[1][2][3][4] The design was built by Columbia Yachts in the United States from 1976 until 1979, when the moulds were purchased by Hughes Boat Works.
Production continued at Hughes in Huron Park, Ontario in Canada from 1979 until 1982, after the company entered receivership.
[1][2][4][5][6][7] The Columbia 8.7 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of solid, hand-laid fibreglass, with a balsa-cored deck.
It has a masthead sloop rig, a raked stem, slightly angled transom, a skeg-mounted rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed fin keel.
[2] In a 1997 review in Canadian Yachting, Pat Sturgeon wrote, "Alan Payne was somewhat ahead of his time when he designed this hull shape.
The unique wine glass transom and flat sheer was a look that people tended to either love or hate, and the 10-foot beam, carried well aft, was a design feature that didn't become popular until the mid-eighties.