Here's the hull patch. This is when we cleaned up the hole:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/0wood.jpg

And then we made a frame to stick the wood to

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/1wood.jpg

Here is after the first two layers:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/2wood.jpg

And this is after the third layer. The middle layer has opposing grains, and all the layers are stuck down with cabosil/resin mix, and we screw them in with weep holes, and then pull the screws and fill the holes with the same mix. And then we took out the frames from the back.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/3wood.jpg

Ok, this post is going to take a left turn. I got the 40 footer from the marina. Monday I signed away my life to the marina for this thing! I have until April to pay off everything this boat owes to the marina for being there the last two years and making no payments. So as soon as we signed the paperwork, we jumped in the boat and pulled the boat out of the water. There was nasty current in the estuary in the first picture, I hadn't driven a twin diesel boat, all mine are singles, so it was a trail by fire :) I don't know if I like the keel on this thing, I always imagined they would turn better, but either way, we made it.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9A.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9B.jpg

So we take it out and then we got on it right away and chopped the tower down. I didn't see the point of leaving the super high tower (think lightning rod) on the boat, so we decided we will just leave the fly bridge. Here's some process shots.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9C.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9D.jpg

And then we parked it under the big roof we put up two weeks ago. The roof worked out perfectly, it fits right in there with the flybridge and roof, and we can completely finish the rest of the boat in the SHADE! I love shade, and no rain. This is going to be easy!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9E.jpg

Alright, so here is the plan. The boat looks old, and we can do better. So what the plan is, we are going to copy the windows on a friends boat, called the Pescadora. it's a 40 foot Ronin, and it has the same "hat" style fly bridge, so i think I can make mine look almost identical to this one

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9BB.jpg

Then I hate the back of the boat too. It has an AC and fridge instead of rear windows. I wish I had pictures. But when I'm done, I want a pair of nice windows, a big wide door in the midle, and all plexiglass in the back so that from inside we can see what's going on in the fishing area. And then I want two ice chests that double as seats right below the window. I want something like this, but without the two extra chairs.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9BC.jpg

And then I want to make a hard top out of DivinyCell. And then the most fun is I want to add a bunch of LED's. I'm thinking green LED's, but I'll probably buy adjustable LED's so we can change if it gets boring. The marina wants us to do something cool looking and they are going to park the boat right in front of the restaurants, that was part of the way they gave it to me. I love the green LED's on the bottom pic.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9BA.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9BD.jpg

I'm in a first aid class this week, so we aren't working as fast as I'd like. This was Tuesday, we just got some hammers and a pair of sawzall's and started taking out the old stuff.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Ca.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Cb.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Cc.jpg

This was Monday while we were waiting on the paperwork to get the boat out of the marina. That was the rotten kitchen. The roof leaks and it was nasty so it's all got to go.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Cd.jpg

And here's some pictures from Wednesday (today). We got all the windows out. This was really hard honestly, all the frames had corroded screws with weird square heads, and it was a nightmare getting them out. And then they were all glued in. It was just tough.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Da.jpg

And then the reason the inside of the cabin was so nasty is there was a water leak in the floor of the flybridge. On striping down the interior, I learned (and also larry (tht member who has helped me a ton) told me) that the cabin is all balsa cored. i thought it was completely rotten, but there were only three smaller areas that were rotten. We will get all that sanded tomorrow and put some divinycell in the hole hopefully tomorrow. Here are some pictures. Yes I cut the back wall of the cabin halfway out....

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Db.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Dc.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Dd.jpg

A good surprise. I was going to rip out the whole back wall of the cabin, but after I started cutting I found out that the back wall is foam cored. I am blown away that Hatteras was that far in front of the foam cored tech, this has to be one of the first foam cored boats. Larry (my THT hatteras guide) also let me know the bulkheads are probably cored too. This boat is actually going to be fairly light for it's size. Here is a picture of when I discovered the back wall was divinycell.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9De.jpg

And I wish I had a before picture. We bulldozed the whole upstairs. It had a 1 inch plywood console with a trillion switches and things, and I don't know that any of them worked. I am going to simplify this alot. For as impressed as I have been with the rest of the build, I don't know why they put a 1000 pound console upstairs with uncured plywood that absorbed a ton of water. There were cable everywhere, half of them hooked up half of them rotten. It's easier to just start over. Going to make a cool console upstairs, all foam cored and just what I need without all the switches and lights. Don't have a before shot, but this is the after.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9Df.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9DG.jpg

Well that was the first two days of work. My last day of class is tomorrow (it's been a one month course), so next week it's going to look like we supercharged the build. I'm feeling the pressure so we are going to get this thing together quickly!

