I just purchased a Columbia 43. I plan on doing a total restoration. The boat is Hull number 55, built in 1970. Based on your diagrams and the shape of the rudder and size of the keel, it appears to be a Mark III. (It appears the rudder design was used as early as 1970). I had the boat hauled a couple of months ago, my surveyor was amazed at the soundness of the glass, not a blister. What is even more amazing is the boat last received bottom paint in 1989. The only real maintenance the boat had received was regular cleaning of the bottom. The boat was a custom order by the president of North Sails in 1970. As the story goes the president was a friend with an executive at Columbia at told him to "build it like you would want your boat built". I'm not sure of theses figures as they have been passed on through the years, but the boat had a base price of about $35,000, it left the factory at $60,000 plus. To keep things in prospective, I have a pay stub from 1970; I made $8,600 a year and a new Corvette base cost was $5192. The boat passed hands from the original owner, to an owner in Hawaii, who sold it in 1977 to the person I purchased the boat from. The previous owners fully enjoyed the boat having taken it through the Panama Canal and as far as Tahiti. I have some of the original charts. The owner who I purchased it from used it primarily in leisurely Hawaii inter island cruises. He had the boat hauled in 1989, had it painted, rebuilt the 68 HP Ford Lehman diesel, the rigging reworked and lowered the mast by 3 inches (to correct some corrosion problems). He sailed it a few times afterwards, he and his family lived on the boat occasionally, then the kids grew up, he built a house and the boat went unattended for a few years. Then I came in the picture. I'm in the process now of going through the boat.
The boat has much of the original equipment to include heavy duty
everything. It still has the original LORAN. The boat, though in pretty good
shape need a lot of TLC. I've already put on new bottom paint, buffed and
waxed it, replaced a couple of through hulls, and am working on refinishing
the teak with CETOL. It has a pressurized hot/cold 100 gal water system and
a 100 gal fuel system (custom ordered). I haven't turned on the water system
as yet as the electrical is a mess, though every thing works, it's like a
spaghetti factory down there. The previous owners and workmen have put in a
hodgepodge of wiring using anything from lamp cord to unidentifiable wire.
The original electrical panels are still in place to include the original
Marinetics switches. I'm going to replace every thing with 8-10 gauge
marine wire. I'd like to keep the original Columbia panels, but I am having
difficulty finding replacement switches. It my intent to upgrade most of
the electronics: change to digital depth finder, GPS, and perhaps RADAR.
The 110v reefer works great; probably won't mess with it. Need to check out
the Head, the pump is bad and the Electrosan hasn't been used in years. The
final things I will do is inspect the rigging and then deck paint. I'll
keep you posted.
From Waikiki,
MC Kraft