Welcome aboard here Vicki! You are welcome to see my albums, I have one of those on the Atom Voyages list, a 1962
Columbia 29. I did not get my boat because it was on any list though. It was one I had known of since I started sailing over 40 years ago. At the time then the first boat I got was a
Columbia 24, but I knew of a couple who had a Columbia 29 in the harbor. Now to me at the time it seemed like a HUGE boat!
I always admired it and I had so much fun in my 24 that it planted the seed in me that one day I'd get the 29. About 7 years ago when I figured my youngest child was old enough, I figured it was time to go looking for the 29. I actually looked up and down the
west coast for a few weeks and then one came up
for sale in my nearest harbor! I called the seller and he said, "oh get back to me in a couple weeks after I finish painting her." So I did. When I called him back he said, "oh well I already promised it to another guy." I was crestfallen. But I told him if the buyer decided to bail out, to let me know. Sure enough, the young man who got it found he just could not
work out how to keep it. He called the original owner to let him know and within a couple days I was handing him $4000 and with nothing more than checking to see things worked, a friend, my daughter and I sailed her back 30 miles to my, and her, home port. The poor guy was about at the end of his
rope with no place to put the boat so I did not haggle with him, I was just happy to get her. Turns out the original owner, who had her for 25 years, had tried to sell her off and on for years, but she just did not attract much attention, probably because of her age, and that she is a bit small for a 29 by modern standards.
Since
buying her I have been doing everything myself and on a shoestring since I don't have a lot of disposable cash for a boat hobby. Got a great, used once previously, full-battened
mainsail for $500 and felt a bit guilty for spending that much! Re-rigged her myself with a rigger friend, and fixing little things as they come up. But she is simple, stout,
sails beautifully, pretty fast for a long
keel, has a very nice motion (to me) and is a good size for me, 2
kids and my wife. So now for us the local islands, 20 miles away, are our playground.
As it turns out, the very boat that originally inspired me was recently sent to the crusher because the owner had to move and she couldn't find any buyers she said. There is a picture of her in one of my albums, with a black
hull. I was really so disappointed to see that. I would have bought her if I had known, though I am not sure what I would have done with her!
As far as prices for my boat I have seen some beautiful ones where the asking prince was as high as $17,500 and of course all the way down to free. I would expect to see one in good shape with a good
diesel to be between $5-10k.