Design and Construction
The Menger Cat 19 is a recreational keelboat built predominantly of fiberglass with wood trim, carrying a plumb stem and a slightly angled transom. Its fixed stub keel and retractable centerboard give a shoal board-up draft and a board-down draft of 4 feet 6 inches, with 600 pounds of lead ballast in a 2,900-pound hull on an 8-foot beam. In a 2010 review, Steve Henkel noted the 19 is two feet longer, two inches deeper, and 700 pounds heavier than the Menger 17, including 100 pounds more ballast, and that most of the added length sits in the aft end of the cockpit anchor. The obvious visual changes from the 17 are an extra cabin port for more light and a longer cockpit. The design reads as a miniature cruiser in the lineage of Cape Cod catboats, as naval architect Bob Perry observed in a 2000 assessment anchor.
Rig and Handling
A single-masted catboat rig carries 270 square feet of sail on a mast rising 33.5 feet above the waterline, handled through a transom-hung rudder on a tiller. The PHRF racing average handicap is 369, and with the board up the boat can anchor in two feet of water and be waded ashore. Henkel credited the heavier displacement and longer length with delivering a better Motion Index than the 17 anchor, and the optional mast tabernacle was judged to work well and worth fitting for anyone trailering the boat. At 19 feet overall and 2,900 pounds, the design can be towed behind a car to any part of the country.
Accommodations
Below, the Menger 19 sleeps two on a double V-berth in the bow cabin wrapped around a drop-leaf table attached to the centerboard trunk. The galley sits to starboard just forward of the companionway ladder with a two-burner stove and sink, while a portable icebox lives under the cockpit and the head faces it on the port side. Perry wrote that the boat has the displacement to carry only minimal accommodations anchor, yet Henkel found the 19 offers more headroom than any of its competitors. The extra cabin port and longer cockpit of the development model bring more light and usable space aft than the 17 provided.
The Verdict
The Menger Cat 19 is a thoughtfully enlarged catboat that turned the loss of the 17's molds into a genuine step forward: more length aft, more ballast, better motion comfort, and a brighter cabin, all while keeping the shallow-draft, trailerable simplicity of the type. It is a minimal cruiser, but an honest one, with a real galley and head and a shoal ability that opens quiet anchorages.
Pros
- Development of the Menger 17 with two feet more length and 100 pounds more ballast
- Board-up draft of 1 foot 10 inches for anchoring in two feet of water
- More headroom than competitor catboats per period review
- Optional mast tabernacle well suited to trailer sailing
Cons
- Minimal accommodations dictated by 2,900-pound displacement
- PHRF 369 reflects modest racing performance
