bertram31.com

Ironworker

Thanks Franz.

I weighed the force to lift my covers today and its 60#s at the initial lift. I haven't weighed the mid point force yet but will do so. I would prefer to use only one strut on each box to minimize obstructions of the engine compartment.

Ironworker

Rick, Why don't you install two stainless eyes, one on the box and the other on the pillar (or wherever you think best), and pass a rope and pulley. When you're done, you remove the rope and pulley and you are left with only two permanent stainless eyes... I thought about a rope and pulley system b...

Ironworker

I'm sure its going to take some trial and error on my part but I'm planning on making it happen. On the new Bertram 35 the box cover lifts are motorized. I'm going to stick with the gas filled shocks that are manual.

Ironworker

If someone has installed gas struts on their engine boxes, I'd like to get some info on the size of struts, lifting capacity and location, please? I'm trying not to recreate the wheel is someone has already done the mental math. I recently had shoulder surgery and I need a little help in lifting the...

Ironworker

Hey Guys she is a wreck right now with old gasser Mercruisers but not sure which model. I am just trying to discern if the 6.7's will actually fit albeit with complex mods. Will they? Anyone tried before? JJ JJ, You will need to rebuild the engine beds. Thats not a big deal but it is going to more ...

Ironworker

JJ, I looked at the 6.7's hard when I repowered. For a variety or reasons I went with the 5.9's. Read the owner's manual first. The 6.7s are not supposed to be idled for long periods of time i.e., trolling speeds. There is also more unnecessary stuff to break. They are also bigger. Of course there a...

Ironworker

I called Sharrow about props for my 31 but unfortunately they don't make one. I'm a fan of these props.

Ironworker

I went to the the Ft Lauderdale boat show on Thursday and one of the boats that I toured was Hatteras's Hull #1. They found Knit Witts and completely refurbished the boat. They had more people touring this old 60's boat than their new boats!

They did an excellent job refinishing that boat.

Ironworker

Peter, I've been looking at some of this new tech as well. Also, I've been having some conversations with people who are chasing the electric boat dream. In one particular case the designer was considering an electrical installation of 3,000 VDC! On a boat in the water! The problem always comes back...

Ironworker

Nope not diesel. Just flexible lines manufactured for gasoline, primarily for outboard installations.

Ironworker

My recommendation is that ALL flexible fuel hose be replaced every 5 years leaking or not. The inner liner mandated by the EPA breaks down and will clog various orifices.

Ironworker

Hey guys, sorry for my absence. But as I said I was "off grid". Six weeks with virtually no INET or reliable cell service. We just got back to civilization today. Later next week I'll get back to work on finishing up my 31. One thing that I do want to mention is that Li-ion is not suitable for boats...

Ironworker

I forgot the camper also contains a 43" 4K tv! It has room for an additional 600 watts of solar as well for a total of 1800 watts however based on the first 16 days of usage the additional solar would probably be overkill.

Ironworker

Tony, You could if you had the perseverance. No doubt it was a big project. Before I started this project, I'd never had any experience with fiberglass. Regarding the high tech stuff, I've had a little test on the systems even though is was not on the boat. While the boat was in the yard, I built an...

Ironworker

Two big thumbs up !! Alot of work went into that boat, but boy does she look great! I hope it performs even better than it looks!! Thanks Carl, there was a lot of work put into it and I've got another month to make her into a real fishing boat. I too hope she performs! I hope to get some numbers so...

Ironworker

Rick Nice. I like the color. She really looks great. I see you made the chine wider. Would love to know if that knocks down some of the roll and spray. Tony, I did increase it by 1 1/2" approximately. I believe that I've posted pics on exactly how we did it. It was two pieces of coosa cut on two di...

Ironworker

Well after some equipment delays, I got the boat home. The painter did a pretty decent job, IMO. There is still a lot of clean up that I need to do and I still have to trim out the boat and finish the wood work in the cabin but here are a couple of photos. I was in the boat yard for 64 days. I expec...

Ironworker

My 69 B31 had a couple of Volvo TAMD 60B diesels which was rated at 220HP. They were heavy engines at 1500#s each. My boat with those old engines topped out at 30 kts and cruised at 22. The old gal rode pretty well.

Ironworker

I blow off my coosa as well then wipe it down with Denatured alcohol. I find that one coat of resin is enough to fill the pores on the coosa then add glass as normal. Since I used epoxy, I used 1708 which is pretty easy to work with. The Carolina Reaper comes out of the boatyard August 23rd at 8:00 ...

Ironworker

Coosa needs to be glassed before painted especially its going to be exposed to view. Otherwise its pretty impervious. Its a great product. I just rebuilt my 31 with it.

Ironworker

Devin, We ran the fridge/freezer with no problems but I did not get the Air conditioning completely installed due to a time crunch and also I would have to remove most of the components while the boat was getting painted. Based on everything I've researched I should have plenty of Battery capacity t...

Ironworker

No doubt Carl, its a big hill to climb. For the most part, I'll only be running the AC at night if I'm sleeping on the boat, however, I'm installing an vinyl enclosure should I need to trap in the cool air. My Air conditioner is a Mabru 12000btu unit that runs off 12 VDC so I'm not loosing any power...

Ironworker

My boat has the open cabin. Fortunately my ceiling in the cabin is still out so you can see the added structure I added when widening my flybridge. For a florida/Bahamas boat, I can't imagine anything but an open cabin.

Ironworker

Looks, like I'm just south of you in N. Palm Beach. I just went through most everything you have been considering. It was an expensive, exhausting 18 months. I'm currently in the boatyard trying to get my boat painted and doing some adjustments on the running gear.

