Catalina 22 vs West Wight Potter 19
A Round 1 Mini-Cruiser Madness Match-up
Sure, the stalwart Potter 19 is massively popular with our audience, but then there must be good reasons more than 15,000 Catalina 22s have been built. Let’s take a closer look.
About the Catalina 22 we wrote: It’s probably safe to say that you or someone you know has sailed aboard some variation of this popular boat. Frank Butler’s design has endured largely because of its versatility. As you read this, somewhere a Catalina 22 is probably camp-cruising a vacation lake, while another races toward the upwind mark at a local regatta. Few boats are easier to customize for special use. With so many produced, owners can find after-market components and “how-to” advice with little difficulty.
As for performance: Most C-22 owners, regardless of their boat’s vintage, applaud the boat’s ability to point. During our test sail I was frequently surprised by the 22; on several occasions boat-owner Randy Garrett had to remind me I could head up closer. Speed is another C-22 asset. An ably skippered and well-tuned 22 can really move. The owners we interviewed were almost unanimously satisfied with boat speed. A few were somewhat critical of light air performance.
Regarding accommodations: The consensus is that four adults can overnight on the C-22 without becoming enemies. One skipper even cruised with four adults and a dog for three weeks. And guess what? He claims he had a surplus of storage space! The Catalina 22 is an excellent family boat. There’s plenty of space for everyone and everything.
In closing: In many ways the C-22 is a boat that doesn’t do any one thing extraordinarily well but does almost everything better than average—a design feat in itself.
After test sailing the Potter 19 we wrote: Designed as a sistership to the legendary West Wight Potter 15, the 19 retains some of the smaller Potter’s character but is also markedly different. Lacking the distinctive, exaggerated sheer of the P-15, the larger boat carries 300 pounds of daggerboard/keel in lieu of a swing keel. Hoisting the ballast is accomplished with a winch and cable set-up, of which there are a variety of configurations.
On performance: Owners speak of sailing at six-plus knots, but they’re also quick to concede the boat wasn’t built for racing. It’s actually under-canvassed by most standards. Still, she’s light enough to move easily, and her design makes exceeding theoretical hull speed quite possible. Owners cite 15 degrees as the ideal angle of heel. They maintain that’s where a P-19 settles down and really begins to move.
Light-air performance was described as “fair” or “reasonable” by most owners. We’re told the 150% Genoa is desirable in such conditions. The deep daggerboard of a P-19 makes windward performance plenty acceptable. Even with its high profile, owners say the boat points as well as most in its class.
On seaworthiness: The wide beam and hard chines afford tremendous initial stability. Most owners are quick to recommend this boat to beginners and those introducing their family to sailing, because of the dry, upright ride. Expert sailors appreciate the Potter’s ability to stay out in conditions that send similar-sized boats running for harbor.
In closing: The West Wight Potter 19 is a character boat with a brawny appearance, but if seaworthiness, and a boat’s ability to offer real camp-cruising comforts are fundamental–the Potter 19 is an obvious choice.
Sadly it’s time time to send one boat home:
We are a funny audience, with our love of the quirky and quaint! Like others here, my mind is full of Chappelle’s lines for shad boats and sharpies and Bolger schooners and micros, but the plainly normal Catalina 22 beats out all the more interesting boats (potters included) on the all important metric of getting people out sailing. It’s hard to give better advice to a newbie- especially in regions where sailing is not a big thing- than to find a used C22 and learn to sail n maintain a boat. She may be sold again a few years later, as folks more onto something bigger or faster- or maybe join us SCA folks in our love of funkier boats- but the next owner then also gets a chance to taste their dreams of the sailing life with a manageable, affordable and resaleable boat. There’s a reason almost all the other sail boats at our mountain lake are C22s. I’ll never trade my M15 for one, find their lines do not make my heart sing, and admit to associating them with baggy sails poorly trimmed- but watching friends learn on their old new boats, maybe hopping aboard to help them figure out reefing and then seeing them out the next day enjoying a stink that scared them a week before- it just drives home that no other boat has done more to launch people into cruising sailboats!
As an old guy, I prefer simplicity over comfort, stability over speed, and easy towing over heavier boats. For me, the WWP-19 is THE boat. I'm a singlehanded sailor. I want a boat I can push around and handle with my bad eyes, slow judgement, and propensity to daydream at the tiller.