Mat Armstrong takes on a whole new challenge as he buys a $2.2M non-running luxury yacht to try and fix it as he eyes a 'bargain'

Fresh off the back of his Bugatti chronicles, Mat Armstrong has a new challenge on his plate – a non-running luxury yacht.

Yes, you read that right – he’s now fixing up boats.

The British YouTuber is renowned for his ambitious projects.

Now he’s turning his attention towards a $2.2 million non-running luxury yacht. Would he sink or swim?

Mat Armstrong may well be one of the most ambitious YouTubers out there

If you looked up the word ‘perseverance’ in the dictionary, you could very well see Mat Armstrong’s picture there.

The man is a total workhorse, as his never-ending Bugatti sagas proved.

Despite the many setbacks, he toiled endlessly to get his Veyron and Chiron Pur Sport into running order.

But now that the page has turned on those projects, he’s looking for something new to sink his teeth into.

But imagine our surprise when it was a luxury yacht that Armstrong decided would be his next project.

Was he in over his head?

Let’s take a closer look.

Would he have his work cut out for him with this luxury yacht?

This yacht, named Capri, had had suffered engine damage from overheating during a storm.

It was clear that significant cosmetic work was also needed on the interior.

“You can’t go wrong with an Italian made with a German V12 engine at the back. It’s almost a Pagani,” Armstrong said.

There were several financial risks to consider.

When this yacht was brand new back in 1991, it would go for £1.7 million ($2.27 million).

But in recent years, it was fetching £500,000 ($669,000) at an auction.

This led to uncertainty about resale value.

Add onto that maintenance costs and marina fees, and you have one complicated situation on your hands.

But ultimately, Armstrong and his team decided to proceed with the purchase in Santander, Spain.

Now it was time to investigate the issues that were plaguing this boat.

Monitoring the engines, they saw temperatures spiral high within 90 minutes on one engine, while the other remained at a comfortable temperature.

As if that wasn’t enough of a headache to deal with, they had a hard time finding a marina which would accommodate the boat, as most capped length at 20 meters.

This vessel measured out at 22 meters.

They were stuck paying extortionate fees at the dock they were currently at, so they needed to get these engines fixed up as a matter of urgency.

Further investigation found the culprit behind the overheating engine – the seawater intake valve was turned off.

Someone had seemingly closed it to clean the seaweed from the filter, then forgotten to open it up again.

Without a fresh flow of seawater moving through the heat exchanger, the engine coolant had no way to release heat, leading everyone to assume the head gasket was destroyed.

Now that they’d opened the valve up again, they waited to see if it’d made any difference.

Fortunately, it did – and both engines were now running at healthy temperatures.

Something that had looked like an expensive fix had been resolved without buying a single new parts.

We can only imagine the collective sigh of relief among Armstrong and his team.