Ironworker

I'm not a fan of gas inboard engines in boats. Lots of potential for bad things to happen especially in older boats. Yes it's going to be pricey to switch to diesel but its safer and in the long run more economical. The cost of shafts and struts, rebuilding the engine beds, engine boxes and exhaust ...

Ironworker

I made a mold of my fiberglass EB supports as I needed to elongate mine. I made about 5 or 6 extra extensions which I will happily donate if anyone wants them. Making a mold of the entire engine support bracket would not be a big job if anyone wanted to build them. Since I have a tower, I radius-ed ...

Ironworker

That is nice electrical work. I'm curious about the four DC/DC chargers. I used two of the18 amp DC/DC chargers and two of the IP67 chargers for my starting batteries. Then the Multiplus II inverter/charger along with the Alternators to charge the lithium house bank. It looks like this guy put all o...

Ironworker

Snipe and Ironworker, What is your fuel burn rate (gph) at 30 knots? I am curious to see the difference between 6bta and qsb. My numbers won't do you much good as my current props are woefully undersized. However on my test run It was 16 gph per side. With the larger props, I should be able to add ...

Ironworker

Those are pretty good numbers Jason. My boat has a half tower which will cost me some speed but after many years of offshore fishing in CCs, and a bad back as a result of it, I'm just not into speed. 25 kts is about as fast as I want to go in the ocean these days. Fuel is expensive in the Bahamas so...

Ironworker

My only regret is not making the fish box larger! Just got back from Bobby Soles propellor and his numbers match Jimmy's. I need 20 x 26 #4 cup props. Anyone know of a good deal on some? His numbers say that I'll hit 40.9 kts at 3000 rpm and cruise of 24 kts at 1995 rpm. I'm not fully buying the num...

Ironworker

We met those guys at the fuel dock. I've run into 4 or 5 different people who knew the "Pepper". We have more people from NJ in Florida than we have Floridians. I'm looking forward to getting her painted and finished up. I probably have 3 weeks of work finishing up some loose ends after I get the bo...

Ironworker

we faired and sanded the V berth walls in the Carolina Reaper. They look great. yes it was a little work but the look great and less stuff to collect mildew.

Ironworker

Here are a couple of pics of the new battery location and distribution system. Access is much easier and the 2/0 battery cables are roughly all 6' in length so they are all charged evenly. https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3rrygscppzpsdp/IMG_2019.jpg?raw=1 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gm3o160ijruz7dq/IMG_2040...

Ironworker

Congratulations for getting her in the water, i know it's been a journey to get there, and i appreciate your allowing us to follow along. I know you've already reconfigured to address this issue, but I'm curious why you were told you had to shorten your wire run. I was reading through the Victron m...

Ironworker

Good morning from sunny south Florida. The boat is in the boatyard waiting on the painter. We launched last Tuesday, installed the floors and engine boxes and finished up some remaining fiberglass and electrical issues on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we ran the boat for a couple of hours which wen...

Ironworker

Still ironing out bugs and we have pushed the departure to Florida to Saturday at daybreak. I want to run the engines at least 5 hours before we head off, which we will do in the morning. Good news is the weather looks good for the trip. My new Furuno Autopilot was defective out of the box but that ...

Ironworker

Well we made the launch on high tide today. Ran her for about 15 minutes and had to work out some bugs with the Smartcraft system. I've gots lots of equipment to setup and configure before we head to Florida on Friday morning. But I thought you'd like to see a pic of the Carolina Reaper in the water...

Ironworker

I apologize for not posting progress but I will get caught up. I've got a hard deadline in the boatyard in N. Palm Beach on the 12th and its been more 7 days a weed and 10 hour days to make that date. Hopefully, I'll launch the boat on June 6th, which should give me a couple of days to test out the ...

Ironworker

Jason,

I'm glad to see your family enjoying the boat.

Ironworker

Jason,

Beautiful Boat! I look forward to seeing her in the water.

Ironworker

very nice. I had to eliminate my bow lights when I put on the pulpit. I really like that light fixture.

Ironworker

Todd, There is a lots of info available on the INET and also from the manufacturers. Most of the manufacturers are not selling to the marine industry. The battery people are selling to anyone that will buy their products. Its been my experience that tech support sucks for all products. There have be...

Ironworker

Yannis,

I'm definitely not a purist. I'm building an expedition fishing boat. Having rebuilt a Bertram 31 there are a number of things in the original design that needed to be modified. I had always planned on a windlass. The pulpit facilitates that goal. Aesthetically, I'm indifferent

Ironworker

Now for some bad news. As I've posted before, my Lithium batteries were planned to live in the engine boxes, outboard of each engine. I had several initial concerns about this location. The first was the temperature of boxes. Most Battery BMS's shuts the battery down between 130F and 140F. Also the ...

Ironworker

First some good news. Here is a side view of my pulpit. What do you think? Welcome addition or not?

Ironworker

Jason,

You really do have a nice boat! I hope your son takes on the project of rebuilding her 30 years from now.

Ironworker

I had to call an audible yesterday. Today was a new demo day. Hopefully tomorrow is a build back day with less than two days lost on my schedule. Stay tuned.

Ironworker

Rick Almost there. I can't wait to hear how all that battery power works out for you. You sound like the pulpit is a disappointment. Hard to tell how it looks looking down. From the side is were you can tell how well it blends into the lines of the boat. Tony, I was not an initial fan of adding the...

Ironworker

That is a cool name!

Ironworker

Progress update. My current plan is to crank the engines in the boat next weekend and launch the following weekend. I have a reservation in a boat yard in N. Palm Beach on June 12th to get her painted. The electrical distribution is roughly 95% complete, the Glenndinning system is installed, the Sma...

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