so this boat has gone coast to coast a few times I guess.

The transom was like mulch and all the foam was soaked water was leaking out of the stringers. The boat was kind of high of the ground when it was on the blocks and fell over while my Dad was in it working leason learned there.

what's with those cockpit drains coming out the bottom? looks like it relied on the air pocket from a strainer/ clamshell to suck out, but what about at rest? nothing about this boat makes sense!

Those are normal scuppers, through the bottom of the hull.
Sucks the boat fell off the blocks, I used two 6x6 timbers on the corners and one in the middle just like you had. Must have been really working hard in it to have it fall off like that! Borrow 2-4 boat stands and use those combined with your blocks and I bet it will be nice and firm. You will also want to square it up a bit, because once the floor is out, and the transom is just a skin, they become a bit like a jello mold.

I believe the 1970'ish on Potters have the thru-hull deck drains that went out the bottom. Though member JoeR's 70 has drains out the transom with no indication of modification. The only headscratcher I ever have about some of the 20's were the deck drains. Why didn't they just crisscross them like the earlier Carl Moesly's. What a simple, effective, smart solution back then. The thru-hull drains have a wedge that is the same idea as a reverse clamshell that creates a vacuum that when moving can actually drain much quicker than their size makes them look. Again, moving and with the plugs not in, lol.

We made a nice stand for the boat with casters so its easy to move around when we are working on it. The stand will be in the upcoming pictures.

Removing the foam from the stringers and starting the template for the transom.

Removing the front deck and taking the cap of the boat.

Potter changed the original Moesly 4-stringer design to 2 box stringers in about 1973. My '72 is the 4-stringer version. I've seen a '73 Seafari that had the 2 box stringers.

Here we are cutting out the transom out 3/4 marine plywood and patching the corners of the transom that had huge holes in it.