# Copying a 31 Bertram in Quepos Costa Rica



## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well it's been about a year since we've done something crazy, so I figured I'm not getting any younger and better get started! I love our Gamefisherman, and almost did a cold molded wood boat, but every tournament i see it's the wood boats, the foam boats, and then a dang 31 foot Bertram up there in the top. I have to see if there is something to this, so if the hull is smooth and raises fish while they are heavy, how much better would they do if we could build one that weighed half! So, I called in a favor and have one month to do what i want with this boat. My friend is headed to Brazil and says I can do as I please, as long as his boat is ready to fish by June first. Sounds like a challenge to me! Here's the boat:


















So in typical fashion, as soon as we started to put it on the trailer, we got a torrential rain 


















But we stuck with it, got soaked and here she is on the trailer!










Earlier today this happened:










That is 60 sheets of 1 inch and .75 inch divinycell. This is going to be fun!

The first goal is to clean this boat up, take all the running gear off, and then we are going to wax it about 6 times, 4 coats of PVA and we want to make a mold of it. Once the mold is done, we have to clean it up, put it together, paint the bottom and the antislip on the floor and give it back to my friend who is in Brazil until the 1st of June.

After i give the boat back we start seeing how we can make one of these things. i don't want to loose the classic lines, I have always felt like this was the 69 camaro of boats. You just can't change it or it looses the magic. So it has to LOOK the same, but I want to make it lighter, faster, and stronger. We are going to do the hull in all 1708 glass, nice vinylester resin, thick bottom, thin sides. All the top side will be built with the diviniyCell coring. Twin cummins 210hp 6BTs for longevity and gas mileage. Lightweight ZF 65A trannys. I'm thinking of building two fuel tanks (One big tank with a division). front part of the tank will be 80 gallons which we always leave full for day trips, and then the back part we will have 220 gallons so if we want to make a run to the FADS we can fill the whole thing up. We are going for AC, a generator, bed up front, couch on the inside. It'll be fun.

Here's the goal:

















Here's another cool one, I'll probably stick with the colors above, but this one really caught my eye! I'm not going to do the wood though.










Cool, well that's what I have for today. Monday and Tuesday are Costa Rican holidays, so we are going to hit it on Wednesday and see if we can get this thing ready to copy!


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Subscribed. I had one for a while, they are great boats. I had plans to extend the bridge deck toward to stern a couple of feet to get more room on the bridge, you may come up with a similar plan.


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## WildCard07 (Jul 15, 2012)

This should be interesting. Really enjoyed following your last build. Good luck with this one.


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## Down_South_Stingray (Feb 22, 2017)

Love me a clean Bertram. As a car guy I couldn't agree more when you say the '69 Camaro of the water. Good luck with the Build!


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

wow this is going to be an interesting build. Subscribed.


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## Empty Pockets CC (Feb 18, 2009)

I'm in.


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## dlbpjb (Oct 9, 2009)

Yes, it will be fun!


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## Bearkat (Jul 18, 2008)

Awesome! I really enjoyed following your last build as well. This will be fun to watch.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Just about have everything off we need to get off. I had to take the tower off to move it into a building, so that was alot of work. And we got all the running gear, thru hulls and vents taken off. We'll spend the rest of the day today washing it and then we'll see if our warehouse is ready.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

bigfishtx said:


> Subscribed. I had one for a while, they are great boats. I had plans to extend the bridge deck toward to stern a couple of feet to get more room on the bridge, you may come up with a similar plan.


Interesting, i don't think a foot would kill the looks. That is something to consider. Don't want to ruin the classic look though, I might do it and cut it off if I don't like it  Something to think about...


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> Interesting, i don't think a foot would kill the looks. That is something to consider. Don't want to ruin the classic look though, I might do it and cut it off if I don't like it  Something to think about...


I figured it would also add some extra shade for the crew also. If you do it I would love to see how it looks.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

bigfishtx said:


> I figured it would also add some extra shade for the crew also. If you do it I would love to see how it looks.


I am probably going to add the fold out sunbrella shade too, just to give some shade to the people I know are going to be sitting on the motor boxes.

Well, our nice Warehouse fell through. Looks like this is going to be home for the next year. We got the corner of the boat yard. Can't work in the rain, so we are going to have to build something to keep us covered. We start welding tomorrow...


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## JLJ1981 (Nov 7, 2014)

Hey John. I am looking forward to watching another one of your projects come together.

I am hoping to fish with you guys again later in the year. Hopefully I can come check it out in person.


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## richg99 (Aug 21, 2004)

Sounds like a great project that I can watch and enjoy your progress. Good luck. 

Also, won't Bertram have anything to say about popping their hull, or is that patent long expired? 

richg99


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

richg99 said:


> Sounds like a great project that I can watch and enjoy your progress. Good luck.
> 
> Also, won't Bertram have anything to say about popping their hull, or is that patent long expired?
> 
> richg99


Patents don't last forever, I think 18 years. And I'm not building them to sell them, so bertram shouldn't be too upset.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, so we made a shade to work under, got a really strong night wind, and the roof ripped off and went into the ocean. Not much more to say about that, wasted a week though. So, I moved the boat back to the same place we lightened up the ocean master and made the Quepos 28. I am not sure if we'll build the new boat here, but we will make the mold here for time sake as I am out of time.

So after the fiasco with the roof, we finally finished up the prep on the Bert to take one side. That involved putting on 15 coats of mold release wax and 4 coats of thick PVA. It looked like this when we were done:










And then we put two layers of thick mat and a layer of woven fiberglass on top.














































Tomorrow we have a bunch of 3/4 inch plywood. We are going to make birdcages of the side of the boat using 2 by 3's and then cut the plywood to fit the sides of the boat, and then glass in the plywood. This will help the mold to stand up when we are done, and it'll help the mold to get less flexible. After we get the plywood in places, i bought a bunch of 4 inch pvc tubes and we are going to cut them in half, and further make the mold rigid. I was going to wait for that to take pictures, but I'll try to post again tomorrow. Today was alot of work, although it doesn't look like it. It took forever to get the boat balanced on one side like that, with just a few supports on the side we are working on.

Again, the goal is just to get something to work with. I am not able to strip the boat of everything, turn it upside down and pop off a perfect mold, so we are kind of taking pictures of the sides of the boat with this mold, and then we will put the two sides together and then gelcoat the mold and make it look like we did flip the boat. I just want something to work with.


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## Quackerbox (Feb 6, 2006)

Interesting and quite the endeavor


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

So the glass was dry this morning. We left the woven cloth on the outside, so we don't have to sand as much to stick stuff to in. So we put the two layers of mat on the inside, and once layer of 18oz woven. Let that dry with the mat out. And then today, we are putting some PVC tubes on the outside to keep it straight. These are 4 inch PVC tubes, and we are using bondo with extra cat. like glue. You can catilize the bondo hot and it dries in like 3 minutes. Then we are going to glass these on.

Here's the first tube



















Here's the second tube



















More pictures to come in a bit.


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## gman1772 (Jul 15, 2012)

That mold might be worth a dollar or 2 after you get done with it. Bertram 31's bring stupid money in the States considering their age. I never owned one but I rode on a few. Best offshore cruiser ever made in my opinion.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, so we put the PVC on the outside. And then we started making birdcages for the plywood braces.












































Save​


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Then with the birdcages done, we transfered that to plywood, and then cut the plywood out and stuck the braces on!



















And then we shot a string line so that everything lined up on the outside of the plywood. So like when we put it on the ground it will stand on the plywood and then we can tilt it on its side and it'll stand up there too.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, that's half a boat mold!










So we demolded, and then got a bunch of drums, set the mold on the drums and rolled

it away!














































We spent the rest of the day putting on more PVA in the bow and on the bottom.

Tomorrow we start the other side!


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## WildCard07 (Jul 15, 2012)

Pretty impressive.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

They say to make Hay while the sun shines, and it's a bright and sunny day today! We got all the glass cut and one layer on the boat before lunch. We will be done with the mold soon!



















We also checked and all the birdcages for the other side look like they will work for this side, so we will not have to do that again, just cut the plywood. We'll make short work of that, we may finish by tomorrow night...we'll see...


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## JCockrell (Dec 14, 2012)

this is pretty cool, I'm interested to see the next phase of the two sides coming together to make the mold... interested to see how you guys put them together.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

JCockrell said:


> this is pretty cool, I'm interested to see the next phase of the two sides coming together to make the mold... interested to see how you guys put them together.


I'll probably just glass them together and cut them apart afterwards. KISS


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## jetbuilt (May 4, 2010)

I don't post around here too much, but I wanted to post up and let you know that I always enjoy following your threads. Keep up the hard work!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

jetcycles said:


> I don't post around here too much, but I wanted to post up and let you know that I always enjoy following your threads. Keep up the hard work!


Thanks!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Today we didn't get too much done. Don't know, just couldn't get in that groove. We got some of the plywood cut, but I really wanted it all finished today...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well the second half did not go fast, but it did go. And now we have a copy of both sides to work with.



















And then we have a nice and clean Bertram that is ready to put back together!


