 knots. Adding an asymmetrical spinnaker on a continuous-line furler seemed like a great approach to achieve improved light air sailing performance while still allowing me to comfortably singlehand the boat.
To keep costs reasonable, I designed the system around the spinnaker from the RS FEVA racing dinghy. This particular sail is the right dimensions to fit the Potter when a bowsprit is deployed ahead of the bow pulpit. The retractable bowsprit and continuous line furler were all custom designed and fabricated at home. The result is a rig that I can deploy, trim and furl while seated in the cockpit underway. It adds a healthy 70 additional square feet to the base sail area of 88.
The new rig works great, and the boat is now enjoyable to sail on light-wind days. At this point almost any day I go to the lake turns into a “good” day of sailing! I honestly can’t believe how this single modification has completely improved the sailing experience of this boat. Well worth it! •SCA•
Now that's a hot rod Potter! Nicely done, Paul, to borrow/repurpose (?) the sail and rig from a high performance planing skiff. I'm curious if you added a backstay (permanent...difficult on a WWP15 without major mast mods) or running backstays with the extra load on the mast. Or decided if it was even needed. The size of the cable seems kind of overkill; but I haven't done any calcs or comparisons to other boats...So any input/analysis on that would also be very welcome.
Re Eric's comments...the Potter Yachters out on the west coast are on-line and still in business. But they probably have plenty of wind, compared to us!
I have a Cape Dory Typhoon and it came with an asymmetrical spinnaker but I've never used it because I have no idea how to rig it. I wonder if your modification could also be used on my boat. But I'd need to know more about how you constructed it. Thanks for your article.