SUN DANCE II is a sprightly 17′ sailing dinghy whose design dates back to 1901. The original boat of the series from which she emerged, designed by N.G. Herreshoff and built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, was a daysailer meant to be carried aboard the 189′ Gardner & Cox–designed steam yacht COLONIA owned by Frederick G. Bourne. An avid yachtsman, Bourne was president of Singer Manufacturing, the sewing machine company, between 1889 and 1905. He was also a member of several yacht clubs and commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1903 to 1905. Bourne, with these bona fides, had a refined taste in boats, and knew what he wanted in a daysailer when he commissioned COLONIA’s dinghy. Herreshoff went on to build 36 Colonia dinghies, as boats built to this design and its variations have come to be called.SUN DANCE II is a copy of a Herreshoff-built boat called GARRYOWEN, which was launched 1926. GARRYOWEN was built for Charles Goodwin, who visited the Herreshoff shops in late June that year and placed an order, on the spot, for a daysailer for use at Essex, Connecticut. Based on correspondence in the archives of the Herreshoff Marine Museum (HMM) in Bristol, Rhode Island, Goodwin seemed to have been considering Coquina, a 16′8″ cat-ketch that Herreshoff had designed for his own use. The day after Goodwin’s visit, Herreshoff wrote him suggesting he consider something else:“We have moulds for another boat…which I think would make a better boat for you and probably as fast under ordinary conditions. I am enclosing profile and half breadth of deck of each for comparison which will show better by holding paper up to light. This later design has an over hang forward which gives very graceful lines.”
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This cutie has ballast. I can’t find any information on how to add ballast to a sailing dinghy. I would like to add some to my sailboat to add a bit of stability until I am more comfortable sailing her. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance.
For suggestions on ballast, see Trim and Ballast and Ballast Bags.
—Ed.
Right now lead shot is very expensive; about 4 bucks a pound. You’ll be buying it in 25 pound bags. Canvas coin bag clones in which to drop the plastic bag in which it comes are readily available. That said, a plastic bag of shot protected by a canvas bag lasts for years. Consider it an investment.
More research says that you can get lesser grade shot, reclaimed shot for just over 2 bucks a pound from suppliers like Rotometals.
WOW!!! Love this design and Herreshoff. Sailed on a bigger Herreshoff design growing up, my parents boat. I am unfamiliar with this design, but always loved the Coquina lines, but prefer a sloop rig.
I now have an Arch Davis Penobscot 17′ “barn find” from Maryland and your story has given me some great modification ideas. Have been looking to redesign her rudder and this looks just like what I was thinking for our “skinny” waters down here on the SOBX, NC*.
Thanks again, Nat…..through the years~ _/)
*Southern Outer Banks, North Carolina
Yes…. really enjoyed the article. Wonderfull boat. I sail a similar boat size with some similar characteristics, the 16′ 8″ Fulmar (Oughtred). Singlehanded sailing, a couple of lead ingots are tied down to each side of the centerboard housing, giving the same 120 lbs ballast as SUN DANCE II.
Taming a lively, more race-oriented dinghy to suit day sailing, cruising/camping is my objective.
Hello,
Good to see SUN DANCE still sailing, she was built in our shop by our neighbor and master navigator Clinton Loyd. He took the lines off the original GARRY OWEN, which was stored and sailed for many years out of our yard by the Reverend Charles Goodwin, son of the original owner and an Episcopalian missionary to Korea for the last forty or so years of his life.
Clinton Loyd’s previous boat was the 42 foot S&S sloop SUN DANCE, Derektor’s first or second aluminum build. Clinton used Alaskan cedar to plank his Herreshoff, and designed a sloop rig for her. I thought the boat ended up in California when Clint moved there in his later years.
Thanks for the nice article, Matt!
Photographs of the restoration can be viewed at my Facebook page.
She has wonderful lines. Any plans to try out the setup for line steering?
The boat has all the fairleads to do so. Opening the lazarette to run lines through is not appealing, with all the styrofoam I stuffed in there during the restoration. I find the idea intriguing, and have read posts from Coquina owners about how convenient the system is “once you get used to it,” but I have no plans currently to rig it. The tiller is second-nature.
From author Matt Murphy:
An anonymous reader recently wrote me with a few interesting amplifications to the story above. Three Herreshoff-built Colonia dinghies have survived. One is the original GARRYOWEN itself. Another is No. 1093s, recently restored by Warren Barker and students at IYRS in Newport, Rhode Island. The third
is No. 192104es (a sailing lifeboat for Herreshoff design No. 267p, ENAJ III) now in the collection of Mystic Seaport Museum, and well worth studying for anyone contemplating the very involved task of replicating an original
Colonia Dinghy. Readers considering such a project would do well to consult the book Building the Herreshoff Dinghy, by Barry Thomas (Mystic Seaport Publications, 1977).
Readers interested in learning more about specific aspects of the COLONIA Dinghy may click on the following topics to be taken to the appropriate pages of the Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné: GARRYOWEN, the boat’s half model, the offset booklet, the 36 iterations of the boat built by Herreshoff.