The latest edition of “Sailing La Vagabond” had 340,000 views in the first 24 hours, earning its creators around $7000 USD in addition to the income from blatant product spruiking, which make Lou Richards’ Bertocchi Ham promos look genuine. But they have 1.9 million subscribers… so my cynicism is rightly trampled under the feet of the madding crowd.

“It’s quite simple for me,” says French designer Thomas Tison, “Modernity does not neglect where we all come from – on the contrary it makes the best of it. In a way a boat is a heritage, so to ignore wood would be to ignore the essence of yacht design and building.”

There is of course in the community a finite amount of time, resources and money to go into restoring old boats. Not every craft can be saved. I estimate that of the wooden boats in Australia that are currently “out of commission” perhaps one in ten will ever float again… So what should be the criteria for deciding which craft are worthy of a new lease of life?

When one of these massive, shiny, floating apartment blocks is made out of (mostly) timber then its worth reading about, and taking on board the possibilities.

As I later found out, this was the first boat built in Australia by a young Danish shipwright Anders Johansen, who, after teaming up with his uncle John Hald, built more than 30 yachts over 8 or so years in Sydney in the ‘60’s

Jonathan, who becomes a father again at the age of 58, realises that he is not going to be around forever for his three-year-old daughter Phoebe. Despite his lack of practical experience, decides to build her a 10ft clinker dinghy in real wood, and in the space of a year. The result is, by turns, moving, funny and perceptive.

From the get go, Leo harnessed the power of social media to broadcast his story building not only a boat, but a remarkable community of volunteers and supporters.