Design and Construction
Bosgraaf’s lines give the Pointer 22 a very low freeboard, a pronounced deck step, and a vertically sloping bow stem that read as deliberate crossover styling rather than cruiser convention. The hull and deck are built as a foam-core sandwich by hand lay-up in the Heeg yard, with vinylester in the hull and polyester in the deck, and the boat is assembled from A to Z in that single Dutch workshop. Chine edges in the afterbody are there to lend form stability without an excessively broad stern, and the ballast centreboard retracts fully into the hull while two rudder blades ride in cassettes that lift in one motion. A fixed keel version can be bolted into the centreboard case, and the design intent is that an owner can later swap between fixed and swing keel. The 24 percent ballast ratio sits low in a 3.61-foot maximum draft that draws just 0.98 feet up.
Rig and Handling
The Seldén rig is simple and light, with a relatively short mast on a folding step atop the small cabin and a long boom carrying a squat sail plan typical of the Pointer family — 14 square metres of mainsail and a 105 percent furling genoa of 9 square metres. The whole rig raises or lowers by hand or with a standard jib halyard. Test sailors found the little Dutch boat sailed well and showed good performance potential, very lively in manoeuvres, and able to accelerate from a standstill with almost no leeway thanks to the large hull appendages. In around ten knots of breeze she crossed at 85 degrees apparent with the short-overlap genoa and wide main at some 5.7 knots. She sails stiffly and well upwind and can be worked single-handed without restriction, which suits her sporty daysailer mission.
Accommodations
The cockpit seats six and is well thought out, with removable padded backrests, but the interior below is very empty and sparse. Berths for up to four people are an option that the builder notes may feel cramped. The yard remodelled the cabin floor on later boats so two more long berths can be fitted if required, and moved the companionway cut-out much further forward; on construction number 1, reaching the cabin demanded contortions. A flatter anchor locker on series boats intrudes less into the forward berth footwell than the prototype’s.
Known Issues
YACHT’s test boat, the prototype, showed a considerable tendency to bear off to windward in the breeze and especially under Code Zero, and the magazine’s testers judged the rudder blades obviously too large and hardly pre-balanced, with poorly tuned angles that could not be adjusted — a control defect traced to the oversized, unbalanced twin blades rather than the helm itself. In production form the boat is still recorded as extremely windward on the wind. Cruising-minded owners will miss cockpit stowage: there are no forepeak lockers under the thwarts, and the anchor locker with the small stern compartment offers only limited capacity, leaving little storage space on deck.
Refits and Ownership
Jachtwerf Heeg refined the early boat in ways a buyer will see as improvements rather than fixes: the forward-shifted companionway, the flatter anchor locker, and the reworked cabin floor for optional extra berths. The yard backs the structure with a two-year warranty and a five-year against osmosis. Propulsion is left to the owner’s choice — outboard petrol or electric, or a permanently installed pod drive — which keeps the aft end uncluttered but means no standard installation to inspect for uniformity.
The Verdict
The Pointer 22 is a clever, light, trailerable crossover that compresses the Pointer 25’s ideas into a road-able, beachable package with genuine single-handed capability and a retractable ballast keel. She is best read as a sporty daysailer and occasional weekender rather than a fitted-out cruiser, and the early rudder tuning and sparse stowage are the trade-offs for that agility.
Pros
- Trailerable, beach-launchable, with fully retractable centreboard and twin lift-up rudders
- Stiff, lively, well upwind; unrestricted single-handed use
- Light Seldén rig raises and lowers by hand; owner’s choice of propulsion
- Later-series refinements improved cabin access and berth options
Cons
- Test and production boats prone to bearing off to windward; prototype rudders oversized, unbalanced, unadjustable
- Sparse interior and very limited cockpit and deck stowage
- Cabin access by contortion on construction number 1