Those green LED's do look great. The full moon isn't bad either.

Yeah, we really didn't get much done. We built this roof to work under, and it works great when it rains, but there was some type of tropical disturbance Thursday and Friday and the rain was completely horizontal. And that passed today around 3pm, so we pretty much only got to work from 3-6pm today. But we did get a little done. I need more storage space on the boat, and it has NO ice chests really. I am going to build two below the back windows that are going to double as seats, and then a wrap around up top that is going to double as a bench, but I'm going to extend it into the area up front so that the ice chest is bigger than the seat. And while cutting this, for some reason hatteras stuck down plywood all the way around the bridge "hat". They did that so they could put those dang square headed screws in. We took ALL the screws out this afternoon, and then took out all the plywood, and we are going to make everything solid. I don't see any reason to have a boat that comes apart, so I'm going to lay some good glass in that corner and make the thing solid. And then with the bench in place, the vertical divinycored side of the seat will make the floor strong. Right now there is a little flex with the dry balsa. Hopefully we can get a full day in tomorrow, it's supposed to be pretty...

Here's the destruction we did upstairs today. The cut is going to be the seat height, and the ice chest will extend towards the inside of the wall. On the left we are just doing life jacket storage, up front we are going double walled and poured in foam, probably 3 inches, maybe four. Have to measure and see how much I can put. I don't want an ice machine because I don't want to have to fix the ice machine. So I'm hoping to hold enough ice for a few days to go to the fads. Somewhere to put all the food and drinks. That's the idea now, subject to change...

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/10A.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/10B.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/10C.jpg

Nasty day. We got everything upstairs sanded, sanded all day and tomorrow we are going to come in for a couple of hours and glass the top on. I really don't like how they did the top. Just alot of plywood upstairs, and the only point of it was so they could screw in the top. I guess that is faster than just glassing it on. But all the plywood upstairs was rotten rotten, so the top was just sitting up there. I'm glad I took it apart, it really could have just slid off into the ocean. But it's going to be solid now. All one piece. Here are some of the pictures of the ENORMOUS amounting of sanding we did today. We spent some time downstairs today working on window ideas, and just taking stuff apart. But the only thing worth taking a picture of is the sanding...

​​​​​​​


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bluDaze11A.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bluDaze11B.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bluDaze11C.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bluDaze11D.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bluDaze11E.jpg

Looking great Capt John

Found a cool program on the web called TinkerCAD. So, I measured all the electronics and made a drawing of the center console we are going to build tomorrow. I made a few, it'll make it easier to build in steps. Going to use all PVC foam and then glass is. The last two are hopefully the finished product. The blue divider in the middle is to put a piece of plexiglass on the right covering the top 6-8 inches of the radar and sonar and gauges so they don't get as wet. On the left, that is the GPS and the VHF, so I'll leave that uncovered so it isn't irritating to use. The radar and sonar once they are set you don't have to fiddle as much.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/MeasurementA.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/MeasurementB.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/ViewA.jpg



And then in actual work we had a decent day. We got the front windows glassed in, inside and out. I didn't get a picture of the inside finished, but it should be dry by now.


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012A.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012B.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012C.jpg


And I didn't get a good shot of this either, but we are moving the door to the middle. That'll make it where we can have two equal sized benches on either side of the door. We are going to make the door a double so that we can get motors through it when we have to.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012D.jpg


Here is the goal for the back again after we get done:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/9BC.jpg


And then we got rid of all the nasty screws they used to put everything together with, sanded a few inches on either side and then double 1708 to make it all one piece.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012E.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt4012F.jpg


We'll see if I make progress tomorrow on that console...

Man, you guys in Florida be warned. The hurricane that just hit, started here and it was nasty here about a week ago. Today another depression just started and we really only got until about 11am of sunlight and then got hit with the best rain I've seen in my 11 years here. Super high wind, just nasty weather we usually don't see. I hope this one doesn't come together and start heading north or it might be a repeat of what just happened.

