Building or restoring a car is a fairly common project in some families. Then there are those who put that same effort into motorcycles or small boats... but the Euronaut is different. It is nothing less than a submarine built from scratch, a Herculean task that demanded twelve years of weekends, holidays, and every drop of free time available.
Although it might seem hard to believe, this is not the first time we've heard of a privately built submarine. Some readers may have heard of the UC3 Nautilus, a Danish design almost 18 meters long and costing close to 200,000 dollars. Funds and knowledge are a very important part of the equation, but what holds everything together in this kind of project is determination. And that is exactly what we find in the Euronaut. Its design began in 1988, and it finally left the drawing board in 2000. From there, another twelve years of pure construction were needed, allowing it to make its first dive in the summer of 2012. In total, the Euronaut is a 24-year project.
The specifications of the Euronaut tell us of 16 meters in length, 2.5 meters in width, a submerged displacement of 67.6 tons, a speed of 8 knots (on the surface) thanks to the combination of a diesel engine (192 horsepower) and an electric one (55 horsepower), and an average depth of 250 meters, where it can stay for up to seven days. During its testing phase, the Euronaut has registered a depth of 320 meters, and depending on the occasion, its crew can range from three to six members. What is the main reason for the existence of the Euronaut? Basically, the intention was to develop a scientific vessel capable of providing support for divers, and this is why there is a special camera in the submarine, which we can see in the video.
The mastermind behind the Euronaut is Carsten Standfuss, who definitely has previous experience with submarines, since in the late 80s he built the personal submarine known as Sgt. Pepper’s, thus earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records. All the instruments on the Euronaut were hand-built or obtained on the second-hand market. Now... I can't manage to clean a couple of keyboards, and someone dedicates almost a quarter of a century to creating a submarine. Impressive from any angle.
