Anyone else a fan of the Tally Ho rebuild?

Hi Bas!

I certainly am. These days it's rare to see so large a project being brought to fruition, and even more rare to see it done well. The sheer volume of work, the level of detail, and the overall logistics are stunning (twenty-three years ago I built a 17' (5.2m) strip-built sea kayak to a Nick Schade design, and it was all I could do to finish the job!). The collaborative nature of the enterprise is also inspiring.

His purchasing the old yacht for $1 USD reminds me of the old saying, "Nothing's more expensive than a free kitten." And the amount of work done in the reconstruction and fitting brings to mind a line I once read in WoodenBoat magazine: "The problem with boats is that they're boat-shaped."
 
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I have plans for Ian Oughtred’s Wee Seal, which requires 600 lb (272 kg) of lead for the keel. Just thinking about melting all of that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Aside from lead’s status as a toxic heavy metal, there are some serious things to consider when melting metal in that sort of quantity (e.g., keeping the moulds and pouring areas completely dry).

I don’t recall the exact amount but I suspect Tally Ho’s keel was at least an order of magnitude larger. They’re lucky nobody was hurt during the first pour, which could’ve easily ended in disaster.
 
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That's going to take a lot of nights of stealing lead from church roofs.

I only found out that melting lead produces toxic fumes when I was well into my 50's. I've made quite a number of fishing sinkers and lures over my life, but all together they would only weigh about 2kg. Casting 272kg is a bit more of a hazard!
 
My old job was like 400T per pan and there's 8 of them and about 10x 200T pans also and various kettles up to 300T.
It was the most awesome place to be during summer, 40°C outside was like 75°C+ in there doing 12hr shifts 😵
 
Jeepers H. Creepers! I’ve melted quite a bit myself, but I’ve always done so using a small camp stove - and always took care to stay upwind. Most of the time I was melting down tire weights to make muffin-sized ingots. Four hundred tonnes is another matter entirely.