bertram31.com

Hi everyone,

I will try to upload an album I have just put up of some work I did to my 31 over the last 4 years, it might not be in order but I am sure you can figure it out.
Blue Boy is a charter boat that has been in the family for many years and is our prized possession.
With the BIG help from Capt Pat and EVERYONE on this site I started and have almost completed my renovation of her.
I tried to follow the advice from everyone as best I could and I think it came out ok.
She was completely gutted in 2007 and stripped to bare fiberglass. Then several coats of epoxy and several coats of Interprotect 2000 were applied top and bottom inside and out.
All bulkheads were replaced with SAPELE Marine Ply which after being cut to shape was epoxy all over then encapsulated in fiberglass then glassed into place. This was the process we did with EVERY piece of wood used in the boat.
Al wiring was changed along with hoses through hulls etc.
The aft floorboard was replaced with Alex kit with the fish box, and the forward section right up to the bunks with Nidacore.
Smart rails were installed (great addition) and also the plastic rub rail.
Capt Pat set me up with the rudders, probably the best addition of them all.
The fuel tank was cut open cleaned out then glassed back. New water tanks, pumps, lights, upholstery, head... you name it and it was replaced.
10 months later she hit water and was beautiful. She had he Perkins 275hp and ran a solid 30kts.
Earlier this year we had some manicoolers problems with the Perkins and whilst searching around FL for replacement found a gentleman in Bartow FL who had a pair of new 6 BTA 250hp that he bought in 1992 for his boat that he never got around to installing.
I drove up to meet him and as he stated they were still on the Cummins crates, the engine panels still wrapped up in plastic and in perfect condition with ZF gears. Whilst negotiating he told me to come look at his boat that he intended to put them in and let’s make a deal on boat and engines.
The boat was the exact replica of mine a 1969 Bertram Bahia Mar! He had put tons of hours, money and hard work into and she was in very good condition an almost ready for paint. I ended up with both boat and engines lol.
I decided to use the Cummins in Blue Boy and take on this new addition as a project in the near future.
I also took the opportunity to do additional work on Blue boy, such as underwater lights, LED lights throughout the engine room an bilge, new electronics, new props and shafts, sound down sound proofing (VERY QUIET!) redo cabin, and teak covering boards to name a few.
The engine fired up without a problem and have her cruising at 25kts and topping out at 29.7 kts. GREAT ENGINES!
I have presently being made a tuna tower and also custom bow rail.
She has served the family well in the past and no doubt will be with us for many years to come.
Thanks again to everyone,

Chris.

ps. if any f the faithful come to St. Lucia I’m offering an open invitation to come fish with me, so make some time!

http://s1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc417/kiffa75/

great job! nice slide show too

Welcome to the site...and WOW! Walter

Chris, Great job...top shelf rehab youll love those cummins, Neils Bahia Moon was loafing at 26 knots with same set up..BH

Chris

Welcome to the site.

Nice job. Looks great. Have not been to St. Lucia for a long time. Nice Island. Where on the Island do you keep her?

Kiffa...

We delivered a sailboat to St Lucia several years ago.. a beautiful place to be sure. Left her in Rodney Bay. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I do plan to go back one day.

I am also nearing the end of a rebuild of my B33.. not down to the bare bones as you are doing, but she needed attention and I decided rather than restore her I would make her as good a boat as I could.

I can't begin to tell you how many tips I have picked up and put into use from this site. Your pictures will help the next guy who comes along doing what you are doing!

Thanks guys, we are located in the North of the Island n the Vigie marina right next to the small airport.
I really like the 33, there is one here that was involved in an explosion where the entire rear end was blown of and she sank. A friend purchased her, extended her to 38' and is redoing her. I will take some pics for you

Great job and beautiful boat!!
How was fuel consumption on the Perkins compared to the Cummins ?

The Perkins were very good engines with lots of power and proved reliable for many thousand hours. The Cummins are slightly better on fuel I think because of the low end toque I run her at a lower rpm with a bigger prop and achieve the same speed, but the difference is not much. I run 19 X 24 cupped. If both had the same hours I really can’t say which would be a better engine, it’s just that the manicoolers on the Perkins is rare and expensive. I did find a guy in FL who has one or two for sale and can repair them, I drove to his shop to see his work and it is top notch, he’s a real decent man to and instead of just trying to sell his product he gave me the lead to the Cummins.

looks great, nice save

you really put alot of hard labor into that beauty and it shows it. nice color combination and cockpit lay out . good luck and use her in good health.

