History of the Betty
Most of the following information comes from the Albert Strange web site (which memorializes the designs of Albert Strange), several published reports in the magazine, Yachting Monthly, with various dates, as well as additional sources.
Betty was designed by Albert Strange, a celebrated boat designer, artist, sailor, and writer, and built by Stow & Son in Shoreham, Great Britain in 1909 for Charles Hellyer of Brixham. Betty was the largest transom-sterned boat designed by Albert Strange. She is a 30-ton auxiliary cutter, meaning she is a sailboat which also can be powered by an engine. She was designed for cruising and deep sea fishing.
Betty was launched in 1910 and has a 12 foot beam, 7-1/2 foot draft and when fully rigged, carries 1660 square feet of sails. Hellyer kept her until 1913 when he sold her to Lord Stalbridge. Stalbridge renamed her the Tally Ho, and in 1927 she was entered into the Fastnet Race; a world-famous, first-of-its-kind open ocean race that pits sailboats against one another in some of the roughest seas in the world. The race is run from the Isle of Wight in Great Britain around a lighthouse in the Irish Sea called the Fastnet Rock, and back again. Tally Ho won the race. She was entered against 14 other boats and only two finished the race (Tally Ho and LaGoleta). This race was characterized as the hardest fight between two yachts that had ever been sailed in English waters over so long a course and under such heavy weather conditions.
Betty has also carried the monikers Alciope, Tally Ho, Escape to Paradise and The Escape. Ownership under the name "Alciope" is unclear. Jim Louden, a New Zealander, acquired her in 1967. Jim Price, an American and a yacht builder purchased her in 1971 and renamed her, Escape to Paradise. Lastly she was registered in 1978 in Oregon as The Escape by Dave Olson.
In 1967, Louden, with whom our more current history begins, sailed Tally Ho from Great Britain to the West Indies, then later, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Manuae, part of the Cook Islands. There, he took on (among other things) the commission of carrying copra (dried coconut meat used for coconut oil) from the island of Manuae to Raratonga. Waiting outside the reef west of Manuae, Tally Ho was soundly bashed, almost to pieces, losing most of her port side below the bilge, 26 frames (ribs) and destroying her rudder. Louden put her up for sale as he couldn't pay for the mounting repair bill, and she was subsequently purchased by Price.
When Price left the Cook Islands on his way to Hawaii, the rudder again was lost and he stopped for repairs at a Pacific atoll, then again in Tahiti. He later arrived in Hawaii. Jim left the ship in his son's care and returned to the South Pacific and later sold the boat to Dave Olson, who registered The Escape in Oregon in 1978. The new owner outfitted her with the necessities for commercial fishing, and is reported to have taken her on many more cruises to the South Pacific. The Escape languished in the harbor in Brookings, Oregon and was later repossessed by the Port of Brookings-Harbor for unpaid fees. In 2008 she was sold at auction along with two other boats which were slated for recycling. Once aboard, her new owner, anguished over cutting up such a well-made boat and eventually decided to restore her rather than selling her to the junk man piece by piece.