“My Name Is Leo, I’m a Boatbuilder and a Sailor” Who Restored ‘Tally Ho’
For the past seven years Leo Gooldon has been rebuilding the classic cutter Tally Ho in the Pacific Northwest. Along the way he’s generated a tremendous following on his YouTube channel for his patient, down-to-earth coverage of the enormous project of bringing Tally Ho back to life.
To the delight of all classic-boat lovers, Leo has completed the project and set sail. The past week he arrived on San Francisco Bay, where sailor Wayne Edney of the Bristol Channel Cutter Odyssey caught Tally Ho just as she was coming under the bridge.
Wayne wrote in that he was out with his son and wife outside the bridge on their Bristol Channel Cutter when Tally Ho sailed in last Monday. He added, “I have been a reader since 1990 and appreciate the magazine’s contributions to Bay Area sailing.”
Heres a video of Tally Ho sailing into the Gate, shared by “Where in the World with Karen and Wayne.”
You can follow the seven-year rebuild of Tally Ho here.
Thanks, Wayne, for sending this spectacular shot and video. Looks as if you were able to have a fabulous day of sailing along with it.
Not every day that you get bright sun and just enough breeze to make it fun under the GGB.
Hopefully Leo will have some time to meet and greet those of us that have followed his work on Tally Ho. His resurrection of Tally Ho is exactly the kind of story I am telling in my documentary on classic wooden sailboats. Take a look here https://windintheirsailsdoc.com/
It’s been fun living here on the Olympic Peninsula and watching the challenges that Leo has overcome to make this possible.
A truly great story that is rare. Leo gathered the resources and team to make this happen and the amount of work to essentially rebuild this yacht from scratch is so hard to find outside of rich men’s boat yards. So many classics have rotted and then been scrapped. Warms my heart to see a story of the reverse. Leo is welcome anytime at the Sausalito Yacht Club!! (and yes I will buy the drinks).
I have been following the Tally Ho project for a few years. I was particularly interested as I briefly owned the Bristol Channel pilot cutter ‘Grisette’ in 1966-67. Purchased her in Ala Wai harbor Waikiki to sell. I was sure she was worth more than the $12,000 asking price in California. I had $13K. We, the 4 crew & I had a magical 17 day passage to Santa Cruz. When we arrived I had 34 cents left. I got a job right away to pay the $62 slip rent in Santa Cruz harbor (were plenty of slips in those days). I sold her 5 months later with very mixed feelings. I had grown to love her but had neither the skills or the money to keep her. I would love to share a picture of her from 1911 (she was built in 1904) but can’t figure out how to do so. She sailed out of Sausalito for many years in the 70’s & 80’s