Conceived for day sailing and lighter touring rather than long passages, the 19 combines contemporary performance cues with unusually generous accommodation. Its wide waterline, voluminous bow, and pronounced chines echo modern offshore racers, while its interior offers more volume than any boat in its direct comparison class.
Design and Construction
Sailart developed the 19 at its Erftstadt operation, with the hulls produced in Poland. The yard is known for high quality standards and successful detail solutions.
The deck and hull use polyester sandwich construction with a Divinycell foam core. An inner shell provides a clean, finished interior and helps prevent condensation below. The boat is also foamed out as standard to be unsinkable, a reassuring feature for a craft intended for coastal and inland sailing.
The hull’s wide waterline and full bow volume were shaped specifically for coastal waters. Pronounced chines allow it to settle into a stable planing mode in a strong breeze, even with a short-handed crew. The first prototype carried a few extra kilograms of development weight, but production boats were expected to be roughly 50 kilograms lighter.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
The Sailart 19 carries the same fractional sloop rig as the Sailart 20. Its self-tacking jib made maneuvers notably easy during testing and helped the boat sail most confidently single-handed, even in windy conditions. Testers attributed that poise to the dimensional stability provided by the 2.50-metre beam and 23-percent ballast ratio.
Steering is direct, and the boat lies well on the rudder. Testers described it as lively but never nervous. If the folding outboard rudder blade grounds, it simply lays back.
With the keel raised, draft falls to about 60 centimetres. Even so, that clearance left the Sailart short of the shore during the comparison’s beaching trial.
An optional 25-square-metre gennaker sets from a fixed bowsprit. Even without it, the hull glided well and maintained speed against narrower rivals. In less than ten knots of wind, however, its narrower effective waterline brought its performance closer to that of a comparable 18-footer. The boat fully develops its righting moment once it heels enough to put the chine in the water.
Accommodation and Cockpit
Below deck, the Sailart 19 feels like a full-grown small cruiser rather than a stretched dinghy. It had the largest interior space in the test field.
There are four wide berths. The forward berth is 1.98 metres long and tapers to 44 centimetres wide at the foot. The side settees are 2.24 metres long and 0.67 metres wide. A variable locker system and practical stowage add flexibility, while cosy lighting and wooden trim create a properly ship-like atmosphere.
The cockpit offers good seating. In brisk conditions, the most secure perch is along its top edge. The webbing—not wire—lifelines initially seem loose, but in practice they make it easier and more comfortable to ride out gusts.
Equipment and Intended Use
Deck hardware is specified to a high regatta standard. The builder’s own descriptions emphasize the boat’s clear, contemporary design and clever details.
In the tested ready-to-sail package, equipment included a customized Torqeedo with tiller steering and a battery housed in the forepeak locker. Below-deck electrical wiring was also included, as was a dedicated trailer for normal launching.
The boat carries a CE design category C rating, limiting it to inland and sheltered coastal use.
Verdict
The Sailart 19 is a rare sub-six-metre cruiser that doesn’t ask its crew to surrender living space for sailing bite. Its beam, ballast, and chined hull allow one person to handle it confidently in a blow, while the roomiest interior in its peer group makes short touring plausible.
Details such as the webbing lifelines, self-tacking jib, and unsinkable construction show careful thought. Sharing the Sailart 20’s keel and rig also helps keep ownership straightforward. Its limits are equally clear: shallow-water access remains restricted even with the keel raised, light-air performance is less convincing, and the category C rating confines it to inland and sheltered coastal waters.
Pros
- Confident, direct single-handed handling in windy conditions, supported by the beam and ballast ratio
- Largest interior in its comparison class, with four wide berths
- Unsinkable foam-core construction and an inner liner that helps prevent condensation
- Self-tacking jib and folding rudder simplify short-handed maneuvering
Cons
- Raised-keel draft still left the boat short of shore in the beaching test
- Light-air speed trails narrower contemporaries until the chine engages
- Category C limits the boat to inland and sheltered coastal waters
