Designed for competition under the CCA Rule, a large percentage of early Columbia 50 owners raced their new boats. Many of the most accomplished participated in the premium ocean races of the day, including Transpac, Victoria-Maui, Tahiti, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Chicago-Mackinac, and so forth.
As the only fiberglass boat her size (or larger) in the 1966 Ensenada Race, Pace III (hull #1) must have stirred up quite a bit of interest when she finished first overall against a fleet of over 500 boats. Wood was on the way out for 50 footers! The very next year there were two Columbia 50s in the 1967 Transpac. Hull #9, Simoon, finished second overall and won Class B. Simoon also won Class A of the '67 Ensenada Race. Back on the Great Lakes the Columbia 50 Diavolo won the 1967 Chicago-Mackinac overall and the next year won her class. As might be expected with results like that, sales and production of Columbia 50s continued on at a fast pace through 1968. 1969 saw production still in full swing; there were nine 50s in the Transpac that year. Production didn't begin to slow down until about 1970 and by 1971 Columbia Yachts was introducing the Columbia 52 -- a "muscle boat" clearly designed to win under the new IOR Rule: taller mast, shorter and higher boom, deeper keel, even heavier displacement, reverse transom...and a huge jib that made coffee grinders on deck prudent. The Transpac Race Guides at right (from transpacyc.com) give a good description of each Columbia 50 entered, as well as listing some of the other races in which they participated during the "heyday." Below each guide is a summary of the Transpac results for that year courtesy of Xanthippe -- a Columbia 50 that has been continuously enjoyed by the same family since those early Transpac days (photos above and below). (Results are from the book Transpac: A History of the Great Race to Honolulu.) 1966 ENSENADA RACE
- click the image to read - 1970 CONGRESSIONAL CUP
- click the image to read - |
1967 TRANSPAC HANDBOOK
- click the image to read -
1969 TRANSPAC HANDBOOK
- click the image to read -
1971 TRANSPAC HANDBOOK
- click the image to read -
|
Columbia 50 Owners' Network
- Life Begins at 50! -
- Life Begins at 50! -