Restoring a historic racing yacht after buying it for a dollar
An evening pause: The yacht, the Tally Ho, had won an important race in 1927 in Great Britain. The goal is to get this work done so it can compete in 2027 in a similar race in Britain that it won one hundred years previously.
Though after watching the video, it seems this is more like a complete rebuild from scratch rather than a restoration.
Hat tip Cotour.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I’ve been watching that project since about the 11th video, many years ago. There are actually at least two videos in the series discussing the parable and concept of the “The ship of Theseus” and whether you can consider this to still be the original Tally Ho, whether it’s a restoration, a re-build, etc. As Leo says in his most recent video, he calls it a rebuild, and estimates that about 10% of the original material is in the rebuilt boat, although very little of it in the same place or purpose. Old deck timbers that are now cabinets, lead that was in the original keel but has been re-melted and re-poured, etc. Basically the only things that could be considered restored are the transom, the capstan, and a few pieces of the minor deck gear.
It’s been a fascinating project to watch, both to learn about boat building, see some excellent craftsmanship, but also to watch a community form around him and turn that from basically one person planning to do a quick restoration into a team doing the major work.
There is basically no hope that it will win the Fastnet race again, it only won the first time by virtue of being one of the few craft in the race that could handle the extreme weather. But now, even if the extreme weather repeated itself, there will be competition that is just as seaworthy yet built for much more speed.
I also followed Leo on his mission to “restore” Tally Ho and make her seaworthy again .. and what an amazing adventure it has been. With each video, Leo Goolden lived up to his claim of being a “boat builder and a sailor” in fine style. To all who have seen his videos, he has imparted an education in wooden boat building, project management, team building, effective fundraising, and the power of YouTube. People all over the world looked forward to Saturdays in anticipation of his next video drop. And the content was simply amazing almost all of the time.
My favorite was when he cleared out the clutter and equipment from a large workshop and turned the floor into a huge “boat lofting” workspace. Watching him trace out full scale drawings of planks and beams and such on huge rolls of papers that he laid out across the floor space was simply amazing to see. Frome each drawing he’d create a perfect lightweight template which he’d then take to the wood shop and use it to cut and shape actual hull, keel and deck parts. I never heard of a “lofting” process before, but he made something hugely complicated look so easy.
This is one adventure where “you had to be there” to see and realize the scope of this project, the challenges he overcame, Leo’s amazing work ethic and the depth and breadth of his impressive skill set. It was a very lucky for me when I stumbled across his first early video.
Boating is a love, a culture, an endless black hole of repairs and maintenance that devours money and, in some instances, it develops into a mental illness.
Hey, it “ONLY” cost him $1.00!
I too watched Leo and Tally Ho over the years. As to the restore / rebuild question, I suspect he actually intended a restoration. Given his expertise he certainly was able to assess Tally Ho’s condition, so I doubt he was fooled that way.
My impression from watching the whole thing, especially the early hull work, was that once Leo had set up a process for creating a new plank (for example), he was persuaded to just use it to do ALL the planking, rather than “save effort” by reusing planks that would likely fail later… and at sea!
The amazing team that formed around him and dynamically regenerated over time, and the worldwide flow of contributions via YouTube, also probably helped push things in that direction.
Looks like a “my grandfather’s axe” situation.
I think I’d have set fire to the hulk. I’ve deep overhauled/restored a home built aircraft and fixed all the original build flaws. It is sometimes easier to start with new.
The S.S. United States is set to become a reef South of Alabama.
Yes, I know it was cramped compared to today’s “fun ships.”
She deserved better.
No, she didn’t. She should have been scrapped or turned into a reef decades ago.
One of the reasons the U.S. merchant shipbuilding industry declined so rapidly after Henry J. Kaiser temporarily amped it up during WW2 – besides the Jones Act – is that it got stupid. The S.S. United States was a hot-rod ocean liner built for the Atlantic crossing trade as that existed pre-WW2. Post-WW2, that trade quickly moved to large aircraft, especially jets. Building a hot-rod ocean liner in the early 1950s was roughly the equivalent of some sporty Amish boys bringing a streamlined buggy to Daytona or Indy.
The S.S. United States was not the only such miscue. There was also the N.S. Savannah, a nuclear-powered, but dinky, break-bulk freighter that arrived just in time to be blindsided by the advent of freight containerization and nuclear nonproliferation.
“Boat,” = “bust out another thousand…”