Columbia 40 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Columbia 40 means chasing one of 55 fiberglass racer-cruisers Charles Morgan drew for Columbia Yachts between 1964 and 1969, a boat whose lineage runs straight from his SORC-winning Sabre and the earlier Paper Tiger ketch. These are period fiberglass hulls with a steel frame molded into the structure, a long keel with a hydraulically raised centerboard, and a seven-berth interior — a rare combination of race pedigree and cruising volume in a 39-foot 2-inch package.
Layouts on the Used Market
The standard boat is a masthead sloop with a keel-mounted rudder and a fixed long keel carrying 8,400 pounds of lead, though a yawl rig with a mizzen was offered after the model launched. Below, the galley is to port at the companionway base with a three-burner stove, the head sits forward with a privacy door, and the main cabin's dinette drops to a double with a further single berth. Some hulls differ: one owner's hull #44 carries a foss-foam spade rudder factory-added with its stock angled aft, so the rudder type on any specific boat must be confirmed visually rather than assumed from the base plan.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
On the used market these boats commonly carry a watermaker and inverter for extended off-grid cruising, paired with a hardtop or bimini and dodger for cockpit shelter. Teak decks are a common period feature, and navigation is typically handled through a chartplotter, radar, and autopilot. A cockpit shower is also commonly fitted, rounding out the cruising upgrades a buyer will frequently encounter.
What to Inspect
The steel tube frame was engineered to carry the standing rigging loads into the hull bulkheads and deck structure, so survey the chainplate landings and the steel-to-fiberglass interface for corrosion or delamination. Confirm the hydraulic centerboard actuation from the cockpit operates smoothly and that the board itself is free, since raised-board draft of 4 feet 6 inches versus 9 feet down is central to the boat's behavior. Verify the actual ballast against the hull's own paperwork, because literature shows figures from 6,430 to 8,400 pounds across 1963 to 1967 documents. Where a spade rudder is present as a factory add-on, check the stock angle and foss-foam condition carefully.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats are found in the United States. For a shopper, the essentials are: confirm rig type (sloop or yawl), verify rudder configuration and any factory spade variant, validate ballast and steel-frame integrity, and test the hydraulic centerboard. A Columbia 40 in sound structural order offers a distinctive Morgan-designed racer-cruiser with genuine offshore accommodation and a verifiable competition history.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Columbia 40. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 3 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 25 | 1 | $147,747 | — |
| Apr 26 | 1 | $147,000 | -0.5% |
| Aug 26 | 1 | $135,747 | -7.7% |
Where they're listed
Columbia 40 listings appear across 1 country. United States has the most listings with 3.
Country view
3 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $147,000 | 3 | 1 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
3 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson 40 | 39.92' | $ 55,000 | 9 | 1 |
| Columbia 36 | 35.75' | $ 27,500 | 6 | 2 |
| Columbia 40You are here | — | $ 147,000 | 3 | 1 |