The Natural

Thad Danielson, a Massachusetts boatbuilder, knows exactly how close to oblivion the 1910 British yacht TALLY HO was in 2017, just before the English boatbuilder and sailor Leo Goolden bought her for $1.

A shadow of her former self, the yacht had lived through numerous changes, including an ignoble conversion to a commercial fish boat operating out of Brookings, Oregon, far from any yachting center. By the early 2010s, she had been all but abandoned after a man who bought her, and formed a nonprofit organization for her restoration, died before his dream could even get started.

She limped along, but in time the marina boatyard seized her for unpaid bills and hauled her out for auction or destruction. Hurriedly, an association based in England that is devoted to TALLY HO’s designer, Albert Strange (1855–1917), founded a limited liability company—with Danielson among its principals—to acquire the 47′ 6″ × 12′ 10″ × 7′ hull. The idea was to hold her for the arrival of a hoped-for messiah. A good-hearted volunteer got a rain cover on her and even put up a small sign about her illustrious yachting history: she was launched as BETTY in 1910 but she won the 1927 Fastnet Race after being given the name she still carries today. Nevertheless, the boatyard’s patience, already thin, was running out. If she wasn’t gone by June 2017, the yard was prepared to break her up and be done with it.

To read the rest of this article:

Subscribe or upgrade to a WoodenBoat Digital Subscription and finish reading this article as well as every article we have published for the past 50 years.

Subscribe Now