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## rubberdown (Nov 23, 2015)

Ok build the dang oat already!!! I enjoyed your last rebuild so much I can't even tell ya!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

rubberdown said:


> Ok build the dang oat already!!! I enjoyed your last rebuild so much I can't even tell ya!


Sorry, I gotta put the original boat together first! I'm super grateful for the favor and don't want the owner out a boat very long. We are hitting it hard trying to get finished. Build coming soon though!


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## Cavjock97 (Feb 2, 2016)

Capt. John, what's your preferred method of removing bottom paint and restoring the gel coat underneath?

Thanks! CJ97


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Cavjock97 said:


> Capt. John, what's your preferred method of removing bottom paint and restoring the gel coat underneath?
> 
> Thanks! CJ97


We use a paint remover here called El Diablo. I don't know if they make it in the states, but it is a gelcoat safe paint remover. We apply the remover, let it set and then scrape as much as we can. We usually do it quite a few times, and then just sand the whole bottom and re spray the Gel Coat. That job sucks. If you have a lot of blisters, we grind them out one at a time using a 4.5 sander and 36 grit disks and then I would fix them with vinlyester so they don't come back. I use only 1708 glass now, I think it's stronger than mat and woven. Then just prep it as usual if you are going to Gel Coat it. Make sure you aren't buying the cheap resin they sell at home depot, if you want something cheap that works well, i import alot of stuff from US Composites. You gotta make sure to use good resin or you might have to do the job again if you are fixing blisters.


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## RLwhaler (Sep 10, 2005)

Mad skills, there Capt ! :brew:


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## kenny (May 21, 2004)

RLwhaler said:


> Mad skills, there Capt ! :brew:


With a degree of difficulty of about 10. I love the half a hull on the ladder rolling on the drums.


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## Cavjock97 (Feb 2, 2016)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> We use a paint remover here called El Diablo. I don't know if they make it in the states, but it is a gelcoat safe paint remover. We apply the remover, let it set and then scrape as much as we can. We usually do it quite a few times, and then just sand the whole bottom and re spray the Gel Coat. That job sucks. If you have a lot of blisters, we grind them out one at a time using a 4.5 sander and 36 grit disks and then I would fix them with vinlyester so they don't come back. I use only 1708 glass now, I think it's stronger than mat and woven. Then just prep it as usual if you are going to Gel Coat it. Make sure you aren't buying the cheap resin they sell at home depot, if you want something cheap that works well, i import alot of stuff from US Composites. You gotta make sure to use good resin or you might have to do the job again if you are fixing blisters.


Thanks, Capt.! There's nothing wrong with the glass, gelcoat or bottom paint but the boat lives on a trailer and the bottom paint is slowing me down a bit. I am just playing with the idea of removing the bottom paint, but it looks like a serious job.

Thanks again and keep posting you progress. I followed the last project through to the end and can't wait for more on this one.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

If ever we had an idea that wasn't going to work, this is the one. Harold is convinced we can copy this front with foam before we give the boat back. This is the hardest curve to copy, if we can copy these two, the rest of the boat will be time consuming but easy. i don't even know what his plan is exactly, but I know it involves sticking strips of foam to the masking and then glassing it. We're going to try it tomorrow, and then probably have to paint the front of this boat again! 










I guess it never hurts to try, if it works great, if not we'll do something else.


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## Boats4Drew (Aug 16, 2010)

Why not just make stick frames like the bottom of the hull? You could build "vertical" supports that follow the angle of the front and anchors to set points on the hull. Then build stick frames horizontally. This is the same concept you use on the ground for the bottom of the hull. You just replace the ground with "vertical" supports. When the new hull is ready use the same mounting points to get correct placement. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well today was one of those days where everything just went soo much better than I would have thought. And now I've gone crazy. I'll get to the pictures of today in a bit. Honestly, this is a fun project, but it just hasn't blown my socks off yet. I mean, it's been done quite a bit, people copying the old berts. But then I came across this article:

http://www.oceanofnews.com/classic-reborn-new-bertram-35/

So I'll summarize. Bertram is building the 31 bert again, but they are doing it in 35 feet.  I gotta try it. Here are some pictures of the new, classic styled, 35 bert:










































The big difference is the beam of 12 feet 5 inches, where as the old 31 is 11 feet 2 inches. And then it's 4 feet longer.

I can't make mine wider, i just can't swing that, but I wonder if I could add a few feet. Maybe make mine 3 foot longer, give me a bigger cab, a little more nose, and a foot more of cockpit? I could just use the same front of the cab, but extend the back part a foot and a half. Give 9 inches up in front of the cab and then 9 inches in the cockpit. Plus i can round the transom up top to gain an extra 7-8 inches in the cockpit, and I have a bigger boat that costs about the same to build and is still light as it'll be all foam cored and basic. Anyway, bringing a bunch of pictures to the shop tomorrow and we're going to look at the mold and see what we come up with.

Alright, onto the pictures from today. harold cut small strips, and used contact cement to hold them to the tape. We just put a small dot a glue on top, in the middle and on bottom, so that it will be easy to take off. It wrapped around easy, and then we put fairing with cabosil and resin in the cracks to stiffen it up, and we'll sand it and glass the outside tomorrow. I'm thinking and hoping it'll come off easy, but either way, it's coming off, and it took the form very nicely. Just one days worth of work, and we have a perfect divinycell copy of the front of the cabin, which I feel was the hardest part.


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Bertram should build the 35 sportfish again. I had one and it was a great fishing boat.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

They are, they just started to build the one I posted pictures of. It's like 650K though. But I'm sure it's an amazing boat.


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Just read article in Power and Motoryacht...They had to redesign rudders after initial seatrials to prevent speed bleed in turns. Looks like it will be a cool boat. Liberty made a similar one at 42ft that is one of my favorites. Just did not sell enough to stay in business but they were awesome with limited thru hulls, low center of gravity, sea chest....well thought out. Hopefully yours will come out good . awesome talent and initiative.


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Any updates?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Alright, trying to think where I left off. We got the foam on both the upstairs and downstairs front part of the cabin. We then pulled them off and this is what the ROUGH mold / copy looks like. We put the boards on them to straighten them up to glass the inside. With just one side glassed they are flimsy.




























Then we spent the better part of the last two weeks, maybe more, painting, wet sanding, assembling, wirings, aligning motors, putting back in rudders, thru hulls, and just everything we could think of to the original. We even made them another 4 tuna tubes and stuck them to the back. Boat goes into the water TOMORROW!!!!










And then Harold went ahead and clean cut the edges of the two pieces of the cabin. What I don't have pictures of is that we took cardboard, like a fridge box, and made a trace of the rest of both of the cabins. And we have that traced onto the DivinyCell. And then since we are adding 3-4 feet to the boat, we added 1.5 feet to the bottom part of the cabin, and a foot to the upstairs station as well. Those pieces we stuck on at the end of the day today, and hopefully tomorrow we can put the long sides on the cabin.










More pictures coming soon, sorry for the delay


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then quick side story, there was a boat here a long time ago, maybe 15 years back that kicked everybody's butt offshore. It was called the Galleton, which I think means big cookie. Anyway, it was a 38 Bertram WideBody. I remember the last time I saw it, was around 7 years ago, and the fishing was slow out there. I finished the day with 2 sail releases, and right next to me the Galleton had released 9 and was top boat in the fleet. It always did that, it was just one of those boats that really raised the fish. My best friend was driving it at the time, and he was joking with me that he would put out less teasers, and just the crappiest one he could find, and whatever he put out, the boat raised fish. 

Ok, so then about 6 years ago, the owner sold the boat, and then it turned over again, and again, and then somebody came along and really redid the whole thing nice. My friend Gener was in charge of the refit. And sneaky Gener knew how good the boat raised fish, so one day when the owner was out of town, Gener did the SAME THING we are doing here to the Galleton. Took a mold of both sides. Completely secret like, the owner had no idea.  

So Gener had the molds hidden away, but now both the Galleton and the new owner are long gone, but Gener never had the money to build one. So he sold the mold a few months back to a guy that is planning on destroying them and turning them into a commercial boat. I didn't know they were for sale, but I found out after they were sold. So the new owner refused to let me copy them, until yesterday. The owner of the shop, and a few of the really good fiberglass guys here went and convinced the owner to let me use them to make a hull before he destroys them 

SO, if anybody is still reading... Monday we stop this project to fix the other mold. I'm not going to build the whole boat, but I do want to setup the mold, make the hull and put a few bulkheads and stringers in it to keep it stable. I have to move fast because they are about to use the mold as a boat and if I don't do it now it will be gone forever  So I'll just post the other build in here with this one, and we'll have a 31 bert stretched to a 34 or 35 going, and then the 38 widebody which I am going to add 2 feet to, just so I can have a 40 footer. More coming soon!


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Way Cool! Thanks for the update. With regards to the widebody raising fish...wonder how much of that was diesel harmonics. Do you know what motors were in that boat? Lots of those 38s had 903 Cummins if I remember correctly. Knew a guy that came to Cancun when I was down there every year from 87 to late 90s when I quit going. He had a 62 Stiker. He and his Capt swore that if watermaker was running sailfish bite turned off.


