Can The County Shutdown Tally ho?
Many of you will already be following the amazing story of Leo Sampson Goolden, Boatbuilder, Sailor and Writer from Bristol, England and his current project - the building of the 110 year old, Gaff Cutter the Tally Ho.
From the get go, Leo harnessed the power of social media to broadcast the Tally Ho story to build not only a boat, but a remarkable community both of volunteers and supporters. His work and attitude was an inspiration to us when we set out to create SWS.
To date Leo has published 92, half hour long videos in which he explains his thought processes, illustrating the techniques and skills needed to bring this boat to life. He does this with wit, charm, regularity and a degree of humility rarely seen on social media – a combination for genuine success with 370,000 Youtube Subscribers.
The quality of the work being done by Leo himself, along with one other shipwright and a group of trainee volunteers, appears to be faultless. The detail, the planning and the execution will find the finished crafted truly stunning.
And yet what’s even more incredible than effort going into the making of his films and the boatbuilding is that the whole project is fully funded by donations to his Patreon Account with over 5000 individuals agreeing to pay a fee per video to watch the Tally Ho concept become a reality.
However, this week Leo hit a hurdle, you can watch the story here, but in a nutshell, his local county in North West USA wants to shut down the boatyard.
Leo is very keen to make sure that his response to this potentially devastating series of events is balanced, and rational. He is not asking for people to be angry on his behalf, but he is feels it’s important that those who have been following him during the last 92 episodes of film making know the full story of that with which he is dealing.
If you are reading this it’s probably because you have an affection in some way, for wooden boats. In that case you couldn’t help but be impressed with the vision of this project, the audacity of the concept and the talent in the execution. Whether you are into wooden boats or not, if it does get shut down because of petty mindedness and bureaucratic intransigence, it would be a tragedy.
Have a watch of the latest episode and if you feel moved leave a comment or click the link below to share a positive message directly with Leo.
From all at SWS Leo,
Keep the faith.