Saving the Sarinda

That first video spawned what today is a whole YouTube channel called Ship Happens. They now post weekly videos to show the repairs they’re making, and they are as surprised as anyone to have about 45,000 subscribers cheering them on—and sometimes even helping them out.

Simon Robins spends a lot of his nights in bed searching eBay for broken boats. Bringing them back to life has been a longtime hobby for him in Wales, on the U.K.’s west coast. He once scored a 1962 wooden restoration project for about $30. His sweet spot for fixer-uppers has always been around 20 feet length overall. Nothing too crazy. Just for fun.

One night in January 2021, he leaned over and showed his and said, ‘Gemma! Gemma! Look at this boat!’” she recalls. “And I was like, ‘No.’ It was massive.”