We've had a few days of glorious sunshine and yesterday we also had a perfect light breeze, so Marit and I hoisted sail for the first since January. Pictured here on a downwind run off the coast of Saltspring Island.
2025-04-28 19:29:36 +0000 UTC View Post
After a very nice but quite lengthy trip to the UK and Finland, we are finally back in British Columbia and back on board Tally Ho! It feels so good to be back on the boat, and it seems like summer has arrived while we were away. There is plenty of work to do, but we are excited for a lot of grea...
2025-04-26 20:50:12 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been really pleased to see how much people have seemed to enjoy the latest video of my presentation in Helsinki. I'm not totally comfortable doing public speaking but I think I'm improving!
This is a photo that I wanted to include in the slideshow, but didn't. Most people who have bee...
2025-04-21 18:42:22 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode I am invited to give a talk at the Classic Yacht Symposium in Helsinki, Finland.
First I talk about the Tally Ho story - how I started the project and how we rebuilt the boat, including some details that have never been shared before.
In the second part of the talk, ...
2025-04-19 16:00:27 +0000 UTC View Post
I feel exceedingly honoured that Tally Ho won Restored Sailing Vessel over 40ft at the Classic Boat Awards 2025!
This award is for all of us - everyone who had a hand, or a click, in the rebuilding of Tally Ho... so congratulations to you and and thank you for making it possible!
Th...
2025-04-12 16:51:25 +0000 UTC View Post
It's been a year since my last visit, and perhaps in another couple of years we will see Tally Ho in a scene like this (although perhaps not quite so far up the Thames - too many bridges!)
2025-04-11 17:52:20 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode I attempt to explain Galvanic Corrosion, as I need to add another Zinc Anode to fully protect the bronze propeller.
After more antifouling paint we enjoy some extremely satisfying tape-peeling, and finally we relaunch Tally Ho and do some manoeuvring to test how the boat ha...
2025-04-05 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I just spent an amazing weekend in Helsinki at the Classic Yacht Symposium, where I was invited to talk about the Tally Ho rebuild. We were looked after incredibly well and it was amazing to meet so many people with so much passion for historic vessels. I thoroughly enjoyed all the presentations ...
2025-03-31 08:30:48 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode we identify and fix the problem that led to a binding rudder, although we are left with some unanswered questions about corrosion. We also scrape, sand, and paint the bottom of the boat to get her ready to re-launch, and re-varnish the transom… phew!
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Music;
We've been grappling with bad weather and dodging frequent rain-showers, but I'm happy to report that solving the stiff rudder issue has been going well! Here I'm giving one of the pins a bit of light persuasion with an angle grinder, and as you can see I'm taking no chances in my trusty safety-c...
2025-03-20 17:01:06 +0000 UTC View Post
In this bonus episode I address some questions which have been asked a lot recently;
What exactly is left of the original Tally Ho?
Why didn’t I just build a new boat - and wouldn’t that have been easier?
2025-03-15 17:12:20 +0000 UTC View Post
I wonder if there would be much interest in a video about manoeuvring and parking a heavy boat like Tally Ho... I have some good tips for easily getting into awkward berths like this one, whether singlehanded or with crew. However, that practical knowledge is probably only useful to a small perce...
2025-03-13 17:20:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Scraping seams in the sun - just one of the many joys of wooden boat ownership!
I'm not kidding, I love this sort of work - easy and satisfying.
2025-03-11 18:30:29 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode we haul Tally Ho out of the water to try and fix the rudder.
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Music;
Cross the Road - Silent Partner
Lazy River Rag - Dan Lebowitz
Jazz Apricot - Joey Pecoraro
2025-03-08 18:10:43 +0000 UTC View Post
We're out of the water to diagnose and (hopefully) fix the cause of a frustrating problem - any guesses?
Of course we will take the opportunity to make a proper inspection, scrub and paint, and take care of a few other things.
2025-03-01 21:28:03 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode Leo, Marit, Bob and Patrick all travel to Tasmania to visit the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. We meet lots of interesting characters, sail on some beautiful vessels, visit an inspiring project, and of course… search for wombats.
We saw incredible vessels of all shapes and sizes at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. Here are two impressive tall ships - the James Craig, a 19th century barque, and the Australian-built replica of James Cook's HMB Endeavour. Hundreds of smaller wooden boats also attended, and of course ther...
2025-02-18 23:05:28 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the highlights of our trip to Tasmania was visiting Matt and Iefka and hearing about the 41' cold-moulded wooden boat that they have been building from scratch - Tarkine. I hope to publish a video about our trip which will include more details, but in the meantime check out this talented c...
2025-02-17 22:13:30 +0000 UTC View Post
In this episode I attempt to sail Tally Ho singlehanded. Hoisting the mainsail is the first big challenge - that thing is heavy! I navigate through the Gulf Islands, dodging ferries and buoys, and then get myself in a tangle when I have to drop all the sails.
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Music;
Easy St...
2025-02-15 19:08:20 +0000 UTC View Post
The last week has been nonstop crazy - the Australian Wooden Boat Festival was amazing, and I'll be posting more about that soon. We met lots of really amazing people and had some good adventures, despite picking up a bug on the plane and feeling as sick as a dog for most of the time.
Obv...
2025-02-14 22:38:38 +0000 UTC View Post
The Australian Wooden Boat Festival is in full swing! Pictured is Bob and Paddy having fun dinghy-sailing yesterday.
Due to a combination of jet-lag, a bug I picked up on the plane, preparation for my presentation tomorrow, and general festival madness, I don't have a video ready to release...
2025-02-08 21:09:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Thank you very much for so many great ideas after my last post! Lots of very valuable opinions in the comments - later today I'll be boarding a flight to Tasmania, so I'll read through the rest of them in the air.
This is how Tally Ho looked when I woke up.
Anybody interested in a ...
Hi all,
I just wanted to write a quick update about the boat, the project, and the future of the channel.
Firstly, I’m so very grateful that many of you are continuing to watch and support the channel now that Tally Ho is in the water. Obviously it takes a lot of time, effort and mo...
2025-01-31 21:31:28 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm honoured that Tally Ho has been nominated for the Classic Boat Awards 2025! There are a lot of really wonderful boats in the line-up, and the winners will be decided by public vote - if you'd like to take part and cast your vote, please do so by following this link.
This video took a lot of work to edit, I really hope you like it!
I'm looking forward to making a much longer and more detailed video about the project as a whole, but for now I really wanted to get a summary / preview of the rebuild published so that new viewers can see what the chan...
2025-01-25 18:03:07 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm remembering last spring, when we were doing sail-trials in the Port Townsend sun. Warm weather will be here again soon!
Photo credit; Heather J
2025-01-24 20:46:15 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm working on a really special video - a compilation of the whole Tally Ho rebuild project in 20 minutes or so. However, it's proving to be a lot of work - I don't think it's going to be published this weekend, sorry!
Here's a short clip of the keep-scarfing part of the video - do you guys r...
I'm very excited to announce that I'll be giving a talk at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival next month. If you can't make it, don't worry - I do hope to film the talk to release on YouTube (as long as I don't mess it up too badly!)
I'll be travelling to Hobart with a few of the Tally Ho ...
2025-01-15 01:45:11 +0000 UTC View Post*SOUND ON*
This happened just a couple of days ago as I was merrily motoring around the Gulf Islands. I later learned that this is one of only 7 Martin JRM Mars flying boats that were built, and one of only 2 surviving. That thing seemed a lot closer than it looks in the video - do...
2025-01-13 21:35:17 +0000 UTC View Post