You might think that watching invasive surgery on a dated fiberglass sailboat week in and week out would be just about the last thing to draw people’s devoted attention. But Matt Steverson, 38, and Janneke Petersen, 36, who are rebuilding the Open 60 Duracell, are proving that assumption wrong. Their YouTube channel, The Duracell Project, has attracted more than 75,000 subscribers since the first episode aired in September of 2021.
Viewers tune in every week to watch the couple discuss cockpit ergonomics, deckhouse dimensions, and interior design ideas, or to witness how Matt, kitted out in Tyvek suit and face mask, cuts out ballast tanks or infuses fiberglass sandwich bulkheads with epoxy resin. Converting a spartan racing yacht into a livable, comfortable, and fleet-footed ocean cruiser means there’s no shortage of loud and dusty projects that involve a Sawzall, only to get finished with fiberglass, PVC core, and industrial-strength adhesives.
The channel’s growth still surprises its creators, whose career choices as boatbuilder and middle school science teacher did not prepare them for showbiz. Their success is attributable to their low-key personalities—what you see on camera is what you get when you meet them in person—and their boat.
Named for the battery competed in the inaugural Vendée Globe singlehanded nonstop round-the-world race in 1989/90, and in the 1990/91 BOC Challenge—a similar contest but with stopovers. Mike Plant, the premiere American singlehanded ocean racer of his time, built and campaigned the boat. An admired adventurer and rather a daredevil, Plant remains the only American to have won a singlehanded round-the-world race, as the improbable champ of the smaller 50-foot class in the BOC Challenge 1986/87 on .
