Additional Boat Details
Interior layout
Galley
Electronic Equipment
Electrical System
Other Equipment
Remarks
The Columbia 26 Mk II replaced the original 26 in the Columbia model line. According to an article in Practical Sailor (Aug. 1, 1984) production started in 1969 and ended in 1977 after 950 copies were produced. This is one of the Bill Tripp "bubble top" designs.
The Columbia 26 Mk II was modified for its last couple years of production and called the Columbia 26 K. According to Doug Ward, former Columbia employee, "The main differences in the MK II & the K are that the toe rails on the K are a bolted on aluminum extrusion instead of moulded in F/G, the nonskid on the deck was applied by hand & had a coarser texture than the smoother waffle pattern that was moulded in on the MK II. I think that by the time the K model started production, the deck mould was in pretty bad condition, & they just eliminated the toe rail & nonskid, smoothed out the mould & did those two changes in the interest of production economy. The cabin windows are slightly smaller (and had plastic frames), the interior was trimmed differently in that the K had a fabric overlay in the salon between the shelf & the underside of the deck & the hull topside color stripe was optional. The MK II 's all had a color stripe. Everything else was identical to the MK II. Regards, Doug Ward
