Travel5 min(s) read
YouTuber buys $1.7 million luxury yacht then gets a huge shock when he discovers the running costs
YouTuber Matt Armstrong thought he might have found another bargain project when he was offered a 22-meter luxury yacht in Spain with an engine problem.
But after buying the vessel, named Capri, he found out that the mechanical issue was only part of the challenge.
The yacht was originally worth £1.7 million ($2.2m) when new in 1991 and had later been sold at an auction for roughly $662K.
It includes our bedrooms, crew accommodation, a kitchen, and large living areas, but is clearly in need of a major restoration.
The owner, Mo, explained that he had originally wanted to buy a jet ski before ending up with the yacht instead.
Capri is powered by two Mercedes marine V12 diesel engines producing more than 1,000 horsepower each.
One of those engines had an overheating problem after roughly two to three hours of running, with coolant spilling into the expansion tank.
A mechanic had suspected a failed head gasket, leaving the owner with a repair bill estimated at about £55,000 ($72,0000 per engine.
Mo explained that the problem became apparent while travelling by sea.
“We came all the way from Ireland to UK and France. Then we got caught in a big storm, and we went downstairs. We realized the engine was hot, and because of the storm, we couldn't turn it off,” he said.
Matt asked him where he was when he noticed the engine was overheating, and Mo said, "In the middle of the sea".
Matt realizes how expensive yacht ownership is
Despite the possible engine disaster, the YouTuber was interested in buying Capri.
However, the costs began to add up, with fuel costing thousands of euros, and keeping the vessel at its current marina would set him back about €4,100 to €5,000 a month.
"It needs restoration. It needs a lot of maintenance work. And if I commit to buying this thing, I have literally no idea what that yacht is worth at the end," Matt said.
"Just like cars, there might be a limit of how much a 1991 yacht is going to be worth, regardless of how much work we do to it at the end. But I am getting pretty excited about owning a yacht," he added.
Despite the risks, he returned to Spain and brought Capri. He then moved on to the second step, which was getting the yacht repaired and moved somewhere closer as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, the closest marina could not accommodate Capri's size.
"I bought a boat which is a bit too big because 20 m is okay. 22 m is not okay," he said. "The closest marina won't even take a boat of my size. So, we're going to have to come up with a new plan."
Team questions the head-gasket diagnosis
Matt began looking into the overheating problem himself. He noticed that the possible causes include a failed head gasket, thermostat, water pump, or blocked seawater cooling system.
But the YouTuber was not convinced that the expensive head-gasket diagnosis made sense.
"So, we know that Mo has had the problem diagnosed as a bad head gasket. But I feel like if it was a head gasket, the coolant will be getting burnt through and the engine would be really smoky, and the engine would overheat in a much quicker time," he said.
"So, there's still the option, it could be something else. And the way the coolant cools down is through the sea filters. So I think that's the first place to inspect to make sure that the sea is getting pushed through the cooling system to cool down the coolant," he added.
That decision led to a discovery nobody expected: the yacht uses seawater to help cool its engines.
Matt discovers seawater valve was closed
While inspecting the system, Matt said he first needed to shut off the valve before removing the sea filter.
"Before I remove the lid for the filter, I've got to close the valve off, which stops the seawater coming into the cooling system. Otherwise, seawater would just start pouring out of the top and into the bottom of the boat," he said.
But there was a problem as he noticed the valve was "already short".
That meant the seawater supply needed to cool the engine had apparently already been shut off.
The team suspected somebody may have closed the valve while cleaning the filter and simply forgotten to reopen it.
The seawater pump itself was confirmed to be working, so the filter was reassembled and the valve reopened.
Now, the only way to find out whether they had stumbled across the real cause of the overheating was to restart the engine.
"So now it's time to test the engine for good. Let's put back in the C filter and then the cap on the top of it. And once we open the valve, when we start the engine, it should, if there's no other problems, run to temperature and stay there. Sometimes we get unlucky with the crash damage cars, and sometimes we get lucky. But I wasn't expecting this on a yacht," he said.
After around an hour and a half, the engine was still running at a far lower temperature than before, and it had not overheated.
"There is absolutely no way that that was the fix," a shocked Matt said. "It is now 20 past 2... We've got to leave for the airport in about 10 minutes. But that's run for about an hour and a half, I'd say. And it is nowhere near the temperature it was getting to."
He remained cautious but was confident that the suspected head-gasket failure had been misdiagnosed.
"I can't believe I think we need to run it for even longer to be 100% sure. But the fact that it's ran for one and a half hours and that one is running cooler than that one. I'm going to say there's not a chance that that head gasket's gone on that side or what like you'd be boiling over rapidly," he said.
"You'd have a misfire on one of the cylinders because some of the exhaust gases will be leaking out. It would be running lumper. And now have I got well what I think is a bargain," he added.
Matt concluded the head gasket was unlikely to be the problem, suggesting the yacht's biggest apparent mechanical fault may have been caused by something as simple as a closed valve.