Watch Leo Goolden as he brings back the 47’ teak-planked TALLY HO to the glorious gaff cutter she was when launched over a hundred years ago in England. This vessel, designed by Albert Strange, lies under a shed in Sequim, WA, that Leo built next to the shop/apartment he rejuvenated—helped out occasionally by Poncho the parrot and Brian the dog.
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Richard Del Frate says:
In many cases risk is taken without even understanding what that risk may be. Ignorance and false sense of circumstance result in damage injury or loss of life. This too is experience and lesson learned or not “learned” only to be repeated once again. Leo mentions avoidance of risk as potentially limiting of life experiences and I would agree. My life spent in aviation and sailing would have been devoid of both had I listened to friends, family and even those consulted within the professions of each prior to my entry. Instead my life has been filled with challenge, joy and accomplishment, learning with each experience and growing in appreciation and re-evaluation of what is the risk, how can I minimize it while still engaging in the experience. It has served me well. I believe that a life lived without risk and challenge would be a sad existence indeed.
John Myatt says:
As someone who has been watching Leo regularly and is as awestruck as everyone else by his attitude to getting on with life, his response to this setback comes as no surprise.
I don’t know whether it’s a lesson in risk taking or being more careful that the rest of us should take from it. Maybe just that accidents happen even if you are capable and careful and what’s important is how you move on from there.
Ian Latham says:
I love this series and have enormous respect for Leo. What a person! What a magnificent task to build a new boat out of the ruins of an old boat! Literally, a phoenix in the making, day by day. It has inspired me to build a boat, a real boat, frames and carvel planking. But I differ with both Leo and Nate on the issue of ‘risk’.
There are two separate stories here: (1) Yes, ‘risk’ is a forgotten part of life, magnified by fear, political correctness, ‘parenthood’, etc. Our coddling of children and young people has made us frightened of just about anything that tests us in life — even bad weather, driving cars, playing contact sports. I can’t imagine many parents today encouraging — or even allowing a young person in their 20s to cross the Atlantic in a small sailboat. That’s not something parents do, or are ‘trained’ to accept, in any way.
In my early twenties, I had an opportunity to sail from Auckland to Sydney in a 45-foot steel yacht. No EPIRB. No liferaft as we know them today. No prior offshore training. And the skipper had never made a passage like this before. I couldn’t make it, because of work. My best friend could, and did. There were one or two very nasty, very testing days during the passage across the Tasman Sea. They made it, with a very small crew, none of whom had sailed offshore before, without incident. That’s ‘risk’.
(2) But please do not equate an industrial accident (if that’s what Leo’s injury was about) with the great and honorable concept of ‘risk’. Industrial accidents typically are not accidents, they are errors. A moment’s lack of concentration. Irritability and impatience with a job that’s not going right, or fast enough. Poorly maintained tools. Or beautifully maintained tools, handled carelessly, just for a nanosecond. Perhaps something unexpected happened. Perhaps a frame dropped and crushed his finger, holding tight in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps a tool failed. Perhaps something else failed. We don’t know.
We have no idea about how Leo’s injury happened. Except that he says it was his responsibility. But the boat didn’t fall on him. The shelter didn’t collapse. No act of God, so far as we can tell. Perhaps he will explain it all soon.
In the meantime, let us celebrate ‘risk’ and what it can teach us and our children.
But, please, let us not equate industrial accidents with ‘risk’. That is a bad idea. Preventing industrial accidents is a discipline that should preoccupy everyone who works with tools, heavy materials, improvised systems, experienced workers, and casual labor. I’m not a work and safety nut. But you don’t have to be a nut to be safe about work and safety. I’m just trying to separate two concepts that don’t belong together.
No disrespect to Leo, or the project, or the video, in any way, intended. Not for a moment, please. Just a thought.
David Tew says:
Excellent points!!
David Mowen says:
It’s not often that I wholeheartedly agree with the comments of another, but Ian Latham reflects my risk defining conclusions of 81 years, many of which were in the factory, field, or afloat. The risks naturally scale back, as the years and supporting wisdom pile up. However I happily look back on a life packed with both adrenaline and soul stirring experiences, most of which, without risk-taking, would have passed me by.
Peter Gossell says:
Thanks to OCH for alerting me to the Tally Ho project. Leo is solid gold, and I have been following him from the beginning. His comments on risk are spot on as far as I am concerned.
He can now join our club of those who have most of all their digits.
(I’m guessing router or electric plane from what I have been watching)