But, before the storm hit, in the 3 hours of pretty weather we had, I managed to get all the console pieces cut out of corecell. We got half of these glassed as well, and all the glass cut, but the weather made me run at the end and I didn't get pictures.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt10112018A.jpg


And then we decided to make the back door smaller. I was going to go with a meter (3 feet 3 inches for us Mericans) but we decided it was ugly and we are going to take it down to 80cm (2 feet 8 inches in Merican). We are going with a single too instead of a double because that's just easier. We can still fit motor blocks through the door at 80cm, it'll be a little tighter, but hopefully we don't have to do that too often. This is rough, but here's how it looks now. Harold added the squares in the top corners because he wants to try a rounded top door, but if that doesn't work we'll just make it simple. He wanted to play with it, happy workers move faster so why not. I wanted square...


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt10112018b.jpg




Tomorrow I'm headed back to San Jose to do legal BS, so I'll try to get some more pictures up here on Saturday!

Fairly productive day. Alot of the stuff we are doing now doesn't really show up in pictures. We patched all the bad wood in the cabin roof with corecell, cut the foam to fit and glued it in with cabosil/resin. Tomorrow we'll get the final 1708 layer over it and the roof will be done. We took out the AC out of the top of the cabin so we could build the back windows. Got both windows cut, and then got the door cut too. We are going to do double doors, a single would be just too big and would be terrible to open and close. We made the top outside corner of the windows curved, I probably could have done a longer radius on the curve, but it's done and I like it so it's going to stay.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt14A.jpg


And then Harold thought he would be able to get the foam out of the two layers of glass with a router. I didn't think it would work, but he pulled it off. We took out an inch of foam core around where the door goes and replaced it with cedar so we can screw in door hinges. And then we took a half inch out around the top and bottom of the door and around the windows, where we will replace that with cabosil/resin/glass strands putty that we made. We got the wood in but it was after dark, and we started with the rest but didn't get done. There was light rain all day, so I didn't get to glass all the foam for the console. We can work in the rain, but it slows us down as I have alot of tables that aren't under the roof. And we worked on the back wall a long time. The boat isn't level, so we had to do it with all measurements. We'll get the boat level soon though, that'll make everything easier.

Here's Harold taking out the foam core with the router and not hitting the sides! Too much time using power tools...

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Hatt14B.jpg

Having trouble getting in the groove, but we got a little more done. It's kind of like a shotgun approach right now, we keep starting things and then starting other things, I need to get more focused and start finishing stuff. We had Coast Guard inspections last week across the fleet, so that seriously slowed us down, and then we had a pair of motors blow up, and a transmission go out, and a boat hit a log. So it's been a fun week. Hopefully this week I can post some finished projects.

Here's a drone shot of where we are working. Reminds me of the happy ending in Shawshank redemption:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/B...ld1162018A.jpg



Here's the console upstairs for the electronics. This was from about a week ago, we've already got two layers of fairing done now.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/B...ld1162018C.jpg



And we replaced alot of the roof of the cabin with foam core and that is all done. The original had some sewed vinyl as a headliner. I can't do that, so we did a grid of 1 by 2's and we are going to do a thing glass sheet on the table for a headliner. We are going to angle the upper corners to put in lights and speakers. That'll make more sense when I shoot a picture. Here's the grid we did on the roof:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/B...ld1162018D.jpg



And I decided against my ice storage upstairs. We are going to instead just make benchs, and under the benches we are going to have our inflatable rafts and life jackets.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/B...ld1162018B.jpg


That is a picture from 5 minutes ago. That will all be glassed in before the end of the day though.

Harol is borrowing my crew right now working on a roof, but that should be done this week. Hopefully we can find a groove and get this boat in the water and fishing. I'm aiming for February 1st, and I have already sold a few trips, so I really hope I don't miss. When we start finishing more stuff, I'll post more pictures.

Good looking work

We are headed to Costa Rica after Christmas and Quepos is our last stop. Was going to try for roosters one day and offshore another. You have any connections to guides for either?

