Fixed Keel Coronado 23?

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coiler

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Sep 13, 2011
7
Coronado 23 Delta
I just picked up a "Coronado 23" (Hull #045) it's in good shape, a few cracks in the interior and cockpit as well as a leaky window. It's wiring works but is a bit of a jumble, I'd like to clean that up. The "Sea Monkey" has a horrible paint job; I've all ready started stripping and sanding many generations of paint schemes. The boat has a small "check" in the bottom of its cast iron keel. I'd like to rig it for single handing and add on a rig for the spinnaker it came with. The boat is sea worthy as is, but I'm going to work on it while it's on it's trailer until spring. Any advice or information on these boats and those jobs would be much appreciated as it's been difficult to find any information on these boats through the internet thus far. Thanks!
 

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Jan 19, 2010
12,948
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I used to own one. Mine had been grounded hard so I spent a season restoring and repairing her before I launched. If you go to my profile page you will find a folder with a lot of pics from the restoration.

r
 

coiler

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Sep 13, 2011
7
Coronado 23 Delta
thanks rgranger. looks like you took it all the way down. I don't plan on that, the interior is pretty ship shape. What did you do about the keel?
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,948
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I drilled some holes in the keel and there was a lot of water trapped in the keel. I let it dry out for a few weeks and then went after it with a grinder and got out all of the soft and crushed fiberglass. I then filled it back in with resin and chopped mat glass. I used visqueen clamped between plywood to the outside of the keel to get her fair and then I sealed up the outside of the hull with epoxy barrier coat. I then filled the space between the hull and the hull liner with expanding foam.

I wish I had never sold that boat. She was really nice once I got her fixed up.

r
 
Oct 14, 2005
2,191
1983 Hunter H34 North East, MD
Coiler...

Having owned a Coronado for a few years I can say that they were generally well built. The one major problem I'm aware of on the 23 is fittiing one of the newer outboards in the motor well, due to the larger power heads of 4 strokes. Yours appears to have a motor mount on the transom, which shouldn't be a problem if it can support the 4 stroke's weight.

The second issue is the H-shaped rub rail extrusion that connects the deck and hull together. It is prone to leak badly if not cared for. You will need to dig out the old caulk then fill and seal it with caulking at the top and bottom.

Cast parts may be a problem as Columbia used many of its own proprietary pieces. Check out the web sites below for support.

Coronado was a division of Columbia Yachts. You'll find a vast amount of info and support on the Columbia Owners site, http://www.columbia-yachts.com/ . Contack Paul Esterele at captnpauly.com (he's the gear connection on the Columbia website) to find out what's going on with Columbia Yacht sites. The one on Yahoo Groups used to be very active.
 

coiler

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Sep 13, 2011
7
Coronado 23 Delta
Thanks Dan... The Sea Monkey's "H" rail does need the love you've described. I had that on the list all ready, now I see it should be bumped up the list.
 
Jun 9, 2008
1,850
- -- -Bayfield
I have only seen shoal drafted Columbia 23's , but they were good boats. I would think the deep fin keel model would sail better. Here's the basic data for them:
LOA: 22'7", LWL: 20' BEAM: 7'11", DRAFT 1'11" SA: 218 FT 2
DSPL: 2,500 BLST: 810 (lead) VERTICAL CLEARANCE: 28'2" BERTHS: 4 WATER: 5 GALLONS RECOMMENDED POWER: 6 hp OUTBOARD DESIGNER: ALAN PAYNE. BUNKS: 6'4"
I do have an owner's manual for this boat.
They were built: Columbia yachts, 275 McCormick Avenue, Costa Mesa CA 92626 (714)540-7070 (long gone now). It was a part of Whittaker Corporation. Columbia Yachts started in 1960 as Glas Laminates by Richard V. Valdes (age 25 - he'd be 76 today). He built a lot of fiberglass products, but his first sailboat in 1961 was the Islander 24, which were so popular they exhausted his companies capacity in the first year due to sales in LA & chicago boat shows. Eventually they became the largest sailboat manufacturer in the world. In 1964 they opened an eastern plant in Portsmouth VA. In 1965 they were building the largest prodution fiberglass sail boat in existence - Bill Tripp's Columbia 50. In 1967 they became the subsidiary of the Whittaker Corp. Later they embarked into the kit boat business with 7 different models from 22 to 57 feet the the Sailcrafter Yachts Kits label.
 
Oct 14, 2005
2,191
1983 Hunter H34 North East, MD
Barnacle...

here's two pics of the "new" Columbia 30 that the Valdes family launched on the west coast at the LA boat show in 2006. Production was to be limited and not to be distributed nationally. Don't know the recent status...

PS. Here's pics of Doug Ward's Col 50 before restoration and afterward. Doug worked the produciion line in Cal and was one of those that built my Cor 27.
 

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coiler

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Sep 13, 2011
7
Coronado 23 Delta
Thanks for the thought Ranger. Yes, mine is the fixed keel version. As I'm finding out, it's quite rare and there is not much information out there for it. Your help has been appreciated for sure.
 
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