I would love to have one of each, but my heart says it's the Marshall. Quality of construction, traditional style, seakeeping ability, larger cockpit, but I would miss the accommodations offered by the Potter.
I prefer the 19 because it is easier to launch and get out in the water sailing. Not much wook for spending time with maintenance. There is a large following of WWP19 owners planning cruises and group gatherings. I like how light weight it is and how quick the helm responds to its lite air design.
Not a huge fan of cat boats. The Potter has a more versatile sail plan. Plus you can pick up used Potters for a fair price. There are a lot of them out there. I fell in love with my first boat - a West Wight Potter 19 at the Long Beach Sailboat Show in the early 1970s.
This is a really poor ("apples and oranges") comparison but:
Quality: Sanderling, hands down. There's a reason they cost real money. The Potter's vertical lift keel seems like a bad day waiting to happen (yes, I touch bottom occasionally and prefer a pivot keel) and I've heard some things about questionable build quality.
Mission: Catboats are by and large large-cockpit daysailers and this is what I do - you can sleep/sail-camp with them but mostly they're for playing in the sunshine. If you're taking small kids for a trailer-boat weekend somewhere and need a full-ish cabin the Potter might be a better choice.
Joy: I'm a sucker for catboats and always have been - I own a ComPac Picnic Cat which I daysail, and it just makes me smile (and it's pretty painless to own).
Bottom line: A better comparison might be among catboats (Marshall, ComPac etc.), and among trailer-sailers (ie. The Potter, McGregors, small Catalinas etc.) since they get used with different ends in mind. Of course Hutchins' ComPac try to do both and seem to do it pretty well, but this is worth thinking about.
Depends on the body of water. West Wight Potter for many is the better overall choice if trailer sailing to lakes and very protected ocean areas is the primary use. Its weight being about half the weight of the Marshall weight translates into a more modest vehicle to tow it and thus significantly lower towing fuel costs.
I prefer the 19 because it is easier to launch and get out in the water sailing. Not much wook for spending time with maintenance. There is a large following of WWP19 owners planning cruises and group gatherings. I like how light weight it is and how quick the helm responds to its lite air design.
Sailed the Potter quite a lot, not many (if any) cat boats in our neighborhood. The Potter has reasonably comfortable accommodations, easy to trailer and until I modify the boat with downhauls and all kinds of probably unnecessary rigging easy to rig to launch.
I’d pick the Potter based on the rig and cabin. I don’t like the dagger board and I imagine that the build quality is sub-par. I’ve never sailed a Sanderling. If I did, it might change my mind.
I solo cruise Casco Bay in Maine, other coastal areas and lakes. I like the better accommodations of the Potter for that reason, but for daysailing with friends, the Sanderling is hard to beat.
Live the Sanderling - but picked the potter for less weight, shallow draft and ability to be used as a camper on land and a camping boat in the water. I mostly sail alone so the huge cockpit isn’t a boon.
All the reasons shared by others- and well, there is just something about a good catboat bowling along in a breeze with a bunch of laughing people in that big cockpit- and I might need to occasionally scandalize that gaff to haul a few crab traps while recalling her working heritage even if I'm on the wrong coast...
I'd choose the Potter. At 83 I think the sail area of the mainsail would be much easier to handle, plus I like the interior layout much better. Sanderling's cockpit is huge, maybe good for a daysail with a party of 8+
No contest. I had a Com pac Suncat which was a great trailer sailer but had its limitations in strong wind where there was a lot of fetch. The Sanderling wouldn’t present same challenges and would be a joy to camp on. Potter quality and appearance; meh
The cruising accommodations are better for wandering around in the Chesapeake bay for days or weeks on end. I have no desire to cross oceans or even go up and down the coast and I expect to be traveling with a small dog or by myself.
When we bought our catboat we went to a catboat gathering in South Carolina to compare different make. We decided on a Menger 19 for, among other things, the much better sitting headroom in the cabin compared to the marshall. We still love our Menger cat, but as we get..'less flexible', a little more headroom and, if we didn't have to share the cabin with so much centerboard trunk would make for a more comfortable weekend for the beautiful and talented first mate.
I would love to have one of each, but my heart says it's the Marshall. Quality of construction, traditional style, seakeeping ability, larger cockpit, but I would miss the accommodations offered by the Potter.
