Rebuilding Tally Ho

This episode, I start by installing and running a new helical cutter-head in the planer thicknesser, before making a pair of oak frames with the help of some volunteers, and notching those intermediate frames into the keel timber. Then I take a trip to Port Townsend, where I visit the Western Flyer, a historic fishing boat which once took John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts around the Gulf of California. Finally I visit Edensaw, to buy the huge purpleheart timbers which will make up the remaining pieces of Tally Ho’s new centerline!

This episode, after a little work on the frames, Cecca and I take a trip to Vancouver for my VISA interview at the US consulate. When we get back to the USA Cecca has to head back home to the UK, but we start building a new team with three guys who arrive to help out – including one who has been here already. We get the huge Purpleheart timbers for the rest of the centerline delivered by truck, and we discover a very old bullet embedded deep in one of the pieces of Live Oak framing stock. At the end of this video we have replaced almost every frame in the centre-section of Tally Ho!

This episode, while the team keeps on building new frames, I make the templates for the Stern part of the Centerline, from the lofting floor. The ShipSaw gets some love and affection, and the framing of the centre-section of the boat is completed! Kirt and I talk about his really exciting idea about speeding up the next phase of the project, and despite a snowstorm, I make the first few cuts on the Sternpost timber with the Chainsaw Jig.

The yard is full of deep snow, but we have no time to spare! Finn and I cut out all the remaining Stern Assembly pieces from the huge Purpleheart timbers, and then use power-planes, hand-planes, chisels, and a new router sled, to shape them to match the templates as precisely as possible. Then we have to try and assemble this extremely heavy and expensive jigsaw! Once they all fit together, we use the forklift to hoist the whole Stern Assembly upright so we can check all the joinery from both sides.

With the deadline of the “Frame-raising party" looming, the race is on to try and get the Stern Assembly into the boat! With a strong team now, we are able to lift most of the pieces by hand, but have to make use of hydraulic jacks to lower the Sternpost Tenon into the Mortise. We also make improvements to our Treenail making process, build a new frame (16a), and I take a trip to the Port Townsend Shipwrights Coop to thread Silicon Bronze bolts with one of their machines.

Before the rest of the volunteers arrive, we have to get the huge timbers of the Stern Assembly bedded and fastened into the stern of Tally Ho. First we drill the holes for the bolts, using a 6’ long drill bit in a custom-made jig. Then we lift all the pieces with jacks and ropes, and fill the gaps with Tar and Felt. When they are back in place, the bronze bolts are driven through and tightened up, and lo and behold – the Stern Assembly is ready to accept new Frames, just in the nick of time! The last weeks have been especially hectic, so this video is a little shorter than usual, and hasn’t covered all the amazing work that Arnaud, Finn, Thom, Kirt and Tim have been doing to prepare for our intensive Frame-raising period, which is just beginning! Next video we will meet all the volunteers, old and new, and start mass-production of the stern frames.

After weeks of hectic preparation, we begin the big push to re-frame the stern of Tally Ho! For these 3 weeks, we have 10 people (including myself) working full-time on the boat; Kirt (USA), Finn (UK), Arnaud (Belgium), Thom (UK), Pat (USA), Max (USA), Robert (UK), Glenda & Bill (USA). After a few days spent training all the new members of the team, we get into full-swing frame production, and are able to achieve our goal of getting one pair of frames made and bedded per day! There is a great sense of camaraderie in the yard, and after making 7 frames we celebrate our progress by taking our little gaff-rigged dinghy out for a lazy Sunday sail.

Now we enter the final week of intensive Frame Production, with the team of volunteers going at full swing to finish reframing the entire stern of TALLY HO before our deadline. Spirits are high, and we celebrate by throwing a party in the workshop, and then organizing a very small dinghy regatta in the nearest bay. The fully-framed stern of the boat looks amazing, and it’s time for a short break - so after all the volunteers have left I pack up my own things and head back to the UK for a couple of weeks. Featuring; Kirt (In spirit -USA), Finn (UK), Arnaud (Belgium), Thom (UK), Pat (USA), Max (USA), Robert (UK), Glenda & Bill (USA).

This episode is a little different from usual – it is part of my recent presentation about the Tally Ho project at the Royal Ocean Racing Club in London. In this part of the talk I explore Tally Ho’s history, beginning with her designer Albert Strange, leading on to her Fastnet Race win of 1927, her collision with a reef in the 1960s, and her transformation from classic yacht to commercial fishing boat and back again.

This week we continue with the 2nd part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club presentation. This part of the talk focuses more on my own story before I began working on Tally Ho – from spending my late teens travelling abroad and busking on the street, to my first sailing and boatbuilding experiences, and my journey in a 1947 Folkboat from Cornwall across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

After a holiday on a beautiful aluminium yacht in Turkey, Cecca and I head back to the US, where Tally Ho is waiting. I get two new volunteers, Joe and Jack, who start off by making Frame Templates for the bow. In preparation for the new Bow Assembly, we cut the old Frame Heels and Hood End Fastenings, spring out the planks and frames in the bow, and remove the old Stem and Forefoot.

