19 Comments

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!

Expand full comment

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.

Expand full comment

Catalina 22…I have sailed with & on more than a few…a bit too big for me…but the #’s speak!!! Good looks, performance, quality, usability…..

Expand full comment

This is like choosing between a tricycle and a bicycle. One provides you speed for a long distance but requires more adjustment and maintenance and must be left outside. Whereas the other is a little smaller and slower, but has great stability to get you from point A to point B and you could bring it inside your home for use.

As much as I like the extra 3ft length and sturdy construction of the Catalina 22, I still prefer my Potter 19 for some of the following reasons:

1. Fits in my garage for tinkering and to be used as my Man-cave while kept out of the elements.

2. It has a galley that I could cook at while underway with an Auto-Tiller at the helm.

3. The hard chine sides of the boat provides better upright stability to be able to stand and move around the gunnel to the bow while underway.

4. It’s easy to leave the mast hanging on hooks in the garage to use the boat for fishing with my friend Jim while I cook.

Expand full comment

We have a WWP15 so the -19 seems like so much more boat. However, a Catalina 22 is just such an amazing boat for it’s size. Really a tough comparison on this one, lot’s of happy campers in both camps, both really good boats. But my nod goes to the Catalina....and such a classic look for a fiberglass “yacht”.

Expand full comment

I think this is a tough call; the Catalina seems a bit much to trailer on a regular basis while the Potter daggerboard doesn't appeal to me. I like both boats but doubt I'll ever own either.

Expand full comment

I’m a huge Potter fan. I loved my ‘15 but honestly, they were not well built. I’d love the roomy interior of a ‘19 but I doubt that it’s clunky daggerboard would fare well in the shoal waters of South Carolina.

Meanwhile, the Catalina just does everything well. Points high, sails fast, parts are abundant, and built to a solid standard. The biggest criticism of the Catalina might be that they are just far too common. Everybody’s got one, so it’s hard to feel special.

Dollar for dollar, the Catalina is just a better hull.

Expand full comment

The WWP 19 is, of the two, more the boat for me. Easier to trailer (weight), shallower draft, and easier to store (shorter). But, I’m not sure I would ever buy one. I just can’t get past the slab-sided high freeboard, strong chine, and clunky cabin top.

Expand full comment

I voted for the Potter because it is lighter and easier to rig. I also like its fractional rig. With a down-haul, the jib can be quickly struck, without having to go to the fore deck.

With a proper roller-furling jib, striking the jib could be just as easily done on the Catalina, but I suspect such would throw its balance off to such a degree that reefing the main would be necessary to.

If I wanted to race (and have more than myself aboard) I would prefer the Catalina.

But for cruising by myself, and casual sailing, I would prefer the Potter.

Expand full comment

LIKE JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY, I've sailed the both of these, cruised alongside, and admired them both--warts and all. For a couple seasons, I did winter cruises in company with a stock-standard, one-each Cat 22. That was in the rough and tumble waters inside the SOCAL Channel Islands. Sort of a non-lovely sort of boat, that did just about everything pretty damn well. One dark and quite stormy evening my compadres lost their mast and I lost sight of them in a long rain squall. Fearing the worst, I called in the Coasties to help with the search. After we called it "a day," I found them already in their slip. The little outboard on the rump got them home. I think all it was was a parted shroud. Happens sometimes. A new stick, a new piece of ss wire, and back in business. That's just the kind of boat they are. dan

Expand full comment

The Catalina 22 is still in the “practice trailerable” range so why not get a little bigger boat. I can also imagine that there is less of a following with the 22 so they would probably be cheaper on the west coast. My friend’s kid got a Catalina 25 at an auction for $500 with good sails. He anchored it off Malibu and it was his “make out mansion”. Who needs a car?

Expand full comment

The Catalina 22 is still in the “practice trailerable” range so why not get a little bigger boat. I can also imagine that there is less of a following with the 22 so they would probably be cheaper on the west coast. My friend’s kid got a Catalina 25 at an auction for $500 with good sails. He anchored it off Malibu and it was his “make out mansion”. Who needs a car?

Expand full comment

The C-22 is the boat to beat in this race. It is fast, comfortable, and confident. On top of that it is a beautiful design for a 22 ft boost. The only drawback is it’s not the easiest trailer Saul. It large, and heavy best kept in a slip.

Expand full comment

My first boat was a Catalina 22. My next boat was another Catalina 22, and I am still sailing her. This is a great boat for a couple or to single-hand, which is what I do most. To me, it's a perfect balance of performance, fun, and very reasonable ownership costs. My friends all want to know when I am going to step up and buy a big-boys boat, but I have found the boat I am very comfortable on in any conditions with the proper amount of canvas set. Plus, these boats are easy to work and have parts, new or used, readily available. There is a reason this was the first sailboat inducted into the sailboat hall of fame!

Expand full comment

If you Google any boat in this contest and "capsize" you'll get examples. I would find it disconcerting if a club like the Potter Yachters hadn't documented and studied safety issues over its 45-year history. I don't sail either boat in this match-up but in terms of safety and seaworthiness, both excel. Read the SCA reviews.

Expand full comment

Catalina 22's are pretty near ubiquitous. Must be a reason. Okay, deep vee motorboats with high horsepower to IQ ratios...enough horsepower to make even Ray Hunt wonder what they're thinking...and names like "Miss Begotten", plowing up and down smallish lakes, had gotten fairly common, too, though maybe not so much these days, thankfully. Anyway, we're talking about sailors here, not a bunch of testosterone poisoned high octane throttle jockeys. <;-)

Reminds me of that old "Peanut Vendor" song from elementary school music class, you know, where we listened to stuff like "Grand Canyon Suite" and "Peter and the Wolf" and sang songs like "The Gaucho" and "Eating Goober Peas" and other such stuff. Probably showing my age there.

For the benefit of you folks who may not have had similar experiences, the gist of the "Peanut Vendor" song is this guy, probably Cuban, judging by the music, is out selling his wares on the street in the morning, sort of like the baseball park peanut seller, except he's much more musical and instructive in extolling the virtues of peanuts as pleasant, nutritious food. Anyway, at one point he sings out:

If you're looking for a moral to this song,

Fifty million monkeys can't be wrong.

Seems to me that fifty million Catalina 22 sailors might be on to something, you think? <;-)

Expand full comment