I prefer the 19 because it is easier to launch and get out in the water sailing. Not much wook for spending time with maintenance. There is a large following of WWP19 owners planning cruises and group gatherings. I like how light weight it is and how quick the helm responds to its lite air design.
Not a huge fan of cat boats. The Potter has a more versatile sail plan. Plus you can pick up used Potters for a fair price. There are a lot of them out there. I fell in love with my first boat - a West Wight Potter 19 at the Long Beach Sailboat Show in the early 1970s.
This is a really poor ("apples and oranges") comparison but:
Quality: Sanderling, hands down. There's a reason they cost real money. The Potter's vertical lift keel seems like a bad day waiting to happen (yes, I touch bottom occasionally and prefer a pivot keel) and I've heard some things about questionable build quality.
Mission: Catboats are by and large large-cockpit daysailers and this is what I do - you can sleep/sail-camp with them but mostly they're for playing in the sunshine. If you're taking small kids for a trailer-boat weekend somewhere and need a full-ish cabin the Potter might be a better choice.
Joy: I'm a sucker for catboats and always have been - I own a ComPac Picnic Cat which I daysail, and it just makes me smile (and it's pretty painless to own).
Bottom line: A better comparison might be among catboats (Marshall, ComPac etc.), and among trailer-sailers (ie. The Potter, McGregors, small Catalinas etc.) since they get used with different ends in mind. Of course Hutchins' ComPac try to do both and seem to do it pretty well, but this is worth thinking about.
Depends on the body of water. West Wight Potter for many is the better overall choice if trailer sailing to lakes and very protected ocean areas is the primary use. Its weight being about half the weight of the Marshall weight translates into a more modest vehicle to tow it and thus significantly lower towing fuel costs.
I prefer the 19 because it is easier to launch and get out in the water sailing. Not much wook for spending time with maintenance. There is a large following of WWP19 owners planning cruises and group gatherings. I like how light weight it is and how quick the helm responds to its lite air design.
Sailed the Potter quite a lot, not many (if any) cat boats in our neighborhood. The Potter has reasonably comfortable accommodations, easy to trailer and until I modify the boat with downhauls and all kinds of probably unnecessary rigging easy to rig to launch.
I’d pick the Potter based on the rig and cabin. I don’t like the dagger board and I imagine that the build quality is sub-par. I’ve never sailed a Sanderling. If I did, it might change my mind.
I solo cruise Casco Bay in Maine, other coastal areas and lakes. I like the better accommodations of the Potter for that reason, but for daysailing with friends, the Sanderling is hard to beat.
Live the Sanderling - but picked the potter for less weight, shallow draft and ability to be used as a camper on land and a camping boat in the water. I mostly sail alone so the huge cockpit isn’t a boon.
I had a back injury that left sailing too challenging for me so I am converting my Potter 19 into a little trawler! They have a semi displacement hull. similar to this https://smallcraftadvisor.substack.com/p/potter-15-wee-adventure?fbclid=IwY2xjawFVGO1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZsSlC2lFOnnR1H_vcxSHCElfUpeBvzWF3ZfY2nP-M-2YdMI57MSRl7e0Q_aem_tNQX0txjYsgp2lZeaiZIdg
Good choice of donor boat, Deryk. I hope that you'll let us all know how this works out!
All the reasons shared by others- and well, there is just something about a good catboat bowling along in a breeze with a bunch of laughing people in that big cockpit- and I might need to occasionally scandalize that gaff to haul a few crab traps while recalling her working heritage even if I'm on the wrong coast...
I'd choose the Potter. At 83 I think the sail area of the mainsail would be much easier to handle, plus I like the interior layout much better. Sanderling's cockpit is huge, maybe good for a daysail with a party of 8+
No contest. I had a Com pac Suncat which was a great trailer sailer but had its limitations in strong wind where there was a lot of fetch. The Sanderling wouldn’t present same challenges and would be a joy to camp on. Potter quality and appearance; meh
The cruising accommodations are better for wandering around in the Chesapeake bay for days or weeks on end. I have no desire to cross oceans or even go up and down the coast and I expect to be traveling with a small dog or by myself.
When we bought our catboat we went to a catboat gathering in South Carolina to compare different make. We decided on a Menger 19 for, among other things, the much better sitting headroom in the cabin compared to the marshall. We still love our Menger cat, but as we get..'less flexible', a little more headroom and, if we didn't have to share the cabin with so much centerboard trunk would make for a more comfortable weekend for the beautiful and talented first mate.