SUNDANCE II is a “Colonia” sailing dinghy designed in 1901 by Nathanael G. Herreshoff
Built in Essex, CT in 1975
LOA 17’ 3” LWL 15’ 9” Beam 5’ 3”
Draft/board up, 7″ Draft/board down, 36″
Hull: cedar planking on white oak frame
Deck: mahogany Spars: red cedar
SUNDANCE II was built in 1975 at a yard in Essex, CT for Clinton Lloyd, an architect from New York City. Lloyd was chief architect on the Henry Hudson Bridge in 1937. In the 1960s, he owned a Sparkman & Stephens 42’ yawl named SUNDANCE. SUNDANCE II was built on lines from Herreshoff’s sailing dinghy designed for Hartford, CT lawyer Charles Goodwin in 1926 and named GARYOWEN. The construction plan for GARYOWEN was in turn drawn after Design #568 [1901], “Colonia Sailing Dinghy” which was built as a tender to the steam motor yacht COLONIA owned by Mr. F.G. Bourne.
GARYOWEN was rigged as a Cat Ketch, similar to Herreshoff’s COQUINA. SUNDANCE II appears to have had, at one time, mast steps for a cat ketch rig, as well as a step in a position that would have made her a sloop. The COLONIA SAILING DINGHY appears to have been rigged as a gaff sloop, and it was this set of plans that I used in re-rigging SUNDANCE II.
GARYOWEN and SUNDANCE II are believed to be the only remaining examples of design #568.
In the late 1970’s, Clinton Lloyd gave SUNDANCE II to the South Street Seaport Museum. The boat was later moved to a museum in Bridgeport, CT when the Seaport Museum was not taking care of her. In 1985, SUNDANCE II was donated to Waverlee Trust in Castine, ME, care of Bill Corbet. Bill did some important repairs, including fiber glassing over a couple of split planks on the bow, but the boat remained largely unused. I bought SUNDANCE II from Bill in July 2017 and did extensive restoration on her, modifying her rig to the gaff sloop of the 1901 design, building new spars, mainsail, tiller, centerboard, cockpit sole, mast partner/thwart, belaying pins, and replacing bronze hardware, and of course, painting and brightwork.