Manufactured by:
275 McCormick Avenue, Costa Mesa, California 92626 (714) 540-7070
2400 Wesley Street, Portsmouth, VA 23707 (703) 393-1051
The Bill Crealock designed C-28 was a departure from the early C-24, C-26, and C-29 designs. The boxy cabin and ports were traded for the "bullet shaped" main windows and the bump in the main cabin roof. But the big difference was below the waterline. The C-28 was a skeg on skeg design and one of the first fin keel Columbias.
According to John Broughton, the list kept by the Columbia sales dept. shows that 553 C-28's were built from 1967 to 1975. There is no mention of any change from a C-28 to a C-28 MkII is indicated on the sheet.
One detail I've been trying to nail down is interior construction. My '64 C-24 is a fiberglass shell with an all-wooden interior as is a '64 C-24 Challenger. I had thought that Columbia switched to interiors that were mostly fiberglass in '65 or '66, but an early C-28 (hull #8) is reported to be: ...all wood all over. It's painted over, but there is no fiberglass except the hull and exterior decks, soles and cockpit. Later C-28s had fiberglass interiors.
Here is a link to Mike Bittle's Columbia 28 website.
What's the difference between a C-28 and a C-28 MkII? According to Dick Valdes, Columbia experimented with the bolt-on keel using different keel shapes and weights. The keel was reshaped from an upside-down "t-shape" (the standard C-28) to a "V" shape (the MKII). That is the defining difference. From other comments regarding building costs I would be willing to bet it was also a less expensive manufacturing process. The true MKII also had a taller mast but there are some MKII hulls with a short version mast.
9/69 option list Brochure Ad
LOA 27' 7" 27' 7" 27' 7"
LWL 21' 10" 21' 8" 21' 8"
Beam 8' 6" 8' 6" 8' 6"
Draft 4' 7" 4' 10" 4' 4"
Displacement 6,500 lbs 6,800 lbs 6,500 lbs
Ballast 3,000 lbs 3,000 lbs 2,800 lbs
Material lead lead
Sail Area 343 sq ft 359 sq ft 343 sq ft
Vertical Clearance 35' 3" 35' 3"
Water 18 gals 18 gals 18 gals
Fuel 12 gals
Headroom 5' 10"
CCA Rating 24.4
Designer William B. Crealock
Price $8,995 (price printed on $8.995 (less sails)
on list includes
dacron main and
working jib.)
$9,675 (handwritten price)
How do you adjust a Columbia rig? Here is what the manual says.
Like most Columbias (and any older boat) you need to check for rotted bulkheads from leaks at the chainplates, soft spots in the deck - especially where bolts or other hardware go through the fiberglass and into the wood core.
One C-28 Mk II owner and his surveyor found "substantial wet rot" in the mast compression post located between the keelson and the interior floorboards. He had to replace it. He advises all C-28 owners to inspect closely, as the post sits in the bilge, and may be wet most of the time.
Like many older fin keel boats, some C-28 owners have had to replace corroded keel bolts. Here is some info on the bolts for this boat from a manual dated January 1972.
There are seven keel bolts. These are lag bolts installed from the top. (3/4" DIA X 9" LG LAG STUD. DRILL .656" DIA X 5" DEEP USING C-28 KEEL ATTACHMENT JIG FOR POSITIONING HOLES. USE LAG END OF STUD AS TAP TO THREAD KEEL. APPLY KEROSENE TO HOLE AND STUD DURING TAPPING OPERATION. USE CAM-TYPE STUD DRIVER. LEAVE 4" MIN. OF STUD PROTRUDING FROM TOP OF KEEL. - 7 REQUIRED.)
Also concerning the nuts: 3/4" NC HEX NUT & 3/4" ID X 2" OD PLAIN WASHER - HOT DIP GALV STEEL DRILL 13/16" DIA THRU HULL USING SAME KEEL ATTACMENT JIG FOR POSITIONING HOLES AS IS USED TO DRILL KEEL. (SEE DETAIL) - 7 PLACES
Here is some more information from an owner.