I posted a few months back while I was in the middle of the purchase of a 35 Bertram in Cudjoe Key. The owner was in the middle of a restoration about 7 years ago, hurt his back and never got around to finishing. I spent the past few months getting her ready for the run home to DE, left the keys July 9th, and made it home July 15th. It was an awesome experience running her all the way up the coast. Besides shearing the shaft on one of the water pumps, it was a relatively smooth ride home (weather and mechanical).
The boat used to be run out of OC, MD as a charter. Not sure if anyone here knows her or has fished on her but the name is My Sanity. Wally, (owner) took her down to the Keys maybe 10 years ago when he moved there. While there he had a tower put on, built custom cabinetry, electronics, etc. Now it's time to finish taking her apart, fix what needs fixing, and put her back together.
To start, I removed all the old wiring and distribution panel, cockpit deck, and rudder shelves. I'm in the process of stripping off all the old bilge paint to get ready to be repainted. Is there any harm in sanding down the top woven layer of the glass to get to the paint that is in the low spots of the weave? It comes off really easy once it gets hit with a sander or flap wheel, but didn't want to take it all the way down if its causing harm.
One more question...engine related. Engines are Cat 3116 DITA at 280 hp. Towards the end of the trip up the coast I started noticing a hint of gray smoke out of the port engine. I took her easy the rest of the way, and the smoke came and went. It was only really noticeable after about 1600 rpm, maybe when the turbo started to spool up?? When we got back to port I noticed some oil around the top of the engine block. Looked a little closer and both air filters had oil in them, but never saw a bit of smoke out of the starboard engine. Is there anyway to narrow this down or would the engine guys here need to see it run under load? Sorry, diesels are a whole new world for me, and I'm not sure what info is needed to troubleshoot. Any advice or things to look for would be appreciated.
I'm going to try to post some pictures, hopefully successfully. I don't have any pics on the computer after I started the demo, so once I get them on here I'll post em. Looking forward to your guys input as I work through the rebuild process!
-Mark