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Great story and good luck! I tend to think with Weber on the mechanical harmonics. i know a couple very good tarpon fisherman that swear by certain engine configurations and gear ratios in the transmission raise more fish.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Yes, the boat started out when I knew it with cat V8s. Did amazing. They changed it over to cummins 450hp C series, and the boat did great!  I agree that stray noise will run off fish though.

The transmission ratio I do buy alot more. Bigger props is less white wash, so I would love to go to a 2 to 1 ratio with big wheels. We'll see, I still got a looooooong way to go  Save​


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## saltwater4life (Aug 5, 2010)

Absolutely love this thread, especially after fishing with you guys in April, interested in seeing what you're adding to your fleet and how you're doing it. 

Any updates on the copy of the galleria mold?


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## gman1772 (Jul 15, 2012)

I'm still tryin' to save up enough cash to fish with you skipper! That boat is balls on. Thanks for sharing.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

gman1772 said:


> I'm still tryin' to save up enough cash to fish with you skipper! That boat is balls on. Thanks for sharing.


Love to have you out anytime at all! Right now I'm saving up cash, looks like we might wait until November to get in the build. We are putting a new radar on my 32 footer, just put a radar on my 30 footer, and we are about to paint the bottom of the fleet, so the new boat is on hold until the boats I have are all 100 percent  More to come soon,


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

saltwater4life said:


> Absolutely love this thread, especially after fishing with you guys in April, interested in seeing what you're adding to your fleet and how you're doing it.
> 
> Any updates on the copy of the galleria mold?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


No updates yet, we are going to pause until November as there is just too much to do on the boats that we are fishing now, and I don't want to neglect those to do the new one. Before the end of the year we will be building something though, I'm going stir crazy...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok. So the fishing season is finally in full swing, and I'm getting closer to 0 dollars, which means it's time to start spending money again and building boats!! But I need a little help. The old 38 wide body mold I want to use is about to be converted into a commercial boat, so i need to do that hull first. Before i de mold it, I wanted to put in a pair of bulkheads. The thing is I don't have the original boat, only two skins. I was hoping maybe somebody on here has one, or knows somebody that has one. and I need the approximate distance from the transom to the bulk heads that are in front of and behind the motors. Anybody able to get me info?


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## JD (May 22, 2004)

This may have enough detail: http://bertram31.com/specs.htm

Go down the page below the pics and find the link in the sentence "The Factory *Cradle Diagram* for the B31, (PDF format 114K)" and click on "Cradle Diagram". It will open an Adobe .pdf file with the specifications.

I can send the .pdf file if you have any problems.

Good luck.


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

John THT might be better for that question --


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, well I guess we are starting. Been one thing after another and I had to keep putting this off. I think I already wrote about all the new gear they made us buy, and then after that they passed a new law where they have a special tax for charter boats. And we owe last year too! Welcome to Costa Rica. But now, finally seeing the light, I guess we'll start putting together a boat! The good thing is, the owner of the 40 mold was also hit pretty hard by all the new laws, so he didn't destroy the mold to make a commercial boat yet. So I don't think I'm going to finish the 40 footer first, but I am going to make the 40 foot hull first.

Here is how the hull started. It's been outside in the yard for about 15 years now:


















We moved it under the shade, at least half of it. Wow, this thing is heavy and I have never worked on something so big. This will be fun


















So to start we made some holes in the ground










And then we are going to put whatever we can find in them to support the mold










Found a bunch of scrap metal at the yard next door. I have been collecting beams for a year now from the recycling place. They have some big stuff. I never really had a plan for why I was collecting them, but I guess it all came together. Harold is happy to be building another boat. And he's good at carrying big heavy beams, there are two guys on the other end


















And then here is the 31 bert mold. I'll probably finish the 31 first.


















The goal right now is I just want to save enough money to buy the glass to make the hull and sides. I figure it'll take us a month to get this thing setup and ready to do. It is a 38 now, the old widebody 38 bertram they made 30 years back that had the ugly cabin on them. This one will be cooler. Somebody cut the last foot off of the mold, and I'm going to add two more feet so I have a 40. So we're gonna set it up and add 3 feet and see what it looks like ???

Kind of funny, I always thought my first 40 would be wood. But this boat, back when it was in Quepos, was the best boat by far at raising boat. The owner was super cheap, and they only had two white, because the sun faded them out, moldcraft lures. And even with **** gear, it was the boat to beat. I don't know what happened to the boat, the owner didn't take care of the motors at all, and then he abandoned it into the marina. And the marina sold it off, and now it's gone, haven't seen it since. So Quepos needs another one! But this one will be lighter, faster, and catch more fish! I'll post more pictures when I have em!


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

Love your build threads.
Looking forward to updates! :cheers:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, we got some tubes buried. It was a tough day, but I really enjoyed being back in the shop. Tomorrow we are going to find a level, and shoot some string lines, and hopefully start leveling a mold!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Wow, got a lot done today. I'm really worn out. Yesterday we buried the tubes in the ground. Today we got a level out, and used a long hose with water to find levels on the different tubes. And then we welded some more tubes long ways. The idea is to make a level surface, the shop just kind of happened, so it's definitely not a level surface.




























Then after doing that, and sticking the port side in, we grabbed the starboard side and stuck it in there and started to level it out. I know these have a really long ways to go, but it feels like we made progress.














































Anyways, then we started to stich the front together and the sun went down. Tomorrow we are going to start bolting the two sides together, that is going to be a long process, probably won't have as many photo ops, but I'll shoot pictures of anything interesting along the way. Especially if it means I get out of heavy lifting! Here's a good shot of Harold sewing the front of the boat together:










Right now we are tying ropes to the roof to kind of sort of line things up. Before we do the hull, everthing will be supported from underneath though. The hull was made to be bolted togther, there is a lip in the middle with screw holes. So that should help us out alot. I am trying to find the original boat, it's still in the country somewhere, but I haven't located it yet. I will probably drive out there when I find it and see if I can take measurements. That would be the only way to get the mold to be the same as the original. If anybody reading this has a 38 widebody, or knows where one is and can take some quick external measurements, that would be amazing. Or if not, I'm going to have to go on a road trip and find what happened to the boat this mold was taken off of.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Here's a picture of the hull I'm looking for:










And here is the actual boat this thing was taken off of years ago.










But the company Mar 1 is long gone as so is this boat. It's here somewhere though, I just have to find out where it went. I love the hull, because it raised alot of fish, but we are going to have to make that cabin a lot prettier, because it's ugly. I don't like the step up front. And we are going to be two feet longer.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Not too much to show, we bolted the hull together and then tried to kind of sort of level it just to see what we have. Starting to look like a boat, but bolting it together is not the hard part.





































And then we bought a bunch of wood to level the thing out. It has to be 100 percent supported from the bottom, right now we have ropes hanging off of the ceiling holding it up. We are going to put wood in front too where the bow flare is, so we can adjust that and make it look right. Here's around wood we got.










The problem that I'm seeing, is I don't want to change the deadrise in the back. The original boat rode well and raised fish well, and I want to keep that. So, right now I have a bunch of people in different areas of Costa Rica looking for the original boat. Then I will measure the corners in the back, to make sure the boat we are making has the same dead rise. There are a couple of other things I need to measure too, like how far apart the engines are, how far apart the stringers are, how many stringers, where the major bulkheads are, how far forward the motors go from the transom. Just a bunch of measurements that are super important. I might be posting pictures of a road trip early next week if I can find the boat...


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

John these threads are awesome-- Sub'd


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, sorry for the late post! I found the boat, it was down under a tin roof near Panama. Took about a week of asking around and we followed a bunch of leads until one played out. Not an easy task. And then for fun, we went across to Panama without passports and got into a little trouble, but another story for another time...I knew I should have brought my passport...

Ok, so here is the boat we were looking for!

























The owner was really cool. We showed him the mold we were building, and he showed us his warehouse with all the parts he plans on putting on his boat. He bought this thing for very little money from the marina in Quepos, and then took it all the way down to the glass and is starting a full rebuild. It'll be cool when he's done.

Alot of measurements that I was missing, like the overall original length, and the border height, and where the motors go, and the height of the floor in the back and over the motors, and the height of the cabin, width and height of the stringers, just lots of measurements i needed so I could start. And of course, the width in the back, which was the main one.

So we got back to Quepos, and realized that when they took this mold, they didn't go all the way up the sides because of rubber bumpers. So we need to add on a little bit to the sides. So we screwed some wood pieces to the side, and then we are making some glass laminates to butt up to them. but in the process, I realized the point of the boat is old school. Like the boat has a nice flare, but that goes away right at the nose. So we are going to cut the nose a little bit and continue the flare all the way around. I'll put some more pictures of that up in a bit. Here's where we are now:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Wow. I have a feeling I'm just proving how much I don't know, but here's what we've been up to! We spent a solid two weeks just body filling (bondo) the mold and sanding. And then I need my 40 feet, so we added on two more feet. The back is going to be round, so the bottom part I'm going to make a little longer, and we'll cut it after we do the transom.

Alright, here are the pictures. I started taking pictures after the main hull was already sanded, as there isn't much to see when we are sanding. We wanted the extension to be straight, so we got a bunch of 1 X 1's and stuck em on.


















