bertram31.com

After years of stealing ideas, and watching what others have done to the boat I love, I've finally joined bertram31.com. I keep my 31, Hull #315-77-1105, behind my house on the Beaver Dam Creek in Brick NJ. From 71-77 she was in the Cape Cod area with the name Amberjack. A family friend purchased her and brought her to NJ. My father bought her from his friend in 1984, and renamed Shankee. We repowered in 1994 with Yanmar 4LHDTE and are still running those engines today, with approximately 6350 hours. We fish, mostly inshore, from April into January with occaisonal forays offshore.
After my father passed in 2002, I have tried to pick out an annual project to try to stay ahead of the game. This forum has been a wealth of information for me in the past, and I look forward to tapping into the experiences of others to help with the next project.
Again, thank you to the moderators for the add.
Pat Donnelly

Welcome aboard.

Welcome Pat.

Nice to see someone with over 5k on the hour meters.

Dr Den as I know you my son and I see you leave our inlet all the time you fish the shit out of that boat,and your dad would be proud of you for that.if you get the chance stop by and see our Bahia are we are in sunshineharbour on Evergreen Lane,we have watched you for yrs and admire how much you fish it.put some new iron in her and she will run for forever and a little faster,welcome aboard this is a great group of people that we have known for a long time

Sorry I meant dr donnelly

Welcome- Good to meet you.
6,300+ hours! Dang I guess they are slow with the 4cyl Diesels...
Kind regards,
Stephan

Pat

Welcome.

Your story is somewhat similar to mine. My dad purchased our boat new in 1975. When he passed I kept her and then repowered her with 270 Cummins.

I run out of Forked River so we use Barnegat Inlet.

Keep her run and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Pat, Welcome and thanks for stepping forward and joining!
We need to keep this group of great folks and great boats together, glad you're here.

What numbers are you cruising at with those engines and your fuel burn? I have the same engines and I had planned to install in my project B31, but have since thought they were under powered. Please tell me everything you can about your performance, shaft size and propeller. The 4LH-DTE are 170 hp, and apparently enough power to fish and cruise as you are doing!
Welcome aboard,
Chris

Neil, thanks for the kind words. I saw Bahia when you started, so I appreciate what you have done

Chris,
I usually run the engines at 2850rpm and get 17.3kts WOT 3300 21kts. We have 1 3/8" shafts and 20X21 props. Obviously, I read the other posts and treat those #s as "Bertram porn". This is all I've ever known so I am used to it. If I got home any quicker there would probably be time to mow the lawn. We are usually better than 2.2 miles per gallon, a canyon trip this summer to the 100 Square, troll 6hrs, and back was 123 gallons. You just need to be comfortable not getting anywhere first.

Pat Donnelly

pddmd wrote:We are usually better than 2.2 miles per gallon, a canyon trip this summer to the 100 Square, troll 6hrs, and back was 123 gallons. You just need to be comfortable not getting anywhere first.

123 gallons...I can burn that on an inshore trip.

You may not be 1st to the grounds or getting back home, but your not 1st to the fuel dock either...heck you could pass it right by if you wanted to...

17.3 knts gets you where you want to go...its were I tend to cruise my boat with 440 gassers.


Welcome aboard!

Carl

Pat

Lets face it, 17.3 knots is not that bad. In reality it is a small boat on a big pond. How many days can you really run both ways to the canyon at 25 knots. Usually for comfort reasons we all pull them back. You are probably cruising both ways at that speed and so are most of us in the type of seas we run into up here in the NE.

I know Bob Lilco runs his harder and so does Jimmy G but they rally set there boats up to handle it and run through the slop faster than most of us can.

The wonderful thing about our boats is that they run at that speed in most anything. I would love to someday( one left in college) have the horses to go faster when possible. For the time being I just repeat the adage of the tortoise and the hare and steam along.
Pat Donnelly