OMG. That's a lot of work!

Fantastic, you did a great job on the boat. A life time boat with a set of life time engines, nice. Good combination. Nothing left to do but enjoy it now.

Congrates.

Pretty boat!

Thank you guys, and i do intend to enjoy her. Just came in from fishing only had two Dorado and lost a small Blue Marlin. Out again tomorrow!

Nice.....really nice

Looks like she really "Totes the mail"

Tell me about the Transom Lights, I bet they really light up the water.

hb

Kiffa,

Great pictures. What a beautiful place to own a 31! I looked at your pictures of the rebuild process and was wondering what kind of material you used to build your new decks with?

Let us know what you catch today, and post some pictures of your catch.

JR

The lights are from coastal nightlights.
http://www.coastalnightlights.com/ . Chris is a great person to work with he delivered everything on time and even sent me extra wire free of charge when I could not find mine. The lights don’t require any big holes but only two small ones for screws and another for the small wire to pass through. I also got blue led strips for around the cockpit and white strips throughout the bilge so at night I don’t need a torch to inspect things.



The back floor is the kit from Alex at 31 Bertram Specialties and from the engines forward is Nidacore sheets. I put the gel coat diamond nonskid patter from a mold over all the floor so they all look uniform.

Kiffa,
Nice looking boat, you should be proud of all the work you put into the BLUE BOY. The other boat that's running with you in the pitures (can't read the full name, something T) is it a another Bahia Mar with a fly bridge added over the original helm station. I've only seen one other like that and it was in Washington State years ago. Catch em up and enjoy you beautiful boat.
Pete

Kiffa,
How did you like working with the Nidacore? My area between the engine boxes and the cabin bulkhead is also done with Nidacore...rock solid. Great job.
John.

Yes she is my Uncles Bahia Mar she had a tuna tower at one time then we installed the bridge. My cousin has two other Fly bridge in service and then the other Bahia Mar ashore. I will do an album with all our Bertrams of the family past and present, over the years we have owned almost every model from the 20' to the 46'.









I love the Nidacore, I got it with the 18 oz Woven Rovings on each side then just applied the nonskid mold. it came out beautiful.

Kiffa,
Would you mind telling me a little more on the process of doing the molded non skid? We're about ready to apply the Alwgrip non skid to the cockpit, and I have always wanted the uniform checkered pattern instead.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
John.

Hi John,

Im out on the water this morning but will try to take some pics of it this afternoon and give you the run down.

Wow! A hardtop Bahia Mar, now that's rare. It's a factory hardtop, same as on the hardtop express. Mine is the only hardtop express I've ever seen with a factory top. How about the hardtop Bahia? Anyone know of others? Either Bahia or express?

There is a hard top Bahia on yacht world. Some good photos too.

I love the refueling method, 5 gal jerry jugs and what looks like kegs of gasoline. I have tried it with the jerry cans and it takes a long time to pour 200 gallons of gas

Peter,
Can you post an IRL for that?

That's Lee Irvin's boat.....

Mikey,
I saw a hardtop express at Chapman's School in Stuart back in 2000, it was a donation boat don't know where it ended up haven't seen it around Stuart lately. Saw another hardtop express in Miami back in the mid 90's. Both boats were factory Bertram hardtops. I'd like to find a hard top for my express if anyone knows where there is one give me a shout.
Pete Fallon

Pete,
If you get one don't support it like Bertram did. It had no lateral support and broke the windshield frame. Think there were more built than are around because of this. People took the hardtop off and replaced with a light-weight bimini. Mine is on pipe framing now partly because of the above and partly because the new engine boxes were taller and even with my diminutive height I needed more head room. Worked out really well.
Love to see other hardtop expresses.

The pix of a bahia with a hardtop are pretty nice. I wonder where that mold is.

With the other Bertram molds. Gone, gone, gone, wo, wo, wo!
When I was redoing mine several asked about doing a mold then but no one came up with the $$$$. Would have been cool. My hardtop is really spectacular and keeps the sun at bay, which at my age is a good thing.