…in which we finish the templates for the bow assembly and cut out all the pieces with the chainsaw jig. Meanwhile, I have to deal with a damage to a power-plane, the Shipsaw, a chainsaw, part of my camera, and my wallet! Jack and Joe lose their minds organising all the fastenings in the workshop, and I get to do a bit of amateur furniture-making with a mirror-stand for Cecca. We plane everything in sight, and eat our lunch on a very expensive boutique purpleheart table.

In this episode we finally dry fit the purpleheart bow assembly timbers. In other news, we come up with a short-term solution to a damaged Babbitt bearing in the Ship-saw, and we remove Tally Ho’s Transom. We say goodbye to Jack and Joe, but meet two new volunteers, Renaud and Rowan. The chicks are growing up and I nearly drop a big timber on my head.

A worrying thunder-shake in the new stem means I have to make and install a large graving piece. After making some wedges and cutting notches in the scarph joints, we assemble the Stem, Knee, Forefoot and Mast Step in the bow of Tally Ho… lifting the gigantic stem overhead with the forklift is quite an amazing sight! After a tiny bit of trimming we drill and counterbore the holes for the bolts, and then cover everything (including ourselves, of course) with a thick layer of tar before putting it together for the final time and bolting it up - the centreline is complete!

Having installed the new Stem, it’s time to replace all the frames in the bow of the boat! Eight awesome volunteers show up and we get straight to work, training them to build double-sawn Live Oak frames. We start out at half-speed while everyone learns their jobs, and then gradually increase the pace. My old friend Joe is helping out with filming and editing, while his girlfriend Nadine cooks for us. I have a feeling that the tea-break banter is going to be strong, this month!

In this episode we follow the life of a single Futtock, from being marked on a template to being installed as a finished frame. Frame-raising 2.0 is going well, with more than half of the last section of Frames installed already! In other news, Cecca finds out that Janice is actually a boy…

Tally Ho is fully re-framed! In this episode we see the final part of the frame-raising party, as we make and install the last of the frames that make up the bow of the boat. We also work on the Fashion Pieces, and take some time to do some local sailing. Finally, a container-full of really long timber arrives from Suriname, and we have to figure out the logistics of moving it around.

After the busyness of the Frame-raising, it’s just me and the boat again for a while. I have some tough decisions to make as I look into ordering the timber for the deck-structure and planks. After a slow week of theorizing and office work, I finally get back onto the tools, and mark the position of the Rabbet and start cutting the shape of the cutwater into the stem.

In this episode, I cut the rest of the shape of the Cutwater into the Stem, using a chainsaw. Then I plane it smooth, and shape the transition to the square stem-head with a grinder. I also take a trip to Bellingham, where I look at the Oak Deck Beams on a beautiful old schooner. Finally, the huge timbers for the shelves and stringers arrive by truck, and in order to move them around I have to practice my welding and improvise a timber cart.

In this episode, I ask the question “is Tally Ho still the same boat?” ...I explore the ancient philosophical question of The Ship of Theseus, and how that problem applies to this project and also to our understanding of the world in general. While I consider all this, we recap the work that has been done on the boat up until now, starting with when I was first shown Tally Ho in Oregon over 2 years ago.

In this episode, after roughing-out the starboard side Rabbet into the Stem, I make a jig to transfer the measurements for the shape of the Keel Timber from the lofting floor to the boat itself. Then I start working on actually shaping the keel to its final shape, firstly using a TurboPlane wheel on a Grinder, and then switching to a good ole’fashioned Adze. I also add some small pieces of Purpleheart to complete the shape of the Forefoot, and make a small book-stand for my hosts here.

Rowan returns to give me a hand, and we finish shaping the keel with Adze and power-plane. Then we carve some shape into the Stern Assembly, roughing out the Stern-post with a chainsaw first, before cutting the remainder of the Rabbet into the centreline. The chickens enjoy watching our progress.

In this episode we install the Fashion Pieces, which will form the connection between the hull planking and the transom. We have to cut the heels, drill and chisel the notches in the centreline, and bed them with Red Lead paint and bedding compound (Dolfinite & pine tar). Rowan also works on fairing the bottom of the frames in preparation for the cast bronze floor templates. Finally, I work on adjusting the frames to be fair at the sheer line, in preparation for the beam shelf (sheer clamp) and bilge stringer.

In this episode I start by adjusting the position of some of the frames, and fairing them all on the inside. Then I cut and fit the scarph joins on the big 6-1/2” x 3” Angelique timbers. Along the way, I do a stress test on the 28’ long timbers by parking a vehicle over each end, and jacking up the middle with a 20 ton bottlejack. The chickens and Pancho the parrot lark around as usual.