Columbia 43 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Columbia built 153 of these boats, a third of them in Portsmouth, Virginia, after the company's relocation, and the rest at Costa Mesa, where production began. The hull is heavily applied hand-laid fiberglass, with matts of hand-laid cloth strengthening the structure rather than cheaper alternatives. Below the waterline and up to just above it, the hull carries balsa coring; the decks are end-grain balsa-cored, with plywood substituted at the mast partners, shrouds, and mooring cleats where loads concentrate. A few original buyers took the expensive option of a fully cored hull for added stiffness and some insulation. The interior — galley cabinets, dinette, and furniture — is a molded fiberglass pan dropped in before the deck goes on, though that pan proved poorly bonded to the hull, leaving some owners to report it seems to float inside the shell.

Rig and Handling

Rigged as a masthead sloop with a keel-stepped mast, the 43 carried hounds three-quarters of the way up the mast and a 10-foot-long aft cockpit. The Mk I and II drew 58 feet of bridge clearance; the later Mk III gained a mast taller by six feet, a foot-shorter boom, and a six-inch bow extension that together built a higher-aspect-ratio sail plan with the large foretriangle the IOR favored. Most boats are Mk I with a cast-iron deep fin keel at 6 feet 11 inches; the Mk II is a keel-centerboarder trimming to 4 feet 11 inches with the board up. The Mk III reworked the underbody with a lead-ballasted keel to cut wetted surface and a skeg-hung rudder replacing the spade. Writing in a period review, Encore proved the concept in 1971, taking first in class and eleventh overall in the Transpac to Honolulu, and one owner has logged his Adios surfing past 15 knots under a small headsail alone.

Accommodations

Below, the 43 was laid out for real cruising. The galley to port centers its double sinks on the boat's midline and pairs them with two top-loading iceboxes; headroom there and in the starboard U-shaped dinette — which seats six or more — runs 6 feet 7 inches. Facing settees in the saloon convert into four proper sea berths beneath 6 feet 2 inches of clearance, and a forward owner's cabin carries 6 feet 4 inches of headroom with a large V-berth and a hanging locker each side. The standard boat stowed 48 gallons of fuel and 50 of water under those settees, while many owners specified the optional 70-gallon tank beneath the V-berth.

Known Issues

The interior pan's weak bond to the hull is the structural caveat most worth a surveyor's attention, since a floating pan transmits little structural load. End-grain balsa decks demand a careful check for soft spots, especially around fittings. One experienced owner has also flagged the 3-inch rudder stock as undersized for a boat with this much rudder area, a point any prospective owner should weigh in steering loads.

Refits and Ownership

Most original owners bypassed the standard gas engine — a Universal Atomic 4, with some Palmers — for the Perkins 4-107 diesel at extra cost, so a good number of surviving boats already wear that diesel. The winches and deck-mounted rigging have proven durable, and the large flush deck remains a genuine asset both under way and at anchor. The Mk III's taller rig and lead keel are worth identifying before any repower or rig work, as the later boats differ meaningfully in tune and balance.

The Verdict

The Columbia 43 endures as a genuinely dual-purpose Tripp design: quick enough to win its Transpac class yet laid out with a sea-berth count and tankage that suit extended cruising. Its bonded-pan and balsa-deck weaknesses are identifiable and bounded, leaving a boat whose flush-deck hull and sail plan remain rewarding to own.

Pros