Here's a Bahia with a hard top down here in La.:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... id=2209151

Nice looking boat.

JR

Sea Horse isn't that the boat that the Murry brothers restored years back?

Murray Brothers had all their boats named "Cookie" something when they lived up North. Cookie Too, etc.

As Mike pointed out that Bahia is - or - was - Lee Irvin's out of Miami. Lee was one of the original B31 Faithful from years ago, and me, Mike, Timmy the Thudd, and Ric went sail fishing with him & his dad & buddy back in ???, long time ago. And a bunch of us met him at the FLL boat show and rode around on it too. Ran pretty good with the 170 Yanmars.

UV

Yachtworld has a listing for Murrays Boat--FINEST KIND




http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/ ... =8624&url=[/url]

Ya, Thats the one I was thinking of.

Mikey, hardtop Bahia Mars are fairly common in my area. I ran one for a few years that Brian now has in Guatemala. That one had a big, heavy tower that was almost a bridge on pipes, made it roll pretty bad in a heavy sea, but was very comfortable in smooth going.

Pete, I have a hardtop that came off an express in my back yard, using it as the base for a dog house. The thing weighs a ton. We loaded it on a lowboy trailer with a forklift at the marina. It would be a real job to move it and mount it, and as Mikey said, they needed more support than Bertram gave them. My boat had a "homemade" tower on it when I bought it. I removed the upper tower, but left the bottom frame - partly to help support that hardtop. Boat would probably have run several knots faster without it.

CORRECTION! Remember, I've been away awhile. It is a cabin roof I made the dawg house out of, not a hardtop. But it IS heavy.

Mike Holmes,
I don't think that the hard top is very heavy, I can understand about the cabin roof they are a real heavy weight item. Thanks again for thinking of me. I'm still looking for an original Bertram express hardtop.

Hey UV, if the guy I surveyed a 50' Gibson Houseboat yesterday don't buy it, you should look into it, would make a great addition to your camp. Lots of sleeping area for extra guests, gas engines and gen set, sort of like a double wide that floats. Great condition, construction is 2'' x 6" untreated wood with a fiberglass over plywood skin coat, not for offshore use, no termites at this time.
Pete

Hey Pete, I've been there, twice....first a "Seagoing" brand factory built houseboat with a pointy bow (guess that made it "seagoing") with a pair of 200 hp Mercruisers....belonged to my parents and I bought it from them and moved it to Port Eads....sort of a single wide...that's the one I cut the holes in the walls with the chain saw for the window units. Solid glass hull tho, and it lasted for years. I finally sold it to Buzzy Scarabin, the late harbormaster down there and he rented it out for year. Rats loved it too.

Then I bought a 65 x 25 steel hull houseboat built by a Coonass in his frtont yard with (probably stolen) steel from a shipyard where he worked. Had a 4 cyl. White Hercules diesel and went 4 mph. Was built like a Russian grain barge....moved it to Venice, La and had a second story put on it. Steel rusts......almost sank once and only took $25k to solve that problem....sold it when I bought the camp on the Tickfaw in 2000. Katrina moved it a couple of miles and removed the second story, but the guy I had sold it to rebuilt it and it still floats. I like my camps on dirt now.

Gibson is a fine vessel among Tubbs of Guano.

I'm into sailing now you know....white trousers, navy blue blazer, little gold doo-dads on the shoulder, all that stuff. I may go visit Martha's Vinyard next summer while Thee Class Warrior is there and do some hob nobbing.

UV

Words I never thought I would hear out of Uncle Vic -- "Stand by to jib, jib ho!"

I may throw up.

Rodney Dangerfield is never around to drop an anchor when you need him.

UV,
Now I've heard everything, UV sailing, where's Rodney Dangerfeild and the Striker SEA FOOD when you need them. HRUMP. I just puked on my shoes.
Pete

Boys, boys, have we forgotten that both Ray Hunt and Dick Bertram were avid and accomplished sailors long before our beloved deep v powerboats ever emerged from the mould?

UV is merely getting in touch with the roots of the movement!

There ya go Rocket, see guys, I'm just going full circle. I've even joined a sailboat forum. Very refined bunch of gentelemen. May form a local regatta and have races. UVI type rules too.

UV