bertram31.com

Hey Guys,

I thought I would share some of the photos on my moving the exhaust outboard of the stringers to make room for fish boxes. Special thanks to Marlin and JP for 1) telling me this is how I should do it, and 2) giving me the step by step that Capt Patrick gave Marlin on Wahoo.

Here's essentially the starting point. Old 5" exhaust replaced with 6" exhaust:





Old exhaust is patched:



Capt Patrick's Vermiculite & epoxy filler packed in all the spaces and shaped about the new fiberglass exhaust tube:



Vermiculite before & after faired into shape:





1708 Added:





Here's the exhaust run, new rudder shelf, and test fit of the new deck I built from Coosa showing the space that was created by moving the exhaust outboard:















Gelcoat rolled & sanded:





A few minor fixes to take care of before I tape off and roll out the bottom paint, but I'm very happy with the results. None of this would have been possible without this website and the help from The Faithful walking me through how to move the exhaust. I sincerely appreciate all the help I have gotten along the way.

Thanks,

JohnV8r

A lot of good stuff going on there.

John

Nice work. It is going to look great when you are done. Are those transducers near the rudder shelf?

Tony,

Those are the underwater lights that JP Dalik put a group purchase together on the website several years back. They were halogen lights, but I sent them in and had them upgraded to LED's while I was rewiring the boat earlier this year. Everything is now LED with the exception of the cockpit spreader light. I have a replacement - just haven't gotten that swapped out yet. I even replaced all the navigation lights with LED bulbs and the interior lights with 3000K temperature LED's that have a nice warm almost incandescent color. Reducing the amp draw was why I wanted to upgrade everything to LED's, but the amount of light they put out compared to what I had is just unreal. Plus, there is NO heat at all. Worth every penny. I was skeptical the U/W lights would be any brighter, but I was wrong. It's hard to explain how much brighter the LED underwater lights are, but they are unreal. I have one facing downward outboard of each strut and one facing aft on the transom. Here's a picture from last summer when I was about 80% through the rewire. It gives you a sense of the brightness.



Thanks,

JohnV8r

Really nice work on the exhaust, deck and rudder shelf. Looks great and built to last

Very nice work, a lucky Bertram.

Nice work John!

Wow, 6" exhaust for those V8's...have something else in mind down the road? If your going to do it, might as well go 6", I'd agree with that. Plus they will really get to breath.

Funny how the same boats, but such a different layout. I couldn't get the mufflers under my deck and I am in the shaft alley, your deck is considerably higher. Also my tillers are on the opposite side of yours...interesting as it opens up some possibilities I have not thought of to reconfigure the rudders and...

Carl,

I did gain 3/4" on the deck height to clear the mufflers, which I was hoping to avoid. There is a .5" clearance all the way around. I'm going to follow your lead on trimming the bottom of the motor boxes to account for the height change. That just ends up saving me a lot of work.

The exhaust is actually 6" from the back of the mufflers to the thru hulls. I used the same 5" mufflers because I wanted those model mufflers (due to noise performance) and the 6" would have taken the deck height up another 1.2" in height - too much. HOWEVER, you are correct that the 6" thru hull was also driven by my desire to be able to change to all 6" exhaust in the event I went to diesel engines. I fight myself constantly on the gas/diesel subject. There is no need for me to have diesel engines. There is no break even point for me in my lifetime on the cost. However, I do find myself wanting them at times because they are the pinnacle of powerplant improvement for a Bertram 31. Maybe someday... That's all I tell myself now.

Interesting also that you point out the differences in your rudder post placement. I really wanted to move the exhaust to the hull sides like Marlin did on Wahoo. However, on Shambala that would have created a positive/backflow angle on the exhaust aft of the muffler. The Mercruiser guy who rebuilt the top end of my engines told me the Mercruiser spec calls for a 3 degree minimum down angle on all exhaust. I could not have done that if I went out the hull sides versus the transom - something I can't help but wonder is specific to my hull/deck placement versus Wahoo. It took some wrestling, but the exhaust run actually meets the 3 degree down angle spec. There is no spot where the exhaust might flow backwards at this point.

Thanks,

JohnV8r

John

Those LED underwater lights look great. Going to give you a lot of light. Should help attract squid and other baitfish.

Very nice John.

It's amazing to see the talent from you guys who at one time would not have taken on such a task without the 31 site.

Thanks Bruce! No question I would not have been able to do any of this without Bertram31.com and the immeasurable help I have received.