1896-1900 Colonia

From 1896 to 1900 except for breaks to race Columbia in 1899 Charlies main command was the schooner Colonia. Colonia was originally built as a sloop to contend for the right to defend the 1893 America’s Cup against Valkyrie 11. In the final trials of 1893 she lost out to the other Herreshoff designed contender Vigilant but in 1895 she was converted to a schooner and for the next decade she raced competitively against the great schooners of the day including Emerald, Ariel, Quisetta and Elmina. It was her great success with Charlie at the helm that inspired Nat Herreshoff to design the great line of schooners he is known for.

On my visit to the Herreshoff Museum in the summer of 2024 I was made up to find a fully rigged model of Colonia. Seeing this model has certainly inspired my projected painting of Colonia.

All of Colonia’s construction plans can be viewed at the website of the Herreshoff Raisonne and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT

Ingomar racing Elmina off Greenwich point 1907 AVAILABLE