Then we glassed the pieces on from the back side.And then they also got glassed to each other, and it really firmed up nice.


















We really could have used a good carpenter. We are kind of the "measure once and cut 4 or 5 times" type of carpenters. But we really got the rythm down after a few days of cutting and throwing wood away!










ANd then we painted everything with resin so that the new glass won't stick to it (wax and PVA coming too, but before we do the mold)


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Then we just body filled the holes and did some more sanding and a heck of a lot of measuring. Everything looks perfect, I'm super happy with how everything turned out.


























And that is a wrap until June. We wrapped everything up in plastic. The other boats I have, that are fishing and paying for this project have alot of down time in May, so we got to refurbish and fix some small stuff before the tourism peaks again in June. I guess they mostly paid for this project, thanks everybody who sent me boat building money! Completely appreciated and hopefully you guys will come fish with me so I can pay you back! Anyways, that is a wrap until mid June, we are buying glass and resin now and as soon as we get enough we'll try to get the thing laid, maybe in 2 or 3 days (or longer/shorter? I have no idea) I'll post tons of pictures of us laying up a new old bertram soon!


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## saltwater4life (Aug 5, 2010)

Man John, awesome progress! When thereâ€™s a will, thereâ€™s a way! Any updates??? Can you move a little faster so I can read more? Lol great stuff. Canâ€™t wait To see more progress in your 40 and 31!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

saltwater4life said:


> Man John, awesome progress! When thereâ€™s a will, thereâ€™s a way! Any updates??? Can you move a little faster so I can read more? Lol great stuff. Canâ€™t wait To see more progress in your 40 and 31!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Man I wish. It's just sitting there right now. They keep putting more and more requirements, like new taxes, or new inspections, or whatever on us so I'm going through paperwork right now and getting everything in order. But something will happen eventually. Hopefully start posting soon!


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

There are a few 38 Bertrams around these parts, but I can't say I ever saw one like that. That one looks more like a Uniflight.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Not the best picture, but it means we are getting started again. We had alot of trouble at the other yard, he was involved in stuff we are not involved in, and it was getting a bit out of hand. So we decide to move yards. This yard didn't have a roof, so we bought some metal and we are going to build a barn! Those poles are 25 feet high, so that we can also pull our boats under there to paint them if it's raining without taking off the tower. The 31 mold is getting sun baked as well, and it's getting damaged a bit, so this week I'm going to have somebody fill all the holes where we supported the boat, and then we are going to microsphere the whole thing and gelcoat the mold.

I'm on the fence on doing the big (40) or little boat (31). There is a nice Hatt in the marina that is a 41 footer, and the owner has just had a really tough time with managers and it's way behind on it's bills. He bought it so he could fish with his family, so I think it'll work out for him if I get the boat, fix it and keep it ready to fish and then let him go out when he wants to and I charter it when he isn't around. We'll see how that deal goes, it need some work too so those pictures will probably be going up here soon.

Either way, it seems like I have everything just about caught up and should be able to make some types of posts soon!

Here's a picture of the roof as it stand now, should be finished next week!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, it's slow but we are started. I got a call from Harold that his brother needed a job, and since the resin was evaporating out of the glass from not being overcoated, I put Harold's bro on sanding the 31 mold. It looks like I might be closing up the take over of a 40 footer in the marina hopefully soon, so I'm going to move on the 31 first. There are a couple of 31 berts in the marina, and they just have really been catching my eye lately and something about building a new classic just sounds like fun. And it's only 31 feet, so it wouldn't be such a crazy project. So I think that's where I'll start. The other mold is probably going to turned in a commercial boat at this point, but I'm good with that. Anything could happen with the bigger boat still though as neither myself nor the guy building the commercial boat have funds yet. If I don't build the 40 now, I'll definitely do one next though, it just might not be that mold.

Here are the pictures of the mold after Harold's brother sanded it it. He is starting of the fairing up top and probably tomorrow or the next day will be sanding the whole thing. There were various points where the jacks were, so we got all the holes in the mold sealed up, and then cut off the edges so it looks more presentable. We still haven't gotten the final cut down the center, but it's progress.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, this week is that week of the year where i take out my 1983 coldmolded Gamefishermen and start poking the bottom to see how bad we beat it up. This year I found a good one! Oh the joys of owning a wood boat! But man it raises fish, and we'll be done in about a week or less so I guess I can't complain, but man this was the worst wet spot I have seen so far...

Here's what it looked like when we took off the layer of glass on the outside:









Bill with Lightning Boats puts this 1700 biaxial kevlar on the bottom of his boats. This is what he prevents...I sure wish I could get that stuff here..

Anyways, so we took out the bad wood and then are opening up each layer a little bit bigger than the last. Tomorrow we will put removable jigs/ribs behind the damages spot and then put some laurel wood in there. This boat has 3 layers at 1/4 inch ish. Today i had to make a trip into the mountains to find a farmer that had laurel in the top of his barn that was dry. Anyway, here is the MASSIVE hole we made in the bottom of the boat today. This thing has a trip next Friday, this is going to be close...









And then while it's out, we are changing out some tubes in the tower. Since we don't have enough to do with the hull. But I'm really happy with how this is looking, the original tube was 1 inch and was always breaking, so I got some nice thick walled 2 inch tube from Western Extrusions in Florida (the only company that will deliver to my freight forwarder) and so we are going back with twice as thick new tubing.










And then we did a little bit of work to the Bertram Hull too. Got most of the fairing done, and then I remembered that we took the mold from below the aluminum bumper, so i lost 2.5 inches. So we setup little sticks and we are going to make the mold 2.5 inches taller so it's like the original. Here's a couple pictures of that progress...










And something extra the original didn't have, we are offsetting the hull where the guides go. Should pick up at least .1 knots, right? Either way, smooth is better and it doesn't cost anything extra. I know most boats nowadays do this, but the original did not.


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## BayouBonsaiMan (Apr 14, 2009)

Y'all are way bigger men than me! Can't believe you are able to build boats out of stuff like that!Really look forward to day i can come see for myself! John you and crew are badass!


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## graynor (Jun 6, 2006)

I wanted to let you know I've enjoyed following your posts. I have many years on a 31 bertram. Caught many a sailfish in Cozumel on a 31 and a 33. I delvered a 42 to cancun in 1979. Great boat to fish on. Please keep posting pictures . They are great.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

BayouBonsaiMan said:


> Y'all are way bigger men than me! Can't believe you are able to build boats out of stuff like that!Really look forward to day i can come see for myself! John you and crew are badass!


Love to have you out anytime at all!



graynor said:


> I wanted to let you know I've enjoyed following your posts. I have many years on a 31 bertram. Caught many a sailfish in Cozumel on a 31 and a 33. I delvered a 42 to cancun in 1979. Great boat to fish on. Please keep posting pictures . They are great.


I'm excited to finish the project too. I believe I have the 40 footer tied up so I'm going to pick that up in a week or so and do a little work to that one, and then we will hit the 31 B hard!


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## manwitaplan (Dec 9, 2005)

Keep the info coming! This is always a great thread.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Here's the hull patch. This is when we cleaned up the hole:










And then we made a frame to stick the wood to










Here is after the first two layers:










And this is after the third layer. The middle layer has opposing grains, and all the layers are stuck down with cabosil/resin mix, and we screw them in with weep holes, and then pull the screws and fill the holes with the same mix. And then we took out the frames from the back.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, this post is going to take a left turn. I got the 40 footer from the marina. Monday I signed away my life to the marina for this thing! I have until April to pay off everything this boat owes to the marina for being there the last two years and making no payments. So as soon as we signed the paperwork, we jumped in the boat and pulled the boat out of the water. There was nasty current in the estuary in the first picture, I hadn't driven a twin diesel boat, all mine are singles, so it was a trail by fire  I don't know if I like the keel on this thing, I always imagined they would turn better, but either way, we made it.


















So we take it out and then we got on it right away and chopped the tower down. I didn't see the point of leaving the super high tower (think lightning rod) on the boat, so we decided we will just leave the fly bridge. Here's some process shots.


















And then we parked it under the big roof we put up two weeks ago. The roof worked out perfectly, it fits right in there with the flybridge and roof, and we can completely finish the rest of the boat in the SHADE! I love shade, and no rain. This is going to be easy!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Alright, so here is the plan. The boat looks old, and we can do better. So what the plan is, we are going to copy the windows on a friends boat, called the Pescadora. it's a 40 foot Ronin, and it has the same "hat" style fly bridge, so i think I can make mine look almost identical to this one










Then I hate the back of the boat too. It has an AC and fridge instead of rear windows. I wish I had pictures. But when I'm done, I want a pair of nice windows, a big wide door in the midle, and all plexiglass in the back so that from inside we can see what's going on in the fishing area. And then I want two ice chests that double as seats right below the window. I want something like this, but without the two extra chairs.










And then I want to make a hard top out of DivinyCell. And then the most fun is I want to add a bunch of LED's. I'm thinking green LED's, but I'll probably buy adjustable LED's so we can change if it gets boring. The marina wants us to do something cool looking and they are going to park the boat right in front of the restaurants, that was part of the way they gave it to me. I love the green LED's on the bottom pic.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I'm in a first aid class this week, so we aren't working as fast as I'd like. This was Tuesday, we just got some hammers and a pair of sawzall's and started taking out the old stuff.




























