Rebuilding a 107-year-old historic wooden yacht from the keel up is nothing short of an epic, and possibly mad, undertaking.
Here at Iseenew our newest favourite YouTube channel is that of young British boatbuilder Leo Sampson Goolden. With staggering reserves of energy and good cheer, Leo is deep into his project to rebuild the historic British sailing yacht Tally Ho. Luckily for us, Leo combines envialbe woodworking skills with the ability to create engrossing and engaging videos documenting his progress. We, and some nearly 100,000 other subscribers to the Sampson Boat Co. channel, are completely addicted.
With a little help from my friends
With the cooperation of a society setup to preserve the legacy of the designer of the yacht, Albert Strange, Leo bought the rotting remains of the Tally Ho for $1 in a remote port in Oregon in the US and shipped it to the property of some very understanding family friends on the Olympic Peninsular in Washington state.
With some 41 videos now under his belt, Leo is 18 months into his project and is making good progress. And along the way he has amassed a legion of fascinated followers who are subscribing to his YouTube channel, supporting him financially on Patreon, donating tools for the project, and even turning up to volunteer time on the tools to move the rebuild forward. It’s truly amazing how watching Leo and his volunteers cut Live Oak hull frames on a 100-year-old donated ship -saw and assemble them using traditonal methods has created a dynamic and growing community of involved supporters.
Get involved
If you’ve got six spare weeks on your hands and some skills to offer, you too can be hands on with the Tally Ho project by volunteering. However, if you’re all-thumbs, you can simply donate on the Patreon platform or pick a tool from the project’s Amazon Wishlist and send it to them. Of course, simply subscribing to the YouTube channel and sharing also helps.