Mostly fairing lately on the boat. Not too much to show, but we get the top wrap around bench installed, we are going to have to cut out a few hatches. On the left I'm planning on putting all the life jackets and then up front under that one the inflatable life raft. We need two, one will be in the box on the bow, but the other one is in a bag.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bert16a.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bert16b.jpg


And just being honest, I'm not 100 percent happy with how the electronics console looks. I like the idea of having a ton of space to mount everything, but it would have been prettier if I made it less wide and put it in the middle. But then it would be harder to do the cables and stuff. I stuck it on the right side, and then I'm going to make a huge area to put cables in going down to the motors and batteries so that it's easy to replace stuff quickly. If it was a low use private boat I would do it different, but I know there will be days when its dark and raining and I have to change a cable, so I want it to be easy to fix. Hopefully with everything mounted it'll look a little smaller. It's just a lot of blank space now.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35bert16c.jpg



If nothing else I took out several hundred pounds. Also with all the benches and everything being one piece, there are no more screws to rot the floor with. Not one screw is being used upstairs now, and everything I put in is foam and very light...

Still doing alot of sanding. I have some decent pictures of the interior I'll try to post in a bit. But we started on the top. Used my old 2 inch crown formula to cut some plywood jigs and then line them up:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018a.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018b.jpg


Then we put some foam on top of them and stuck the foam together with Cabosil.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018c.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018d.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018e.jpg


Then here is the tricky part, we propped up the side so it was flat, and glassed one side. Then we flipped it over and let it be curved like the jig and we fiberglassed the other side. When we fiberglassed the second side, we pulled the foam down with thin wire to the jig. After the second side dried, you can pull the wire out leaving very minimal damage. The idea is the foam with one side glassed is very flexible, but once you glass the second side it will not move at all, and will hold it's shape very well.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018f.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018g.jpg


And then we put some 3m microglobes on the top part to get some sanding in. Probably jumped the gun a little, I want to make the edges 2 inch thick so it look thicker as a whole, and then we need to make a bump where the radar mounts so we can hide the cable up there. We'll get that done soon. I dig through the phone and see if I can find some cabin pictures...

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1212018h.jpg

I guess not too much to show. We built some benches on the sides

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018a.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018b.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018c.jpg


And then we cut some holes in the top of those benches. We don't have to be too exact because we are putting an awesome big pad on top of the benches, and then another on the wall so usually all this will be covered. You can also see we built a wire chase in the corner of the boat and then we made the top corners of the boat angled and hollow for the lights. I didn't want anything under the middle as that's a pain to get to, but the corners will be nice. We got some nice color changing LED's for the cabin, the cockpit and the bridge. We got all our LED's already from our friend Larry who has helped me a ton on this build at Yacht Supply Depot in Pompano Florida. If only Larry sold chilling plates for my fridges, I'd be set. But everything else he has! :) The starboard side corner wire chase runs straight from the motor room under the floor right to the controls upstairs. Should make it easy to wire this thing and change stuff when it goes bad!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018d.jpg


Then stuck another piece of foam below the holes as door jams.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018e.jpg


And then took the part we cut out and made doors I hate hinges, so they just sit there, but again, there will be a big pad.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018f.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018g.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert1222018h.jpg

Awesome work as always Capt. One question: What do you hate about hinges?

Ok, 2 questions: Are you going to cut little finger holes in the doors to open them easier, or just grow your fingernails really long? Lol

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks, we are really working hard, and I'm taking pictures, but I can't find time to post. So this one should have probably been about 4 or 5 posts! And then Christmas, and of course I had to go visit the Alamo too (and rent a new corvette) so December was crazy. So here we go

We finally got the rear ice chests installed under the windows. I found a really good company that doesn't give me any trouble shipping to Costa Rica, and really they weren't that bad. The unit is called IsoTherm, and they are around 850 bucks for the compressor and the big element. They should both be able to freeze or refridgerate, I'm going to do one of each though. They ended up looking smaller than I wanted installed, it's weird because on the bench they looked soo big. I guess I'm just used to working on smaller boats, but either way, we'll put a big pad on top and that'll grow them a bit. They have about three inches of injected foam, plus they are made out of foam, so hopefully with the freezer element in each, they will get our beers and cokes cold!


