Yes, I know that J22's are race boats bred to the purpose, so forgive me if I go off script for a bit.
I am 58 and next spring will finish educating my daughter. After 25 years of cruising large boats I sold our last large boat four years ago to help pay the tuition freight. Now that we are almost done I am actively considering how to spend the next few years of my sailing life. I have had enough long distance cruising and juggling big boat headaches. The next boat needs to be simple and allow me to sail more and fiddle less--no more long spring work ups, constantly repairing mechanical systems, or involved voyage planning. I am thinking about a substantial but lively daysailer that I can keep in the water and use for after work and early morning sails, usually alone. I am not interested in racing.
With all of that in mind, I am thinking about finding an older J22 and re-rigging the boat in order to tame it down for solo day sails. Things I am considering are adding a roller furling jib, running all control ines aft to the helmsman's station, putting on a Dutchman system for the main, adding slab reefing, maybe even replacing the running back stay with a fixed split back stay. In short, get rid of as many strings as possible and put the necessities within easy reach.
I am interested in hearing informed opinions here about how the boat will perfom, whether it will be managable for one person, and whether anyone knows of a J22 that has been adapted for this purpose. My thought is that this is a well designed boat that will still gallop for one person even if we bleed off racing performance.
I know that this sounds like putting catsup on a hot dog but I am interested in your thoughts. Thanks in advance.