Captain Nemo from Peter

The country's only privately owned submarine length of five meters, range - from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and back. Her maiden voyage nearly ended in prison for the designer. Instead, he was sent to study at the Shipbuilding Institute. The designer and owner of the only private Russian submarine Mikhail Puchkov his creation no one is hiding. However, in the St. Petersburg Yacht Club among large boats and yachts of his white submarine, and so it is not evident. Perhaps because of the size. A tall man in a single compartment single boat barely fit.

The smallest submarine Russia does not differ in comfort. Previously, the only passenger, who was also a captain and navigator, even had to pedal like a bicycle. Now the boat has a gasoline engine and batteries. It develops decent even by the standards of maritime speed - 4 knots.

Naval Museum of St. Petersburg. Another submarine - the same shape, size, even the bicycle pedals inside. Year built 1881 st. Boat Seeds Drzewiecki is also called "Grandma Russian submarine fleet." The only surviving copy today - one of the main exhibits of the museum. When Mikhail Puchkov began to build his boat, a submarine Drzewiecki he knew nothing. Now jokingly calls his brainchild her "granddaughter».

His personal transport inventor satisfied. The length of the ship only 5 meters, but on the surface the boat can travel a distance of, say, from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and back.

The inventor has not exactly remember why 20 years ago, he decided to build it a submarine. Whether inspired by Jules Verne's novels, or the famous song "The Beatles'" Yellow Submarine ».

His "secret vessel" (the so-called prototype of modern submarines under Peter the First) Michael collected in the attic of a country house in the vicinity of Ryazan. Then he moved to Leningrad. On the banks of the Neva, he secretly launched the makeshift ship, and immediately fell into a network of local fishermen. Alert citizens detained suspect submariner.

Mikhail Puchkov, the inventor and owner of the submarine, "Well, then called the police ... the KGB arrived and looked for a long time, they said - it is necessary to learn from the shipbuilder. I then went to the Institute ».

It was the year 1988, and the latter-day Kulibin lucky. Later investigators said the hapless designer: get caught it four years earlier, it would have been not at a desk, but in places not so remote. Now a certified shipbuilder Mikhail Puchkov said, the main thing in any dream - that it is not over. And preparing the boat for the new season.

Mikhail Puchkov: "The dream is - paint it yellow and go to England ...».