About

My name is Leo Sampson Goolden. I am a Boatbuilder, Sailor and Writer from Bristol, England.

Right now, I’m on a mission to rebuild a very old English sailing yacht called Tally Ho. Designed by Albert Strange in 190 and built by Stow & Sons in 1910, she is a well-known and important historic vessel – but after many adventures she was left in a remote port in Oregon to rot for decades, despite some valiant attempts to rescue her. I bought her and moved her to the Olympic Peninsular in 2017, and since then have been rebuilding her from the keel up with the help of a lot of amazing people. Eventually I hope to sail her back to the UK.

I started Sampson Boat Co in 2013 as a platform through which to work as a self-employed Boatbuilder. In the following years I also started writing about my sailing and boatbuilding projects, so this website became a kind of blog, as well as a display of my work.

Many of my adventures were aboard the 1947 Folkboat Lorema, which I rebuilt in Cornwall and then sailed to the Caribbean with no engine or GPS, frequently breaking things, getting lost, and making a fool of myself along the way.

I also had some ridiculous escapades working as Skipper of the 95′ Classic Ketch Sincerity, (read about some of our adventures in Greenland here) and as Bosun of the 217′ Schooner Adix.

You can read

Sampson Boat Co is not a commercial entity at this time, and is simply the name of this Blog / YouTube channel.