I'm hoping they look bigger with the pad on them. That ladder is coming off of the left side, but we haven't gotten the tower built yet. We are going to climb up the tower leg and get more cokpit space.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018b.jpg


This is a mid process shot of injecting them. We got ahold of some crummy foam, it didn't grow like foam I've used in the past. It did grow though and work, but I ended up with alot more holes.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018d.jpg


And then we got the holes capped back up and the fairing done.
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018e.jpg


Sometimes the things that take the longest are the most unimpressive. The transom was a mess of rotten wood, a big heavy door, and no live bait area. We threw the door out to make room for a huge live well and tuna tube area. And then it took quite a bit to make the transom look normal again. I'll have to go back out and take some more pictures in a bit, these are about a week old, but this is kind of the idea

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018k.jpg


And then the tubes we did something cool. Instead of the typical PVC setup most people put in the bottom of the tubes, we left the bottom of the tubes open and 1.5 inch, and just put a short 2 inch run of pvc in the tube. But that didn't connect to anything. Then, we put them in a sealed box, one on each side, and then have a 4 by inch box connecting both sides, that we inject the water into. Here's our engineering drawing:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Tunatubeexplain.jpg

The idea is that the water pressure equals out and all the tubes flow the same. And, there is no PVC to bust later. That is always a problem for me, a few years in the PVC leaks, or the valves get stuck. So all that is eliminated and the flow is equaled out across the tubes. And they overflow into the live well, so one pump can do both the live well and tuna tubes.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018c.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018l.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018m.jpg

And then I did something which I'm sure some people won't like. I painted the boat Dukes of Hazzard orange. Besides the fact that I loved watching that growing up, i figured that we will probably catch pretty good fish compared to most of the boats around us. And then people on other boats will notice the bright orange boat next to them that is always hooked up. And when they look for me in the marina afterwards, there will only be one bright orange boat.


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018f.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018g.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018h.jpg


And then we are playing with the window, not quite right yet but closer

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018a.jpg


Then I have a different crew working on redoing the roof. Harold brought his dad out from Puntarenas to help us get finished before February. His dad wanted to do the roof. So we started by making the tube that holds the actual top. I copied the old roof, which was rotten small aluminum tubes, and we went with a big fat tube.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018i.jpg


I believe a few posts back I showed how we got the arc on the first sheet of foam. We used the same arc formula to make the bent on the tube so it has a nice arc too, and then cut the front with the same line. Then we mounted the aluminum tube on the faom, and doubled up the foam around the tube so the tube sinks into the roof. And then the top of the roof will have crown (arc), but the bottom will be flat so that it's hollow so I can run wiring. The first picture is a roof I helped Harold with earlier this year. It's kind of the same, but not really. And then the second picture is the roof we are building. It's a process shot, so not polished and finished but you get the idea.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert12272018j.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/bertroofalmost.jpg


Headed to the shop now, i'll try to take more pictures and post more often. I'm typing quick, so I'm sure there will be lots of typos...

Ha. Definitely not on the long fingernails! We usually just hit a one inch hole in the middle to make them easier to open.


On the hinges, I just can't seem to find any that make it years. I guess we use them too much, but they either start rusting, or the screws come out, or they just straight up break. I have to use them on the live wells on my 30 footers, and we end up changing them every 6 months. So on things that don't need hinges, I just don't do it. If this were a boat I was going to redo to sell, I would probably have to do things different, but for what I'm after, it's fine. And then the inside benches we cover with big pads so they will be covered up anyways.

A little more progress. Maybe this shows how ghetto I am, we just quickly stuck some PVC inside the roof before we put the bottom on it. We are putting 4 LED color changing lights in the rood, a spreader light in the back, and then one day when I'm not so broke, we are going to add a big LED light bar up front. I'm going to do it the easy way, and bring all the cabling up through a dedicated tube right from the top of the console, and then I'll run the wires out to where they go in the PVC. Here's the tubes we glued up under the top:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20A.jpg



Then we put the top on the thing with another layer of 1 inch foam


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20B.jpg


And then I did all the fairing, or at least put it on. We will sand it in a few minutes when it dries. The hole is where all the PVC's run to, so I can wire it once we install it.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20C.jpg


Then, we decided to put that space to use in the cabin up front. I wanted somewhere to mount the speakers and a TV. I'm not sure what I'm going to put there still, I'm thinking either a computer with a touch screen, or a wall mounted Imac. Something that can watch videos either way. And then we'll put a marine stereo and speakers in as well. But something is going to be mounted on the right (starboard) side.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20F.jpg




http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20D.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert20E.jpg