This was Monday while we were waiting on the paperwork to get the boat out of the marina. That was the rotten kitchen. The roof leaks and it was nasty so it's all got to go.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And here's some pictures from Wednesday (today). We got all the windows out. This was really hard honestly, all the frames had corroded screws with weird square heads, and it was a nightmare getting them out. And then they were all glued in. It was just tough.










And then the reason the inside of the cabin was so nasty is there was a water leak in the floor of the flybridge. On striping down the interior, I learned (and also larry (tht member who has helped me a ton) told me) that the cabin is all balsa cored. i thought it was completely rotten, but there were only three smaller areas that were rotten. We will get all that sanded tomorrow and put some divinycell in the hole hopefully tomorrow. Here are some pictures. Yes I cut the back wall of the cabin halfway out....




























A good surprise. I was going to rip out the whole back wall of the cabin, but after I started cutting I found out that the back wall is foam cored. I am blown away that Hatteras was that far in front of the foam cored tech, this has to be one of the first foam cored boats. Larry (my THT hatteras guide) also let me know the bulkheads are probably cored too. This boat is actually going to be fairly light for it's size. Here is a picture of when I discovered the back wall was divinycell.










And I wish I had a before picture. We bulldozed the whole upstairs. It had a 1 inch plywood console with a trillion switches and things, and I don't know that any of them worked. I am going to simplify this alot. For as impressed as I have been with the rest of the build, I don't know why they put a 1000 pound console upstairs with uncured plywood that absorbed a ton of water. There were cable everywhere, half of them hooked up half of them rotten. It's easier to just start over. Going to make a cool console upstairs, all foam cored and just what I need without all the switches and lights. Don't have a before shot, but this is the after.



















Well that was the first two days of work. My last day of class is tomorrow (it's been a one month course), so next week it's going to look like we supercharged the build. I'm feeling the pressure so we are going to get this thing together quickly!


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

what kinda engines does she have John? What are you going to need to do? And who is gonna be the capt?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Yeah, we really didn't get much done. We built this roof to work under, and it works great when it rains, but there was some type of tropical disturbance Thursday and Friday and the rain was completely horizontal. And that passed today around 3pm, so we pretty much only got to work from 3-6pm today. But we did get a little done. I need more storage space on the boat, and it has NO ice chests really. I am going to build two below the back windows that are going to double as seats, and then a wrap around up top that is going to double as a bench, but I'm going to extend it into the area up front so that the ice chest is bigger than the seat. And while cutting this, for some reason hatteras stuck down plywood all the way around the bridge "hat". They did that so they could put those dang square headed screws in. We took ALL the screws out this afternoon, and then took out all the plywood, and we are going to make everything solid. I don't see any reason to have a boat that comes apart, so I'm going to lay some good glass in that corner and make the thing solid. And then with the bench in place, the vertical divinycored side of the seat will make the floor strong. Right now there is a little flex with the dry balsa. Hopefully we can get a full day in tomorrow, it's supposed to be pretty...

Here's the destruction we did upstairs today. The cut is going to be the seat height, and the ice chest will extend towards the inside of the wall. On the left we are just doing life jacket storage, up front we are going double walled and poured in foam, probably 3 inches, maybe four. Have to measure and see how much I can put. I don't want an ice machine because I don't want to have to fix the ice machine. So I'm hoping to hold enough ice for a few days to go to the fads. Somewhere to put all the food and drinks. That's the idea now, subject to change...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Friendswoodmatt said:


> what kinda engines does she have John? What are you going to need to do? And who is gonna be the capt?


It's got a pair of detroits now. I hear the two cycle diesels are the best for raising fish, so since they are fairly low hour I'll wear them out. I have thought about changing them out to twin cummins 450's though, and we'll probably head that route when these are worn out.

I believe John W is going to move over to this boat. He is getting worn out, and the 30 footer is rough when you are up in the tower all day, this boat moves ALOT less and instead of retiring he is going to move over.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Nasty day. We got everything upstairs sanded, sanded all day and tomorrow we are going to come in for a couple of hours and glass the top on. I really don't like how they did the top. Just alot of plywood upstairs, and the only point of it was so they could screw in the top. I guess that is faster than just glassing it on. But all the plywood upstairs was rotten rotten, so the top was just sitting up there. I'm glad I took it apart, it really could have just slid off into the ocean. But it's going to be solid now. All one piece. Here are some of the pictures of the ENORMOUS amounting of sanding we did today. We spent some time downstairs today working on window ideas, and just taking stuff apart. But the only thing worth taking a picture of is the sanding...

â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Found a cool program on the web called TinkerCAD. So, I measured all the electronics and made a drawing of the center console we are going to build tomorrow. I made a few, it'll make it easier to build in steps. Going to use all PVC foam and then glass is. The last two are hopefully the finished product. The blue divider in the middle is to put a piece of plexiglass on the right covering the top 6-8 inches of the radar and sonar and gauges so they don't get as wet. On the left, that is the GPS and the VHF, so I'll leave that uncovered so it isn't irritating to use. The radar and sonar once they are set you don't have to fiddle as much.




























And then in actual work we had a decent day. We got the front windows glassed in, inside and out. I didn't get a picture of the inside finished, but it should be dry by now.




























And I didn't get a good shot of this either, but we are moving the door to the middle. That'll make it where we can have two equal sized benches on either side of the door. We are going to make the door a double so that we can get motors through it when we have to.










Here is the goal for the back again after we get done:










And then we got rid of all the nasty screws they used to put everything together with, sanded a few inches on either side and then double 1708 to make it all one piece.



















We'll see if I make progress tomorrow on that console...


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

So this one is gonna have A/C then? That will be great-- keep the updates coming please.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Friendswoodmatt said:


> So this one is gonna have A/C then? That will be great-- keep the updates coming please.


Yes it will. We are getting alot of people asking for that so I needed one. And this one is big enough to safely do FAD trips as well.


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

nice!!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Man, you guys in Florida be warned. The hurricane that just hit, started here and it was nasty here about a week ago. Today another depression just started and we really only got until about 11am of sunlight and then got hit with the best rain I've seen in my 11 years here. Super high wind, just nasty weather we usually don't see. I hope this one doesn't come together and start heading north or it might be a repeat of what just happened.

But, before the storm hit, in the 3 hours of pretty weather we had, I managed to get all the console pieces cut out of corecell. We got half of these glassed as well, and all the glass cut, but the weather made me run at the end and I didn't get pictures.










And then we decided to make the back door smaller. I was going to go with a meter (3 feet 3 inches for us Mericans) but we decided it was ugly and we are going to take it down to 80cm (2 feet 8 inches in Merican). We are going with a single too instead of a double because that's just easier. We can still fit motor blocks through the door at 80cm, it'll be a little tighter, but hopefully we don't have to do that too often. This is rough, but here's how it looks now. Harold added the squares in the top corners because he wants to try a rounded top door, but if that doesn't work we'll just make it simple. He wanted to play with it, happy workers move faster so why not. I wanted square...










Tomorrow I'm headed back to San Jose to do legal BS, so I'll try to get some more pictures up here on Saturday!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Fairly productive day. Alot of the stuff we are doing now doesn't really show up in pictures. We patched all the bad wood in the cabin roof with corecell, cut the foam to fit and glued it in with cabosil/resin. Tomorrow we'll get the final 1708 layer over it and the roof will be done. We took out the AC out of the top of the cabin so we could build the back windows. Got both windows cut, and then got the door cut too. We are going to do double doors, a single would be just too big and would be terrible to open and close. We made the top outside corner of the windows curved, I probably could have done a longer radius on the curve, but it's done and I like it so it's going to stay.










And then Harold thought he would be able to get the foam out of the two layers of glass with a router. I didn't think it would work, but he pulled it off. We took out an inch of foam core around where the door goes and replaced it with cedar so we can screw in door hinges. And then we took a half inch out around the top and bottom of the door and around the windows, where we will replace that with cabosil/resin/glass strands putty that we made. We got the wood in but it was after dark, and we started with the rest but didn't get done. There was light rain all day, so I didn't get to glass all the foam for the console. We can work in the rain, but it slows us down as I have alot of tables that aren't under the roof. And we worked on the back wall a long time. The boat isn't level, so we had to do it with all measurements. We'll get the boat level soon though, that'll make everything easier.

Here's Harold taking out the foam core with the router and not hitting the sides! Too much time using power tools...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Mostly fairing lately on the boat. Not too much to show, but we get the top wrap around bench installed, we are going to have to cut out a few hatches. On the left I'm planning on putting all the life jackets and then up front under that one the inflatable life raft. We need two, one will be in the box on the bow, but the other one is in a bag.



















