Review of Columbia 52
Basic specs.
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The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.
The Columbia 52 is 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.
The Columbia 52 has been built with different keel alternatives.
Unknown keel type
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.
Full keel
The Columbia 52 is equipped with a long keel. A full 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 keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.
The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.44 - 2.54 meter (8.01 - 8.31 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Columbia 52 may be 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.
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.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Columbia 52 is 4.01.
Maintenance
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.
| 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) |
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