Sailing

Tally Ho! A New Beginning

Daniel Bigelow

Daniel Bigelow

— 3 min read
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Tally Ho! A New Beginning
A family of four on the bow of a sailboat in it's slip.

The purchase of our new sailboat, Tally Ho, is complete. This is the boat that will take our family around the world. This has been a move planned for the last 10 years. We have put so much into this journey so far, and it is finally beginning to come to life.

We will cover the entire story of how we got here in a later post. For now, this is an introduction to Tally Ho, our 1986 Nauticat 43.

A family of four on the bow of a sailboat in it's slip.

Photos of Tally Ho in her birth.

The Nauticat 43 is considered a motor sailor, though when anyone talks about motor sailors that can actually sail well, the Nauticat 43 is at the top of the list. The boat has a powerful Ford Lehman 90 h.p. engine, and two masts featuring 4 separate sails as well as the option to deploy an additional spinnaker-type sail when traveling downwind.

A Ford Lehmen 90 h.p. engine in the engine room of a sailboat.

Under motor, the boat can hit 7.5 knots, and has been known to hit 9 knots under sail. This is a pretty decent speed for a displacement-type sailboat, especially one weighing 33 thousand pounds.

The boat can be steered from either the outside helm or from the protected cockpit. This allows for safe steering in all weather conditions.

Looking down into the pilothouse of a sailboat. A table and seating area to the left, and a helm to the right.

Inside are three staterooms for sleeping.

The forward V Berth:

A V birth of a sailboat with an additional bunk to the right.

The Aft Stateroom:

A master stateroom of a sailboat

The Bunk Room:

A small sailboat stateroom with two bunks.

This will allow the kids to each have their own room for privacy and to get away from everyone.

After purchasing Tally Ho we headed out to take the kids to see the boat, and they were both really thrilled. Though a bit overwhelmed. We also spent some time exploring San Francisco and documenting everything about the boat.

We still have a lot of work to get done on the boat before leaving, things like updating safety gear, upgrading electronics, and replacing standing rigging. But we plan to work on that over the next year or so and be ready to leave in August next year, with some luck.

I look forward to posting more about the boat, the journey, and all of the projects to get Tally Ho ready to sail.

A Nauticat 43 flying it's headsail featuring the Nauticat logo.

*This post is about two weeks late. It's been a busy 4 days on Tally Ho, followed immediately by an 11-day road trip to Indiana.

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