And just being honest, I'm not 100 percent happy with how the electronics console looks. I like the idea of having a ton of space to mount everything, but it would have been prettier if I made it less wide and put it in the middle. But then it would be harder to do the cables and stuff. I stuck it on the right side, and then I'm going to make a huge area to put cables in going down to the motors and batteries so that it's easy to replace stuff quickly. If it was a low use private boat I would do it different, but I know there will be days when its dark and raining and I have to change a cable, so I want it to be easy to fix. Hopefully with everything mounted it'll look a little smaller. It's just a lot of blank space now.










If nothing else I took out several hundred pounds. Also with all the benches and everything being one piece, there are no more screws to rot the floor with. Not one screw is being used upstairs now, and everything I put in is foam and very light...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Still doing alot of sanding. I have some decent pictures of the interior I'll try to post in a bit. But we started on the top. Used my old 2 inch crown formula to cut some plywood jigs and then line them up:



















Then we put some foam on top of them and stuck the foam together with Cabosil.




























Then here is the tricky part, we propped up the side so it was flat, and glassed one side. Then we flipped it over and let it be curved like the jig and we fiberglassed the other side. When we fiberglassed the second side, we pulled the foam down with thin wire to the jig. After the second side dried, you can pull the wire out leaving very minimal damage. The idea is the foam with one side glassed is very flexible, but once you glass the second side it will not move at all, and will hold it's shape very well.



















And then we put some 3m microglobes on the top part to get some sanding in. Probably jumped the gun a little, I want to make the edges 2 inch thick so it look thicker as a whole, and then we need to make a bump where the radar mounts so we can hide the cable up there. We'll get that done soon. I dig through the phone and see if I can find some cabin pictures...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I guess not too much to show. We built some benches on the sides




























And then we cut some holes in the top of those benches. We don't have to be too exact because we are putting an awesome big pad on top of the benches, and then another on the wall so usually all this will be covered. You can also see we built a wire chase in the corner of the boat and then we made the top corners of the boat angled and hollow for the lights. I didn't want anything under the middle as that's a pain to get to, but the corners will be nice. We got some nice color changing LED's for the cabin, the cockpit and the bridge. We got all our LED's already from our friend Larry who has helped me a ton on this build at Yacht Supply Depot in Pompano Florida. If only Larry sold chilling plates for my fridges, I'd be set. But everything else he has!  The starboard side corner wire chase runs straight from the motor room under the floor right to the controls upstairs. Should make it easy to wire this thing and change stuff when it goes bad!










Then stuck another piece of foam below the holes as door jams.










And then took the part we cut out and made doors I hate hinges, so they just sit there, but again, there will be a big pad.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks, we are really working hard, and I'm taking pictures, but I can't find time to post. So this one should have probably been about 4 or 5 posts! And then Christmas, and of course I had to go visit the Alamo too (and rent a new corvette) so December was crazy. So here we go

We finally got the rear ice chests installed under the windows. I found a really good company that doesn't give me any trouble shipping to Costa Rica, and really they weren't that bad. The unit is called IsoTherm, and they are around 850 bucks for the compressor and the big element. They should both be able to freeze or refridgerate, I'm going to do one of each though. They ended up looking smaller than I wanted installed, it's weird because on the bench they looked soo big. I guess I'm just used to working on smaller boats, but either way, we'll put a big pad on top and that'll grow them a bit. They have about three inches of injected foam, plus they are made out of foam, so hopefully with the freezer element in each, they will get our beers and cokes cold!

I'm hoping they look bigger with the pad on them. That ladder is coming off of the left side, but we haven't gotten the tower built yet. We are going to climb up the tower leg and get more cokpit space.









This is a mid process shot of injecting them. We got ahold of some crummy foam, it didn't grow like foam I've used in the past. It did grow though and work, but I ended up with alot more holes.









And then we got the holes capped back up and the fairing done.









Sometimes the things that take the longest are the most unimpressive. The transom was a mess of rotten wood, a big heavy door, and no live bait area. We threw the door out to make room for a huge live well and tuna tube area. And then it took quite a bit to make the transom look normal again. I'll have to go back out and take some more pictures in a bit, these are about a week old, but this is kind of the idea










And then the tubes we did something cool. Instead of the typical PVC setup most people put in the bottom of the tubes, we left the bottom of the tubes open and 1.5 inch, and just put a short 2 inch run of pvc in the tube. But that didn't connect to anything. Then, we put them in a sealed box, one on each side, and then have a 4 by inch box connecting both sides, that we inject the water into. Here's our engineering drawing:










The idea is that the water pressure equals out and all the tubes flow the same. And, there is no PVC to bust later. That is always a problem for me, a few years in the PVC leaks, or the valves get stuck. So all that is eliminated and the flow is equaled out across the tubes. And they overflow into the live well, so one pump can do both the live well and tuna tubes.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then I did something which I'm sure some people won't like. I painted the boat Dukes of Hazzard orange. Besides the fact that I loved watching that growing up, i figured that we will probably catch pretty good fish compared to most of the boats around us. And then people on other boats will notice the bright orange boat next to them that is always hooked up. And when they look for me in the marina afterwards, there will only be one bright orange boat.




























And then we are playing with the window, not quite right yet but closer










Then I have a different crew working on redoing the roof. Harold brought his dad out from Puntarenas to help us get finished before February. His dad wanted to do the roof. So we started by making the tube that holds the actual top. I copied the old roof, which was rotten small aluminum tubes, and we went with a big fat tube.










I believe a few posts back I showed how we got the arc on the first sheet of foam. We used the same arc formula to make the bent on the tube so it has a nice arc too, and then cut the front with the same line. Then we mounted the aluminum tube on the faom, and doubled up the foam around the tube so the tube sinks into the roof. And then the top of the roof will have crown (arc), but the bottom will be flat so that it's hollow so I can run wiring. The first picture is a roof I helped Harold with earlier this year. It's kind of the same, but not really. And then the second picture is the roof we are building. It's a process shot, so not polished and finished but you get the idea.



















Headed to the shop now, i'll try to take more pictures and post more often. I'm typing quick, so I'm sure there will be lots of typos...


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## hac999 (Dec 27, 2018)

Wow this is great, it is very awesome to see it all coming together. Looking forward to the progress and finished product!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

A little more progress. Maybe this shows how ghetto I am, we just quickly stuck some PVC inside the roof before we put the bottom on it. We are putting 4 LED color changing lights in the rood, a spreader light in the back, and then one day when I'm not so broke, we are going to add a big LED light bar up front. I'm going to do it the easy way, and bring all the cabling up through a dedicated tube right from the top of the console, and then I'll run the wires out to where they go in the PVC. Here's the tubes we glued up under the top:










Then we put the top on the thing with another layer of 1 inch foam










And then I did all the fairing, or at least put it on. We will sand it in a few minutes when it dries. The hole is where all the PVC's run to, so I can wire it once we install it.










Then, we decided to put that space to use in the cabin up front. I wanted somewhere to mount the speakers and a TV. I'm not sure what I'm going to put there still, I'm thinking either a computer with a touch screen, or a wall mounted Imac. Something that can watch videos either way. And then we'll put a marine stereo and speakers in as well. But something is going to be mounted on the right (starboard) side.




























Pretty much all that is left is fairing and painting. The tower guys are slow slow slow, but I'm really hoping to get them over to the boat so i can install my top and get it all wired up. I'll try to post on here more too as I get a ton of DM's asking when the next pictures are coming!


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## saltwatersensations (Aug 30, 2004)

Nice!


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## WoundedMinnow (Oct 11, 2011)

Sweet thread!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Sorry for the lack of pictures, it's been a day and night type of deal lately. Pretty much everything is getting close now, but nothing is finished. First thing we did was a bunch of fairing. We would paint primer on thick with a brush, sand it with 100 grit, and then use a pencil to circle any imprefections and then use body filler to fill the spots.



















And then we masked off the area that we will put non slip










Then masked off the orange to keep it orange. We still haven't hit that with the final two passes of sandpaper


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then we started painting!!! Just primer, but Monday we will do the topcoat I believe










































The inside too, but not the top yet as they are still welding up there. But the bridge is ready for paint once they get done welding either tomorrow or Monday.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

We had a guy working on the hard top too lately. All the speaker and light holes are cut out. We are going with 4 LED color changing lights in the hard top, a pair of Rigid lights to light the cockpit when we need bright lights, and then 4 fusion audio speakers in the top, and 2 in the top of the cockpit. We will have a seperate cabin radio with 4 speakers as well, and the outside radio will have 6 speakers. I'm going with the JBL marine head units. They are the round ones, and they are really easy to connect to via bluetooth, so the customers can play music off of their phones. The inside radio will be connected to the screen also, I'm thinking about getting a big tablet or touchscreen computer so people can watch movies on the overnight trips (or I can watch movies with the kids in the slip). Heres the bottom of the hard top:










Then we started on the doors. The doors are all foam cored, except for 1 inch on the side where the hinges go. We are putting in two pistons to shut the doors so you can just pull them open and walk in and they shut themselves. We are going to put two windows in them, that will line up with the side windows so it almost looks like one big window across the back. I thought about painting the space between the tinted plexiglass black too, but I think I'll leave it white for now.


















