There’s an old saying that says “Anything is possible with enough Time, Money, or Brains. Pick two.” For [Mr HỒ Thánh Chế], the choice was obvious: Time, and Brains. This is evident by the impressive DIY boat build shown in the video below the break.

[Mr HỒ] starts with an Isuzu marine diesel engine that was apparently found on the beach, covered in barnacles and keel worms (and who knows what else). A complete teardown reveals that the crankcase was miraculously spared the ravages of the sea, and somehow even the turbo survived. After a good cleaning and reassembly, the engine rumbles to life. What’s notable is that the entire engine project was done with only basic tools, save for a lathe. Even generally disposable parts such as the head gasket are re-used.

Moving onto the hull, half of an old damaged boat is used and a new top is built. Car seats out of a Toyota sit behind a steering column also from a car, while the deck is built from scratch out of square tubing, foam board, and fiberglass.

What we liked about the project isn’t so much the end result, it has some build quality issues and it looks like the steering is far too slow, but what project of our own hasn’t been knocked together for fun with some obvious flaws? In fact, that’s very often the epitome of the Hacker spirit- doing it quick, dirty, having fun, and iterating as we go. For that, our hat is off to [Mr HỒ].

If boat recycling puts the wind in your sails, check out this boat-turned-sauna project.

Thanks [Ansen] for the tip.

WOW! That engine rebuild was out of this world. I never would have thought that he could have salvaged that engine. Well done!

When he re-used the piston rings, I was impressed. When he rebuilt that alternator though, I was floored.

I believe that was the starter.

I can’t believe the circuit was still working

Impressive build. I especially like the shred-me-tender propeller setup.

Really impressive! But I doubt that spraypainting like he has done it offers any protection against corrosion.

It might. But that boat isn’t built to last either. To get at the engine he’ll need to take out a saw…

It will have an on demand engine access cover. When the engine demand major work, he’ll cut one out.

Where he made the dip in the back, I’d make it a vent, with a flap that gently sprung to be open slightly when the boat is at rest. That would give it better ventilation. Then I’d put a weight on the flap so it would close during quick deceleration so if water came over the back it would hit the closed flap. But I wouldn’t want the weight too heavy to stop the flap blowing open more at fast speed.

The engine survived months submerged in salt water! Why would he ever need to access it? B^)

Amazing…. James May is in danger of losing his “Reassembler” crown :-D

(.. and maybe he out-Zoffingered Zoffinger of youtube.)

Mr. Ho is very talented hacker. And the engine restoration was amazing. I particularly enjoyed his scrounging/recycling of th car parts. “Yo, we heard you liked back seats, so we put a back seat in your back seat!”

No reverse, though. And no gauges. I suspect this will be an evolutionary build.

Can’t help bu think that a westerner would have discarded all that stuff, but Mr. Ho turned it into a fun project. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

More time than money, more money than time.

How do we get this man a welding helmet?

Find contact information, it even might bank account information.

And some better safety flip-flops.

What about protective gloves? I don’t think the bare hand chemical trick is a good idea…

nice boat build, unfortunately google has ruined youtube with invasive advertising so i have decided to not open youtube videos anymore, hopefully an alternative to youtube will start to be used on hackaday

Just use an ad blocker like ublock-origin (whitelisting hackaday, of course!)

@Christian Knopp saidys: “Rumble is de w[a]y.”

Nah, Rumble forces you to make an account and login just to see the comments. Not gonna happen with me.

Unfortunately my greed for free content has corrupted my soul.

@kenny_c said: “…i have decided to not open youtube videos anymore…”

I agree. The ads are ridiculous these days. I rarely use YouTube now.

Did the drone just barely survive? (33:10 – 33:15)

Off of your boat, beat the barnacles Off of your boat…

Altho there might have been one or two in the motor….

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