A 28 year old Englishman rebuilt a 110 year old yacht in the Seattle area and made a 67 episode series. His expertise for his age is incredible. Luckily you can watch the series on his site and not have any ads if you watched on youtube.

http://sampsonboat.co.uk/

I've enjoyed Leo's effort to rebuild Tally Ho. Some of the wood he used so far is nothing short of amazing - yyuugge pieces of purple heart (the keel alone must have cost $5,000), live oak for the frames, its is truly impressive.

Just the keel bit of purple heart was $6K. He bought another batch for the bow and with some other wood for something else it was $10K with discount.

Equally impressive was the mast for the pilot cutter replica he visited. A 57' finished section of nearly knot free Douglas Fir. The tree was planted in the early 1900's and lower limbs constantly removed to create an eventual spar I suppose.

I've been watching Leo as well as Steve and Alix (at https://www.acorntoarabella.com/ ). I really enjoyed the two different ways they made their frames (steam-bent vs. sawn). There's also another interesting build at, http://www.seadreamerproject.com/2018/. This guy is building a Diesel Duck trawler with non-traditional methods & materials.

I'm on episode 55 and I just figured it out, it's a new boat with history that you can get people to donate money to build, and get workers to build it for free. Leo Sampson is a genius at getting others to build his dream boat.

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:
I'm on episode 55 and I just figured it out, it's a new boat with history that you can get people to donate money to build, and get workers to build it for free. Leo Sampson is a genius at getting others to build his dream boat.

I've long thought Leo to be Tom Sawyer brought to life.