Volga
Hydrofoils are inherently cool. They fly over the water, use a lot less fuel than a conventional boat, and go much faster. And they are so James Bond. So what could be better than having a guy in Latvia named Andres Andres (really) email me and say he could get me a Russian hydrofoil for cheap. Being the trusting sort, I wired him some money. (I admit it, that was a bad idea.)
Sadly, what ultimately arrived had nothing in common with the beautiful picture of the yellow boat he said I was acquiring. In point of fact, what arrived was a useless rusty hunk - the Gaz diesel engine was literally seized solid and this boat hadn’t seen water in decades. There were three saving graces: 1) I actually got something, 2) the hull and foils were salvageable, and 3) the outdrive had originally been built by Volvo. This allowed me to build everything up around the important bits, and end up with a 50-knot wonder boat.
Sadly, what ultimately arrived had nothing in common with the beautiful picture of the yellow boat he said I was acquiring. In point of fact, what arrived was a useless rusty hunk - the Gaz diesel engine was literally seized solid and this boat hadn’t seen water in decades. There were three saving graces: 1) I actually got something, 2) the hull and foils were salvageable, and 3) the outdrive had originally been built by Volvo. This allowed me to build everything up around the important bits, and end up with a 50-knot wonder boat.