The CAL 21 is a pretty fast boat, although.... even with older sails on my DS II I could sometimes pass my Dad under the right conditions...... but it wasn't easy! The CAL 21 isn't actually a centerboard boat, she has a retractable keel and it is her best and worst feature. Best because for us, we kept her on a mooring all summer and the keel design allowed us to have a boat with a deep-fin keel (very stable) yet with the keel retracted she sat low enough on the cradle (we didn't use a trailer) to be able to get aboard with a short step-ladder (her deck was only a little further off the ground then a Day Sailer's). Once in the water we could lock the keel down, remove the winch and cable and insert a long plank into the keel slot to close most of it off (no water surging in hte empty slot!), another cover went over the opening in the cockpit sole and we now hade a "fixed-keel" boat for the season, the 4'3" draft keel down wasn't too hard to live with in our area (Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod) but did prevent us from having a mooring in the cove near our cottage (plenty of depth for a DS II though!).
For us the CAL 21 was GREAT and we owned her for 38 years. Had we kept her on a trailer during the sailing season........ that keel design would not have worked so well! The 15 minutes "trailer to sailing" that the brochure claimed was pure fantasy! I'd plan more like at least 1 hour, then another hour after sailing to haul out. The CAL 21 was introduced at the beginning of the trailer-sailer era, and I think CAL was trying to capture some of the market from the Venture 21 and perhaps the Catalina 22 (although the Cat 22 came out almost a year after the CAL) and they produced one of the best trailer trasportable family cruiser-racers in that size range....... but, the keel setup was too tedious for a short day-sail, would work out OK for launching hte boat for a week-long cruise in a different cruising area each time, or even for a weekend trip, but not for a casual day trip. Too many owners skipped the locking bolt and kept the winch cable attached without using the plug for the slot or the cover and that made sailing a wet-footed experience! The keel was not meant to be adjusted contantly like a centerboard (most swing-keel or retractable keel boats will somewhat allow that) and yet a lot of owners have tried to use the CAL 21 that way. The "danger" is that the pivot bolt area of the keel would wear out quicker with the keel not locked in place and a few owners have been glad their cable was permanently attached when the pivot area of the keel rusted out on them and the keel fell out of the boat (that locking bolt also served as "back-up" to the pivot bolt!). Our pivot ares actually rusted out twice, the first time wa were lucky and the circumstances meant the boat was hauled out before the keel fell out, second time the locking bolt was all that was holding the keel in when we hauled out (we actually had modified our locking bolt setup to allow it to shear off if we ever hit a rock while sailing after doing damage to the boat after hitting a rock HARD with the original setup that used a 5/8" bolt, we reworked things to substitute a 1/4" brass bolt and that was what prevented loss of the keel that second time!)
So, to make a long story short (TOO LATE!) as much as I am a BIG fan of hte CAL 21, she would not have been the best for your sailing needs. The keel is a great feature, but complicates easy trailering compared to a centerboard boat like the DS II. Better boats are the O'DAY Mariner (19') or the O'DAY 20 or 192 (both K/CB models).
