And Now for Some History on the Columbia 5.5

In this month’s Latitude 38 we share a story about the Columbia 5.5. The story prompted Candy from Alameda to send us this: 

“I loved the article on the Columbia 5.5 Meter. My late husband and I had hull #4 for years at Stockton Sailing Club and I have great memories of all the weekend racing we did. After we sold Feather, as she was known then, she changed hands/names several times. The picture of the red 5.5 [in the March feature] looks a lot like her. The 5.5s are fun boats to sail and absolutely gorgeous. If any readers happen to visit the SSC, as far as I know the class trophy is still a stainless steel bedpan.” – Candy, s/v Infidel, Alameda

Read the story to find out more about the 5.5 and the “stainless steel bedpan.”

I remember the first time I laid my eyes on a Columbia 5.5. A friend had called me over to see his new toy at Alameda Marina. Unfortunately for my friend and his Ericson yacht, there was a beautiful, Corvette-red sloop resting in the slip opposite, her bow rising from the water with the elegant arc of a calligraphic stroke. From the fresh gloss of her flush deck and teardrop-shaped hull, I could see that she was adored. “What a beautiful … Folkboat!” I exclaimed, enthralled, admiring and not entirely sure what I was looking at. While my mistake didn’t come to light until much later, what was obvious then was my friend’s irritation as I hovered, cooed and pointed. Yes, the debut of his burly daysailer had been completely upstaged, and by nothing less than a skinny, 32.5-ft Nordic supermodel of a boat.

This is the moment I found a desire to learn more about the Columbia 5.5 — not to mention, the origins of this one-design keelboat class. When Columbia Yachts of Costa Mesa introduced the Columbia 5.5 Meter back in 1963, it was to democratize access to the International 5.5 Meter Class. At the time, the International 5.5 Meter was an Olympic class, whose boats’ custom wood construction placed them at a price point well out of reach of most competitive sailors. By mass-producing the boats using a then-new material called “fiberglass,” Columbia Yachts had an opportunity to bring to market not just a more affordable 5.5 Meter boat, but one that was considerably lighter than its contemporaries.

To stay true to the design, Columbia bought a successful 5.5 Meter, Carina, from Alexander (Sasha) Von Wetter. Carina was built by Sigurd Herburn in Norway for the 1956 Olympics; her claim to fame was winning the 1958 Scandinavian Games Gold Cup. In the years that followed, she changed hands, and had remarkably made her way to the West Coast, where, by Sasha’s account, “The only organized racing I could do was PHRF, and that was not what a one-design racer like myself, or a thoroughbred like Carina, was particularly adept at.”

Columbia Yachts approached Von Wetter in regards to striking a mold for their own one-design boat, albeit with modifications made in resemblance to George O’Day’s 5.5 Meter Minotaur. O’Day and Minotaur had won both a world championship and a gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games. Columbia had initially wanted to buy this design, but according to Von Wetter, the builder and the former Olympian could not come to terms.

According to a 1966 Columbia brochure, the boats produced from this hybrid mold were “the most sophisticated racing yachts in this country, at less than one-half of what an ‘Open 5.5’ would cost.” Unfortunately, the International 5.5 Meter Class banned these lighter designs (at least initially), thus extinguishing the interest from potential buyers wishing to engage in class racing. In all, fewer than 50 hulls were produced. A spin-off design, the Saber — essentially, the same hull with a raised deck, cabin and bunks for four installed — was more prolific; between 300 and 400 were built from 1963 to 1969. But until fairly recently, the 5.5 design was all but mothballed by Columbia Yachts.

Please continue reading at Latitude38.com.