And then we did the biggest thing to improve the quality of fishing. We are taking the ugly ladder out of the middle of the fishing area. It's going to be a bit harder to get upstairs, but we are going to build something to grab onto to make it easier. I lowered the ladder part on one side (it used to have one of those ridiculously high stations, which I thought looked kinda like a lightning rod). It's hard to explain, but we just cut the base off of one of the ladders and welded it onto the foot. I like how it turned out, although I'm sure there will be some that don't. The cockpit is HUGE now, and now it's a fishing boat.



















Last little bit of fairing and paint prep tomorrow and then we'll shoot the final topcoat hopefully Monday. And then we move to the wiring and plumbing stage, but there isn't too much to wire as most of the household type of things we are taking out.

On a side note, I was thinking of putting in a 10KW battery out of a wrecked tesla to power the AC during our day trips. We could charge at night, and then run the AC all day without turning on the genset. Maybe just turn the genset on when we need to cook, and then go back to battery power. That might be a whole seperate forum post, but it's something I'm figuring out now.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Got to spend some money. It's fun spending money on toys instead of bills.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I was looking through my phone to see if I had any before pictures of the interior. I didn't know how much we were going to do to the boat, so I didn't take too many. Man it was soo full of rotten stuff. Here's a quick shot of the "Kitchen" when I got it, and then here is some of the rotten interior we threw away before we left the marina.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

No time to write much, but we got alot of welding done and put the hard top up top! We have to paint the hard top still, but it fits which is the hard part. We also painted all of the fly bridge and cabin inside and out, I'll shoot some pictures of that when I get back to the shop. My only complaint is I feel the hardtop should be about 6 inches lower, but I'm going to run with this and see if I like and if not we can always come back and change it after i get out of the red


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Sorry, I've been doing the day shift and the night shift trying to get done, so the pictures are a few days old and that means we are much further ahead  Ten guys working on the boat today, I think I have everybody in town that I would work with working on the boat. And then as a special treat, harold called his dad in from Puntarenas and two of his brothers in from Puntarenas to help with the final blitz. Here are some pictures from earlier this week!























































This is a picture of Harolds dad making the frame that goes around the outside of the Smoke colored Lexan windows. I gotta get a picture tomorrow, he mounted them today to test fit them and they are cool. We are going to paint them white, but this was something I don't know if me and Harold could have pulled off as neat. He is also building the doors to the back fridges/benches, I gotta get a picture of that too. It's another tricky project that me and Harold were dreading.










I'll try to get some current pictures up here tomorrow. Been doing the 6am to 9pm thing, so not too much energy left.


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## DPFISHERMAN (Jun 6, 2011)

looking great! I love these post.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I am officially fired as the picture taker. I thought I was shooting more pictures today, I don't know what happened, I looked at the phone and I only found two. Either way, I got the upstairs all wired up, got the Nav lights wired up and the front LED light strips. All the GPS, Radar, Sonar, and gauges have the wires ready to go. The guys put the ceiling in the cabin today as well, I don't know how I missed that picture. We are really wrapping up. I went in to get a date for inspection and the captian of Quepos said there was a month waiting list!!!! I almost passed out. So I took a road trip to Puntarenas today and got a date with them for next Friday (Thank God). So I have to be in the water by Thursday with full gas ready to make the 10 hour hike (I like to go slow to not burn too much fuel) Here's a picture from today, and then a picture from last night when we got done painting everything. The hard top turned out amazing, I'm really happy with it. If only I had measured out 6 foot 6 inches, but hey I gotta leave something for next year...


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Very nice...you guys have a gift for making something nice out of something not so nice!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, the hardest part by far, we got the gauges in. I actually made something on the PC, and then printed it out to get all the circles equally spaced. The wiring was terrible, but I think they work.










Then we got the roof stuck up with silicone 5200. There is nothing under the roof, everything goes in the side parts, so we are sticking the middle down so it doesn't vibrate. We put screws in to hold it down until the silicone dried. Then we are putting wood strips that are white and small screws over the seams. I also cut some holes out for some JBl 6X9s up front. TV or something with a screen going on the right on that wall.










Then I realized that we didn't put wood so we could screw in the doors to the ice chests. So we drilled out where the screws go and we are going to stick in some wood plugs and epoxy them in.










Put the doors on, and then you can see we put the LED's over the doors installed and wired. I got the speakers in too, but forgot to take a picture.










Here's what the ice chests look like with the top installed. The elements are installed as well.










Then we got the top on. We had test fitted it, but now it's painted and permenant!










I wanna have it in the water by the end of next week. Tomorrow I'm going to put all the lights and speakers in the hard top. Been some long days with alot of people. We put 3 guys all day long sanding the sides of the hull with 1000 grit too to get it to shine. We got ahold of some bad paint for the hull sides, and it didn't lay flat so we had to start with 220 grit on the sides, but finally it's looking like it should have from the start. More pictures coming soon!


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

Whats the name gonna be?


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## Cru (May 24, 2004)

Looks great! Can't wait to see it in the water.:cheers:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Here's some shots from last night. We got all the color changing LED's installed. We also started both motors again with all the new start switches. Pretty much all of the wiring is done, the gears and gas work, and right now we are putting in the new steering wheel. It had the old crappy system with the air tank, that is now gone! Here is the color changing LED's! I got them from Larry but I can't find the name of his store. Larry, if you see this, tell everybody where I got these things!





































And these are some mid day shots. I'll get the finished pictures up tonight. But we are cutting and installing the windows and just finished the barrier coat on the bottom. Bottom paint and windows should be done today!



















And then this is something to prove I'm still ghetto. Here is my diagram explaining to our company mechanics how steering systems used to work and how they work now. And, it doubles as a rash guard for people climbing over the transom! Maybe I'll leave it?


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## sleepersilverado (Jun 27, 2011)

You post never get old. Amazing as usual.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

sleepersilverado said:


> You post never get old. Amazing as usual.


Thanks, it's been quiet on here so I'm glad somebody is watching! I see the view count go up alot, I guess us Texans just like to watch quietly sometimes  Must not be alot of women on here :dance: :cheers: :rotfl:


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Very nice...look forward to in water pics!


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## WildCard07 (Jul 15, 2012)

Still here and still watching. Keep up the good work.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Not too much to post, it's all details. We painted the floor, put all the windows in (I didn't get a picture of the back doors with windows, but they are in too), got alot of small electrical stuff done, painted the bottom, and mounted it on a terribly ugly trailer that I hope can make it 30 yards. We were going to splash it today, but the guy told me they would work Sunday for free doing details under the shade if we splashed it Monday. I'll pay them the extra day, but I hate to douse enthusiasm. Small things left. There is some electrical issue with the genset. It's the fuel relay/run switch, it's easy I just have to look at it. And we have to hook up the gauges on the generator. A little bit of paint on the inside. We are going to fill the screw holes on the window borders so they are cleaner looking. We have to paint the floor upstairs and in the cockpit. And then we are going to mount a fighting chair out of one of my other boats I'm not working this year while I fix the nice fighting chair somebody sent me. I'm hoping to be in the water Monday and have the AC guy out Monday or Tuesday. And that's a wrap. I'm sure we'll still have small stuff to do, but it'll be fishable and it's busy for the next three months. I'll keep the pictures coming when I find something work shooting, here's a few from yesterday and today:



















And I'm sure this is the worst trailer ever posted on THT










I just hope it doesn't drop the boat....


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## ibtbone (Oct 7, 2013)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> Sorry, I've been doing the day shift and the night shift trying to get done, so the pictures are a few days old and that means we are much further ahead  Ten guys working on the boat today, I think I have everybody in town that I would work with working on the boat. And then as a special treat, harold called his dad in from Puntarenas and two of his brothers in from Puntarenas to help with the final blitz. Here are some pictures from earlier this week!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


lol. did anyone else get the phone number from harrolds dads shirt? 867-5309. jenny dont loose that number!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

ibtbone said:


> lol. did anyone else get the phone number from harrolds dads shirt? 867-5309. jenny dont loose that number!


Ha, I didn't catch that. I got a private message about Tommy and I had no idea what they were talking about :biggrin: I get it now :dance:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

So today was the day! Talk about taking the hard way. The tides here are usually 9-10 feet, so there is a bunch of water in the estuary. Thursday ends up being the LOWEST high tide of the year, and we only had around 6 foot and change of water in the estuary. But the ramp was built for the big tides, so we couldn't launch it in the morning. We had to wait for low tide, and then launch have a backhoe bring it down into the middle of the dry estuary, and then wait for the tide. Definitely the hard way. So it gave us another day to fix the bugs. It kind of stunk because the AC guy was here in the morning but with the boat out of the water, he couldn't do much. He connected up all the copper tubes, but tomorrow we have to run the 240V. So tomorrow we should finally get the AC going, and that's the last hurdle. Got a fighting chair all cleaned up and we'll put that in tomorrow. And then we gotta put the outriggers on. And wash it. Probably twice 










But we got it in the marina. Only took from 7Am to 10:30PM, but we made it!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

So it looks alot newer now, right?


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## fISHBUD (Oct 16, 2005)

Congratulations!

That is amazing!


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## tamucc04 (Jun 21, 2011)

That is SUPER impressive!!! Enjoyed your post as this has come together.


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## WildCard07 (Jul 15, 2012)

Looks great. Congrats on getting her back in the water.


