Copying a 31 Bertram in Quepos Costa Rica
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:
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1b.jpg So in typical fashion, as soon as we started to put it on the trailer, we got a torrential rain :) http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1d.jpg But we stuck with it, got soaked and here she is on the trailer! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1e.jpg Earlier today this happened: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild1f.jpg 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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertbuildGoala.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertbuildGoalb.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuildGoalc.jpg 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! |
looking forward to it
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Great boat for a day boat, bullet proof hull lay-up....but plan on an Eisenglass enclosure for the FB or some great foul weather gear as they are a VERY wet ride when running on plane in a decent sea and quartering conditions. That being said they are great for a day charter boat.
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Ready to see you work your magic!
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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.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild2a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild2b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild2c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild2d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild2e.jpg |
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...
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild3a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild3b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild3c.jpg |
Well that sucks!
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Man, you've got to build a shop, to build a boat. That's a tough lick. Good luck. Can't wait to see the project.
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Definitely sucks, but it will only add to the story you can tell your sports while they are sliming up the deck!
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This is awesome! Good Luck!
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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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4a.jpg And then we put two layers of thick mat and a layer of woven fiberglass on top. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4f.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild4e.jpg 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. |
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 http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild5a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild5b.jpg Here's the second tube http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild5c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild5d.jpg More pictures to come in a bit. |
That's one hell of a project.
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this is fun to watch!
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This is kind of a mid process shot. We too a string line and found where we want the boat to sit and ran a string and put some 2 by 3's along the bottom to simulate where the bottom of the plywood should be. Then ran a string line to simulate where the sides of the plywood should be, and then took a bunch of small thin boards we made by cutting a 2 by 3 into a bunch of pieces and are making the outline of the boat. We will transfer that onto 1 inch plywood. Then fiberglass the plywood to mold. I don't know how to describe it well, we just got the birdcages finished.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild7a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild7b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild7c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild7d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild7e.jpg |
Ok, more progress pictures. We used string, super high tech, but never lies http://cdn.thehulltruth.com/images/smilies/smile.gif We have it where we can set it upright or tilt it over. And this will make it stiff too!
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8A.jpeg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8c.jpeg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8d.jpeg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8e.jpeg Here's some better shots of the string. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8f.jpeg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertrambuild8g.jpeg |
Well, that's half a boat mold!
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8a.jpg So we demolded, and then got a bunch of drums, set the mold on the drums and rolled it away! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8e.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild8f.jpg We spent the rest of the day putting on more PVA in the bow and on the bottom. Tomorrow we start the other side! |
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!
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild9A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild9B.jpg 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... |
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...
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild10A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild10B.jpg |
Really cool. Wondering how you are planning to do the transom.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Well the second half did not go fast, but it did go. And now we have a copy of both sides to work with.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild11A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild11B.jpg And then we have a nice and clean Bertram that is ready to put back together! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild11C.jpg |
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I'll document the process with lots of pictures. We are still painting the original right now, but when we start building again I'll post some pictures! |
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! :)
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BertBuild12A.jpg I guess it never hurts to try, if it works great, if not we'll do something else. |
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-r...ew-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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35berta.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bertb.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bertc.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bertd.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35berte.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild13A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild13b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild13c.jpg |
Well we pushed the two sides of the mold together today after work just to goof off. They look like they might fit together one day!
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild14a.jpg And then we glassed over the divinycell strips. And then decided to copy the top part as well. And we got that glassed over too. My money is we rip off the paint tomorrow and have to repaint, but I still have a gallon of primer and paint ready to go if that's the case. We'll see how bad it is tomorrow... http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild14b.jpg But dang they turned out nice. Glass on the inside, and that cab is done in just two days. That's fairly quick. I think we found our groove again. i'll take some damage pictures tomorrow. I wish we had used packing tape and it probably wouldn't have been as much carnage. Tomorrow we will probably just go ahead and cut the sides already too. Just a trace and cut type of deal, then the whole cabin will be really close. Just need the rest of the boat.... |
Keep the updates coming.....
Hoe many different sites do you post this on? |
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.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild15a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild15b.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild15d.jpg 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!!!! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild15c.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertbuild15e.jpg More pictures coming soon, sorry for the delay |
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! |
What has happened since June???
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I love your tenacity.
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Updates Gringo John?
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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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40e.jpg 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 http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40C.jpg So to start we made some holes in the ground http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40B.jpg And then we are going to put whatever we can find in them to support the mold http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40g.jpg 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 http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40h.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40m.jpg And then here is the 31 bert mold. I'll probably finish the 31 first. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40J.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram40L.jpg 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 crap 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! |
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!
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram402A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram402B.jpg |
Nice Update
You can always use a water level if you can find a piece of clear hose. |
Love this thread!! I will be down there in June 2nd.-12th. staying about an hour from you John, would love to plan a couple fishing trips.
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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.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315B.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315c.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315e.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315f.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315g.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315i.jpg 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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert40315h.jpg 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. Here's a picture of the hull I'm looking for: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/38widebody.jpg And here is the actual boat this thing was taken off of years ago. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/38widebodyB.jpg 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. |
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.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram316B.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram316c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram316d.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram316e.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bertram316A.jpg 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... |
Good luck fining it capt
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Glad to see you're back at it Capt. Keep the updates coming!
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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! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/fixedb.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/fixedc.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/fixedd.jpg 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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/fixeda.jpg |
Keep us updated Gringo!
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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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018a.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018b.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018c.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018d.jpg 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! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018e.jpg 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) http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018f.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018g.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018h.jpg |
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.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018i.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018j.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Q...rt4232018k.jpg 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! |
Very impressive ! Keep up the good work and reports ! thanks
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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! http://www.queposfishadventure.com/roof.jpg |
Glad to see an update
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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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert317A.jpg http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert317B.jpg |
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: http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bert8A.jpg Bill106 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... http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bert8B.jpg 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bert8C.jpg And then we did a little bit of work to the Bertram Hull too. Got most of the fairing done, and then I remember 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... http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bert8D.jpg An 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. http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bert8E.jpg |
wow
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