Hey Brian! --saw your 23 on sailingobsession
Brian, I love our new (to us) Compac 19! It's a solid little yacht. While I loved our 170, stepping to the 19 was pretty wild. The shrouds, mast, rudder, rudder pintle, keel, everything about the Compac is so much heavier gauge-- as it should be for a small weekend cruiser, compared to a daysailor. It's also very dense of displacement (800 lbs. ballast/ 2000 lbs. displacment) so it doesn't heel over naturally like the 170 or other rounded bottom boats. In fact it doesn't even do like most small keelboats when the breeze fills in and heel the first 10 or 15 degrees and then hold there--- it doesn't really heel at all until you really get some breeze (15-20). It skates right along in anything over a puff, although I don't think it will point as high as the Hunter 23. The shoal keel seems to limit pointing, compared to a waterballast/cb model-- or even a swing keel or just bigger draft keelboat. The stock rudder blade on the Compac 19 is a heavy slab of metal with sharp corners- and I've heard that she points much better when retrofitted with a rudder of material more like that on the 23 (a foil of fiberglass?). 200 bucks for this Idarudder, as it's called, so we'll be doing that eventually. The Compac (as you know if your 23 has the wing or fin keel) needs a deep ramp to be easily launched, because, although it only draws 2 feet, it sits really high on the trailer. I think the gunwale is at about 6 feet off the ground when she's on the trailer. Need a regular step ladder to board her from the ground, unless you're Mary Lou Retton. But pulls well with our little V6 4WD Ford Escape (mini SUV). She has a 135% jib on RF, but the main is probably only the size of the one on the Hunter 170--- although the sailcloth is alot heavier than the cloth on the 170. The headsail is big enough that the winches are required hardware. The boat also has a bowpulpit that extends out onto a small bowsprit of wood--- which is really cool. It adds something to the look of the whole boat, and of course (function first) allows the headstay to run farther fore, and the bobstay cable under the sprit allows good rig tuning. Overall I'm totally impressed with the construction, quality and sailing fun of the Compac. Although it's a 1987, it's hard to believe it by looking at her. The previous owner did her well, and I'm doing my best to follow suit. Anyway, that's some technical nuts and bolts. Hoping to get her out there this weekend...the breeze hasn't been as strong in Florida this winter as it generally is--- and we haven't had her out since new years. Can't wait to get her in the water again soon. Let us know how your 23 is going! Mike G. "Freebird" CP19
