Talking to Cindie last night about this thread, our primary reason for choosing to buy an angler model over a 22 cruiser was for the lack of the factory bulkhead. We felt the cabin of the 22 was too small for the 3 of us to exist in (2 would be much better) and we planned to use a camper canvas over the cockpit all the time anyway. So why not treat the cabin/cockpit as one larger space that could be heated and moved about freely. The factory door/bulkhead arrangement restricts the connection between the two spaces enough that they always felt separate to us, and were hard to heat, even on the 25. We wanted one heated living space for all season cruising and in this respect, the 19 or 22 angler without the factory door, would provide the largest single heated room.
The 19 happens to fit better in our the storage building we already had and standard amenities on both models are equally sparse so the 19 won.
We had a robust, roomy, and highly weathertite canvas built for the cockpit, added more battery power than any 19 has the right to carry, layed down foam and carpet flooring, installed a heater that could heat the whole shebang nicely, and worked out how to build a table in the cockpit which was very important to us for cruising.
The standard table/galley in the 22 cruiser is good for two but less good for three with the tight center aisle, and we felt the cockpit table would actually work out better for us and be more roomy.
I like the fact that the cockpit table uses two mounted coolers for seats so we have cooler space aplenty and we have used one at times for fish or crab storage when we go out for that. Folks with cruisers have coolers or boxes in the cockpit most of the time anyway, so ours are just multitasking more completely.
I have a portable gas stove mounted on a tray with a nonslip base and I cook with that easily on the table or on one of the wide cockpit edges the 19 has. I do have to roll up a canvas panel to do that of course and in wet weather I just us the table for cooking right now. We also carry a small folding bbq grill and it also works on the table very nicely or even on the dock if we are at a marina.
We keep a tub of cooking hardware and the tray/stove combo in the storage under the helm seat and it fits well there. The eating utensils and stuff is in a bag behind the helm seat and the food is stored mostly in a large sectional trunk type organizer bag behind the passenger seat. We use thin paper plates and bowls on top of reused plastic plates and avoid dishes that way. We also eat out at restaurants sometimes as well. We accumulate a bit more trash but its not a significant difference for us.
We don't have a sink and don't miss one most of the time. We honestly feel the strangest when we are brushing our teeth and don't have anywhere to spit. We spit over the side if nobody is around or just in a cup if we are trying to keep from looking like slobs.
We found a nice folding self-contained wall sink (spendy european product only) and nearly purchased that but have been trying to live without it to see if that item is really needed. I just recently found the parts I need to build my own simple setup against the inside rear wall behind the passenger seat so we will try that for a bit.
The helm/passenger seats slide a swivel to face the center of the boat so they are also lounging seats in the evening and our daughter sits in a hammock seat we hang from the center cabin roof when she wants it which is not very much of the time. She likes to roam around or hang out in the berth watching movies/reading or plays games on the cockpit table with mom under way.
Overall, we are honestly warmer, cozyier, and sleep better on the 19 than we did on the 25. We really like the simple arrangement of the space and the fact that it is all one space. We don't mind eachothers close company and that helps a ton. Our 19 has a custom bulkhead and that might seem to contradict our single space mission but lucky for us, Joe built it with double doors and a very wide opening and we only close them when away from the boat at a dock that we feel is not very secure. That has happened just once so far but is a nice option to have admittedly.
I may add a small 12v freezer to make ice someday if our trips get consistently longer than about 5 days. So far, we can last that long with one set of ice in the coolers.
If we fished significantly more, and if our storage building was a bit deeper, I would have held out for a 22 angler and done mostly the same work except I would have left the rear two feet of the cockpit open for entry/exit of the boat, and for fishing without rolling up panels of canvas in the living space. Like a partial camperback with central, zippered rear door to the open rearmost section of the cockpit.
Feel free to send me a PM if you have more questions and we could talk on the phone as well.
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Greg
