Review of Columbia 52

Basic specs.

The Columbia 52 is a large sailboat designed by the American maritime architect William Tripp. The Columbia 52 is built by the American yard Columbia Yachts.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Rig

The boat equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

Keel

The Columbia 52 is equipped with a long keel. A long keel provide a better directional stability than a similar boat with a fin keel; on the other hand, better directional stability means also that the boat is more difficult to handle in a harbour with less space.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.88 - 2.98 meter (9.45 - 9.75 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Engine

The boat is typically equipped with an inboard Perkins 4.107 diesel engine.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Columbia 52 is about 420 kg/cm, alternatively 2356 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 420 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2356 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Columbia 52 is 4.01.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is slimmer than 90% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more speedy hull design. This type of design is also referred to as 'needle'.

Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Mainsail halyard	40.9 m	(134.3 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	40.9 m	(134.3 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	40.9 m	(134.3 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Jib sheet	15.9 m	(52.0 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	15.9 m	(52.0 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet	39.6 m	(130.1 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	34.9 m	(114.5 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Cunningham	5.0 m	(16.3 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Kickingstrap	9.9 m	(32.6 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Clew-outhaul	9.9 m	(32.6 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

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References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.