The Boat:

　　Model: Columbia 28  

　　Designer: Bill Crealock

　　Year: 1968  OAL 27’ 8” 

　　Beam 8’ 6” Draft: 4’ 5” 

　　Displacement 6500 lbs.

　　Construction: Solid fiberglass hull with balsa cored decks.

　　Design History:

　　First offered in 1967 as a Racer/Cruiser design, the 28 was

　　Columbia Yachts first fin keel boat with spade rudder. Designed by Bill

　　Crealock who later did the Westsail 32 as well as Most of the early Pacific

　　Seacraft line, the design was fairly radical for its day although today would

　　be considered relatively low aspect. The result is that it was a better cruiser

　　than a racer. The design was produced for the first hundred hull or so with a

　　30 foot mast with single lowers, and a skeg on skeg keel. Later in the design

　　history it was offered as the Mark II with the mast length increased to 32 feet

　　with double lowers and the keel went to a solid conventional fin, increasing

　　the draft slightly.

　　About this boat:

　　This was hull 88 in the original configuration. We bought it

　　from the original owner who was moving up to a larger Catalina that was easier

　　for her to get around on. She had injured her hip slipping on ice, and getting

　　out of the 28’s deep cockpit had become a bit of an issue. There were some soft

　　spot in the deck, but otherwise she appeared fairly sound. She came with the

　　original main, a 104 hank on working jib, a 155 Genoa, and a cruising spinnaker.

　　The original owner was a delightful woman who told me she’d

　　purchased the boat with her first husband, and sailed out of Stamford harbor in

　　Connecticut with just paper charts and a lead line. She had sailed it since

　　then with her second husband, and they’d made some modest upgrades but were

　　essentially of the KISS mentality. It impressed me that she’d gone through two

　　husbands but only one boat. I figured I was on to something.

　　Our kids were still toddlers and we needed a boat that was

　　relatively kid safe, had stand up headroom below (two toddlers in a pop-top

　　macgregor was a handful to say the least).

　　What we did:

　　We replaced the original gate valves (most of which were

　　frozen open) with ball valves. We replaced all the interior bulkheads with new

　　marine ply bulkheads. We replaced the deck and cockpit balsa coring with

　　nidacore (which doesn’t rot). We sistered the galvanized keel bolts with

　　silicon bronze ones. We did extensive refit to the engine ignition and exhaust,

　　converting the engine to electronic ignition (which improved fuel consumption

　　considerably 1gph to a little over .5gph for the same speed). Clean stripped

　　and barrier coated the bottom, replaced the direct discharge head with a

　　holding tank, replace the hand pump at the sink with a foot pump (doesn’t sound

　　like much but when you have to wash your hands and they’re both covered with

　　bottom mud which hand do you use to operate the pump?). We added more storage

　　cubbies and another drawer to the galley. Teak and Holly cabin sole to replace

　　the shag carpeting. And a lot more.

　　The main was replaced. Roller furling was installed on the

　　foresail. Most of the interior lighting was replaced by LED lighting.

　　Why we’re selling her:

　　We really can’t afford two boats. She was surveyed at 15K.

　　She’s been on the hard for over a year.

　　Sailing Anecdote 1:

　　We had sailed from our home port in Clinton, Ct to Watch

　　Hill RI the day before. Weather forecasts had been consistent for over a week.

　　Our plan was to bounce out to Block Island 

　　(about 25 miles) the next day. Dawn broke fairly calm. We made coffee,

　　weighed anchor and headed out toward Watch Hill Passage in a fairly thick fog

　　(not unusual for August here). Winds were light and  as we left Stonington Harbor it picked up

　　slightly. The boys were asleep below. We had the front hatch open.

　　By the time we’d cleared Watch Hill Passage it was blowing

　　10 knots from the Southwest. Seas were about a foot and a half and we were

　　under full sail for Block. A half hour later we were in four foot seas still

　　under full sail. The boys were asleep below. An hour or so later we were about

　　halfway, the seas had grown confused at 6 with the occasional additive set

　　filling in. Winds were in the upper 20’s to low 30’s, but we were making good

　　time in the right direction.

　　I asked my wife to turn on the radio just to see what the

　　weather was. She came up and said small craft advisories. Figured. We sailed

　　on, dry as a bone, front hatch open, a couple of turns in on the jib, but

　　basically the boys slept through it until we turned the engine on finally once

　　we were inside Great Salt Pond. Motored for fifteen minutes until we found a

　　good spot, then dropped anchor.

　　Who wouldn’t want a boat like this?