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## sleepersilverado (Jun 27, 2011)

Well figure out what you are going to do next so we have something to look at.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

sleepersilverado said:


> Well figure out what you are going to do next so we have something to look at.


Hopefully fish a little bit. It's been way too long. If this thing raises fish like I think, it'll be a blast to fish!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Hey guys, I guess I'll be the first to post about it, because I'm sure when Marlin magazine comes out everybody on here will see it anyways. I just had my 5th kid, a baby girl, and the charter business down here has gotten super busy (1515 trips in 2018 on 6 boats). And so it looks like I'm going to have to pick between running a charter business in paradise, which I love doing, or building stuff here in paradise, which I love doing too. The wife is worried with the 5 kids that if something happens to me she won't be able to take care of 5 kids and one of the busiest charter fleets down here. So I got an ad for Marlin magazine that will be hitting shelves July 23rd:










Wife wants me to get a vacation rental home, which will probably make less than half what I make now, but it's something she says she can handle if I kill myself seeing how fast my old chevy can make it around corners here in the mountains.

It took a lot of work to find the crews that I have and rebuild all the boats, I'm definetly not going to be broken up if it doesn't sell. My hope is that whoever buys it wants to add a boat to their fleet, and me and Harold and hopefully the new owner can put the 31 Bertram mold to use. I'd love to stay on, like indefinitely , to help out. I just got my Costa Rican Citizenship (I was a permenant resident before) so I refuse to leave. But I promised her I'd list it. If you any of you reading this want to move to Costa Rica and have somebody that's been here 11 years watching over you, this is your shot. I'll contractually stay on for a year, but in reality am never moving away and my heart is in the boating business here.

Anyways, check out the website we made, and if you know anybody wanting to retire in Costa Rica making an easy 6 figure income, send them the link:

www.LiveYourCRDream.com

Anybody that is booked with me don't worry, I will make sure the owner keeps me on for at least a year (if it even sells). And I really expect that none of the crew will change out, John W included. Hopefully this will just get me more time in the boat yard.


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## sleepersilverado (Jun 27, 2011)

Good luck, u could just buy a bunch of life insurance on your self and keep on keeping on.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

sleepersilverado said:


> Good luck, u could just buy a bunch of life insurance on your self and keep on keeping on.


That was my thought too. But eventually she would run out no matter what I did. I do have a decent policy though....

Truth be told, I think it's more about time than anything for me. The charter side is just too big (and growing too fast) to give me time to build more boats. At least without seriously cutting into the raising the kids time. I guess I'm like everybody else, I want to have my pie and eat it too. Although both sides are fun, I really would rather be on the boat building side. I love working with my hands. Just the sense of accomplishment when you get it in the water for the first time, crank it up, and do the victory lap out the river and into the marina. No feeling like that for me.

But fishing is fun too. I've been doing alot more for fun fishing lately, I got away from it for a while. Took the kids a few days ago and they all had a blast. They are 6, 8 and 10 and boys so it's the perfect age to take them fishing. (I have a 1 week old girl and a 15 year old girl too but neither are into the fishing thing).


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, since I got a new financial backer / partner here (nice guy named Andrew who will probably show up in the forum here soon) in the boat business, and since my new rental house is just about finished, seemed like a good time to get another cold molded gamefisherman, right?

Check out the new old sled that we are going to do a little bit of cutting on:




























It's pretty solid in the hull, there is just a little bit of rot inside and upstairs. We are going to try to get these boxes out before the weekend, they don't hold ice and they are soft and plywood. Just got a bunch of foam in, so we'll keep it light but rot proof!










More pictures coming soon!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Alright, I'm a little behind as it's been slammed lately! There were three areas of the boat that I thought sucked. I hate the live wells in the floor. We got some surprise rot on the back cabin wall, and the upstairs console was thinly fiberglassed mud.

This was totally painted and nice looking when we bought it, but we were taking the door off to paint the door and found that the wall was pretty much just paint and mud.





































So we cut it out










Luckily all the inside boards were in good shape, just the plywood on the wall. So we made some new walls out of corecell with a single layer of 1708.



















And then put a layer of MicroSpheres mixed with Gelcoat on it.



















Pretty easy job, didn't take too long, and now it won't rot again and it's lighter. Nothing too difficult (sense I'm not the one that has to sand it!)


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

At the same time as we have the wall going, we also decided to make a live well / tuna tubes on the back transom. Before it had one in the hull under the floor, and it was just a livewell and no tubes. Since we are usually out there with the radar going chasing schools of Yellowfin Tuna, we need tuna tubes for bonita.

So we have this mold for this thing in the shop, so we pulled off another one.










Then we cut the transom so that it fits. It isn't glued to the transom yet, just rough fitted.



















And then while we are doing that, we have the tube molds that we pull 4 tubes off of:










Then with that looking good, we add the tubes into the inside of the live well. We do not put any PVC on the tubes, just cut the bottom open and seal the box they go in. ANd then on the bottom of the live well, we put a thru hull and make a little wall in the back corner so that it fill up both sides with the tubes in it at the same time. The idea is to equalize the pressure so you don't get two good tubes and two bad tubes. The more area and friction you put between the water in and the base of the tube, the more equalized the pressure is. This design worked great on the Blue Daze, so we are going with it again here. And we will stick a rule 3800 pump on it for the 4 tubes and we'll be golden!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then that leaves us with the console. It doesn't look too bad in the first picture, but in the second you can see that it is mud and paint.



















So we cut a piece of corecell the same size as the top:










And used the paint covered mud as a mold and pulled off a fiberglass copy. We just went with two layers of 1708 as it really doesn't have to be crazy strong and light is better. The original was thin plywood and Mat 8oz glass, so this will be much better.










And then glassed the piece for the top










And then cut off the excess glass and stuck the top to the bottom




























And then we cut a piece of corecell and stuck it on the bottom, still have to glass it but it's getting closer. We are going to cut the back part hopefully tomorrow and then glass the whole thing and stick it where it goes!!!










Hopefully this coming week we can get everything finished on contruction part and start fairing. December is here and we would like to get the boat in the water by January!


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## Crossroads (May 21, 2004)

John see if you can make the customer seating area like it is on the Stress Reeliever I. That boat is much more comfortable for old farts than Sress Reeliever II.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Crossroads said:


> John see if you can make the customer seating area like it is on the Stress Reeliever I. That boat is much more comfortable for old farts than Sress Reeliever II.


For sure, we need some big padded areas to sit. We are going to add some seating up front pretty similar to the SR1!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Sorry, been really bad at posting lately! Got the season in full swing, lots of boats fishing everyday, just putting the final touches on the house and keeping Harold on track on the Fandango! Fishing has been off the charts as well, John W released a pair of Blue Marlin the other day and 4 nice Yellowfin Tuna all in the same trip!

Here's some progress pictures on the boat. We redid the console out of Diviny Cell

















And then we added a door jamb in the back










And then got it all mounted up top! We didn't bolt it in yet, we were just marking where the tower grabs it so we can pull out the foam and replace it with chopped fiberglass/cabosil so we can tighten it up.


















Then we moved on to the seating. I don't know why these look soo small in the pictures, both of these boxes are pretty big in real life. We will get some pads made for them and for the motor box, something where 5 people can comfortably sit and relax while waiting on the bites. We are also putting together a nice fighting chair for this thing, so that'll be another place to hang out and watch the lures.


















And then unrelated to boats but exactly what a man needs after working in the shop  I hooked up my 400K BTU jacuzzi heater last night. The old jacuzzi heater was 15K BTU and took 24 hours to heat up the jacuzzi so we had to leave it on full time when the house was full of fishermen. The new one heats up in 4 minutes. Been spending the nights on the balcony when the house is empty, listening to the ocean and soaking in the hot water!


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## fishinguy (Aug 5, 2004)

This is a great thread. How's that orange boat doing at raising fish?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I think Harold is getting better at these! Got the transom cut out and the live well, tuna tube combo in the transom now! I think I said something about it last time, but there is no PVC in the box and it has a tank that equalizes the flow of water to all the tubes. And then overflows to the live well, so you only need one pump (rule 3800).

Another important detail for anybody trying to copy us, is we mount the pump on the lowest part of the hull. There is just a short thru-hull, a 90 and then a 4 inch hose before the pump. The rule 3800 is a great pump IF you keep it primed. That means when you back down on fish, the bubbles like to cause an airlock in the line before the pump. The only solution that we have found so far is to not have much hose in front of the pump. So I try to keep the distance from the hull to the pump less than 9 inches, and the pump is sitting on the hull at the lowest spot where there is no turbulence under boat while running (not by propellers).

Not much to explain. We just cut out the transom where it goes and then glassed it in as much as we could.





































Then we added faired it out










Should be painting next week, almost done!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Not too much to show, just a lot of priming lately. Got everything faired out and primed.









































































And my favorite part, I love the new live well setup!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Got the Tuna Tubes painted black on the inside. I find that is calms the bait down a bit, and they seem to last longer. Especially in the tuna tubes, we have a lot of trouble in white tubes with them kicking alot more in the white tubes. We need them to just sit still and wait until we need them!


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