That's a worthy goal! Nothing you can do is likely to be as crazy as my
changes to Manatee, my 14 ft gunter rig, modified for the same purpose - to
encourage more sailing by reducing the rigging/derigging hassle.
I've managed to eliminate the forestay and sidestays, jib, jibsheets, jib
halyard, jib downhaul, associated hardware, and main battens. My mast is
only 10 ft long and can be held at arms length while I step it by dropping
it into its socket without even climbing up on the boat. I've added an
aftermarket Sunfish spar bag with a full length zipper so I can stuff the
mast and the two 14 ft Sunfish spars, with lateen sail attached, into the
bag along with sheet and halyard, zip it up, and shove the bag all the way
forward into the cabin. (The aft end extends just over the transom.) I
leave my tiller tamer rigged, and I leave the sheet rigged on the boom by
disconnecting the link on the traveler wire. I remove the rudder blade but
leave the rudder stock and tiller in place.
I was willing to sacrifice a little performance to gain simplicity but was
pleasantly surprised to find I'm having no trouble staying with the Potter
fleet including some of the P19s. The boat is especially fast off the wind
but does surprisingly well upwind also, especially when tacking up a narrow
channel, where having only one sail to set makes for easier, more precise
tacks and faster adjustment for wind shifts. Even in light air she does
better than I expected. She also feels stiffer with the low center of
effort and the flexible spars. I will probably add reefing capability, but
so far she has generally felt comfortable in winds where I would have
reefed the old rig. I can still use my old rig if I should want to look
traditional, but so far I haven't been so inclined.
None of that is much help for your P19 though (but it gave me an excuse to
brag a little). There has been much discussion of the pros and cons of
carrying an outboard on the transom for short trips, and there was no
consensus. On my P14 I do leave my 28 lb Seagull mounted if I'm not going
very far, but my transom has a plywood core and seems pretty substantial.
(I believe someone did incur damage from carrying a motor on the transom.)
I tie lines from the lower end of the motor to the stern cleats to keep the
motor from bouncing.
On your P19 you can add another set of guntles on your transom for your
mast support if you want to leave your rudder installed. That will also be
useful if you ever need to lower your mast when the boat is in the water
and still be able to use your rudder. (Someone on the list had that problem
recently.)
Regarding the other changes you're considering, my advice is to just
experiment. You may find that in some cases it will be easier to disconnect
things rather than having too many dangling lines to get fouled. Before
going to the lateen rig, I reworked my gunter rig to step on the cabintop,
and with lever-type sidestays I was able to keep all three stays attached
if I carried the spars on top of the cabin. It was an improvement, but it
was still time consuming because I now had to contain all the dangling
stays, sheets, and halyards and lash the whole bundle on top of the boat
instead of stuffing it in the cabin as I could do with the gunter rig when
the stays were disconnected. With the gunter rig I always kept the main
attached to the spars, as I now do with the lateen rig.
I'm sure you will get more useful advice from other P19 sailors.
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
A Lean, Mean, Screaming Lateen Machine (to steal from OldSurfDude, whose
own lateen Potter is now for sale)
Mountain View, CA