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1970 Columbia 26 MKII
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Ed
316-794-2790
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| | | | New motor, headsail and bottom paint.
Iron Keel, 2 coast guard packs, battery, 6 sails, 2 axle trailer w/ electric brakes, 6 winches, sleeps 5, registered, hin # 849, 6 sailbags, icebox, For Sale by owner: 1970 Columbia 26 Mrk II sailboat, that I believe has a soul.
I rescued this boat from a boat storage yard in June of 2005.
The boat had been abandoned for nearly 20 years after the daughter & her husband, of the original owner, took her out of the water to give her a face lift.
There she sat, slowly deteriorating with all of her interior cabinets, galley & cushions removed and only her mast lying by her side, completely dismantled.
I purchased her for back storage fees.
In the following year I searched the internet for parts to put back in her.
I purchased another Columbia 26 from Rhode Island that had been wrecked on a reef and had the complete interior shipped to me.
After installing the interior I then tackled the electrical system.
Starting at the new main switch panel, all lights; bow, stern, mast, spreader and interior cabin light were either re-wired or replaced, with even a LED cockpit floor light installed.
New electronic instruments were installed; Wind speed & apparent wind direction, depth finder, knot meter & compass.
New AM/FM CD player with MP3 aux. jack sound system with new interior speakers and new cockpit stern rail mounted speakers.
Now the mast had to be completely rebuilt.
New sheaves in her mast head, halyards, shrouds, stays, spreader bars, mast light and two mast winches.
The original boom was replaced with the one from the boat from R.I..
It was in good shape.
The hull was polished, w/ newly painted stripes at the waterline and deck, barrier coat on the keel & rudder and new bottom paint throughout.
The boat has ample teak on its deck which has been sanded and had Teak-Guard applied, no varnish.
This is a yearly maintenance detail.
The outboard motor fits into a well located in the cockpit area, just forward of the tiller.
She came with a 1972 Johnson 6 hp, two stroke engine, which I still have but replaced her for a newer 2007 Nissan Marine 6 hp, four stroke engine, because we sail in a reservoir.
This engine has less than 10 hours on it.
Well back to the story, after reassembling her, she got new three inch thick cushions for the interior, with vinyl on the bottom & cloth on the upper sides.
Now it is winter but she is looking ready for launching in spring.
Being a proud new father of a good looking boat, peacefully waiting for her launching on Easter Sunday of 2006, I got a call one evening from a man who just happened to live 20 miles away from where I lived.
He called to ask me if I need parts for a sailboat, which at this point I didn't but he said he had some and that they were going to the land fill the next day.
If I wanted them, I could have them.
Of course I had to go check this out.
When my wife & I arrived there, here was a trailer full of teak cabinets, sailboat parts and more.
I asked the man why and he said that he had been storing them for a friend for nearly twenty years and the friend didn't want them anymore.
Now he wanted the space back in his garage so he was tossing them out.
I of course took them.
After I finished filling my truck with all of the boat parts the man asked if I need sails.
These he was selling.
He had four sail bags, of all different sizes but wanted a price that was higher than I wanted to pay.
He took the smallest bag and pulled out the sail and it was a four colored spinnaker.
I had previously purchased two sails, a main & jib, just to get me going but I was drooling for this spinnaker to go with the spinnaker pole on my boat, but no sail to go with it.
As we were talking, looking at the sail, the wind blew the sail open and there were numbers on the sail.
I was seeing them backwards but it was the numbers 849.
At first I was puzzled, I seemed to remember these numbers from somewhere, and then it hit me, these are the numbers of the hull ID of my sailboat.
I did not say anything but that the price was too high and started for the truck.
Before I got to the truck he had cut his price and I said that if he would let me pay part now to hold them and the rest in a month and I would pick them up then.
He agreed and we drove off.
I asked my wife if she had noticed the sail numbers but she hadn't paid any attention to them, so I told her those must be the original sails to the boat, and all these parts and pieces must be the original parts.
How else could everything that we were missing be right there?
Being worried that this stuff was stolen, and possession is 9/10ths of the law, I figured that I had better go back and pay for the sails and bring them home.
I asked the man how he got this stuff and he proceed to tell me that he was in the landscape business, and one of his clients was an attorney, who had a sailboat but his daughter and husband took the boat and was going to restore it but the stuff got left in a storage bend on his property and after the years went by the landscaper offered to store the stuff in his garage attic and this is how he got them.
So now the boat and its pieces have made a full circle and I now have spare parts filling my garage.
Its amazing that after all these years the boat is back together & we still use some of the original sails since they were stored properly.
That's her story.
She comes with a picture of a fisherman on her cabin wall, that I have not taken down.
You know who the fisherman is.
It was there when I got the boat and it will remain there.
I have been told that this boat has sailed from south Florida to Jamica and back and sailed on Lake Michagan for several seasons.
It is a bluewater boat.
Heavy hand laid fiberglass and strong.
I have sailed many times in 30+ knot winds.
Top hull speed achieved is about 6.5 - 7 knots.
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