Hughes Columbia Columbia 34 Mk II For Sale & Buying Center

"Some Columbias have hidden ""features"". David M Smith writes:

All right all you happy dreaming sailors, sure we have occasional good days with wind from the right direction. More frequent are the near disasters and trips from hell...

The time is August 1995. We had just bought our first big boat . The Eclipse was a 72 Columbia 34. It was Friday afternoon and we were finally headed out into open water for a long three day weekend at Catalina, the little island 26 miles from Los Angeles harbor (as the song goes).

The wind was stiff and we were as close hauled on a starboard tack heading across the San Pedro channel. The wind was a good 15 Kts maybe 17kts. We had the 155% up and were healed over pretty good when Lisa looked down into the cabin and said , ""Oh-my-god! We're sinking!"". There was 10"" of water sploshing around behind the stove, over the sink top and on the floor. It turns out the sink on the Columbia 34 actually is below the waterline when healed over 30 degrees on a starboard tack, and was letting water in at an alarming rate. It took us a few minutes get the boat up, to isolate the source of the water, close the sink drain thru hull valve, pump the bilges and then get back on track. Lesson #1 of the weekend was close the galley sink thru hull valve when healed over on a starboard tack!"