Pretty much all that is left is fairing and painting. The tower guys are slow slow slow, but I'm really hoping to get them over to the boat so i can install my top and get it all wired up. I'll try to post on here more too as I get a ton of DM's asking when the next pictures are coming!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, it's been a day and night type of deal lately. Pretty much everything is getting close now, but nothing is finished. First thing we did was a bunch of fairing. We would paint primer on thick with a brush, sand it with 100 grit, and then use a pencil to circle any imprefections and then use body filler to fill the spots.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22a.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22b.jpg

And then we masked off the area that we will put non slip

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22c.jpg

Then masked off the orange to keep it orange. We still haven't hit that with the final two passes of sandpaper

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22d.jpg

And then we started painting!!! Just primer, but Monday we will do the topcoat I believe

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22e.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22f.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22g.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22h.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22i.jpg

The inside too, but not the top yet as they are still welding up there. But the bridge is ready for paint once they get done welding either tomorrow or Monday.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22j.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22k.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22l.jpg

We had a guy working on the hard top too lately. All the speaker and light holes are cut out. We are going with 4 LED color changing lights in the hard top, a pair of Rigid lights to light the cockpit when we need bright lights, and then 4 fusion audio speakers in the top, and 2 in the top of the cockpit. We will have a seperate cabin radio with 4 speakers as well, and the outside radio will have 6 speakers. I'm going with the JBL marine head units. They are the round ones, and they are really easy to connect to via bluetooth, so the customers can play music off of their phones. The inside radio will be connected to the screen also, I'm thinking about getting a big tablet or touchscreen computer so people can watch movies on the overnight trips (or I can watch movies with the kids in the slip). Heres the bottom of the hard top:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22m.jpg

Then we started on the doors. The doors are all foam cored, except for 1 inch on the side where the hinges go. We are putting in two pistons to shut the doors so you can just pull them open and walk in and they shut themselves. We are going to put two windows in them, that will line up with the side windows so it almost looks like one big window across the back. I thought about painting the space between the tinted plexiglass black too, but I think I'll leave it white for now.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22n.jpg
http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22o.jpg

And then we did the biggest thing to improve the quality of fishing. We are taking the ugly ladder out of the middle of the fishing area. It's going to be a bit harder to get upstairs, but we are going to build something to grab onto to make it easier. I lowered the ladder part on one side (it used to have one of those ridiculously high perches). It's hard to explain, but we just cut the base off of one of the ladders and welded it onto the foot. I like how it turned out, although I'm sure there will be some that don't. The cockpit is HUGE now, and it's now it's a fishing boat.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22q.jpg

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert22p.jpg

Last little bit of fairing and paint prep tomorrow and then we'll shoot the final topcoat hopefully Monday. And then we move to the wiring and plumbing stage, but there isn't too much to wire as most of the household type of things we are taking out.

On a side note, I was thinking of putting in a 10KW battery out of a wrecked tesla to power the AC during our day trips. We could charge at night, and then run the AC all day without turning on the genset. Maybe just turn the genset on when we need to cook, and then go back to battery power. That might be a whole seperate forum post, but it's something I'm figuring out now.

Got to spend some money. It's fun spending money on toys instead of bills.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/ToysC.jpg

I was looking through my phone to see if I had any before pictures of the interior. I didn't know how much we were going to do to the boat, so I didn't take too many. Man it was soo full of rotten stuff. Here's a quick shot of the "Kitchen" when I got it, and then here is some of the rotten interior we threw away before we left the marina.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BeforeAHatt.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/BeforeBHatt.jpg

No time to write much, but we got alot of welding done and put the hard top up top! We have to paint the hard top still, but it fits which is the hard part. We also painted all of the fly bridge and cabin inside and out, I'll shoot some pictures of that when I get back to the shop. My only complaint is I feel the hardtop should be about 6 inches lower, but I'm going to run with this and see if I like and if not we can always come back and change it after i get out of the red :)

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert23a.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert23b.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert23c.jpg

Looking great Capt. After catching up on this thread since October..... I'm going take a nap.

Sorry, I've been doing the day shift and the night shift trying to get done, so the pictures are a few days old and that means we are much further ahead :) Ten guys working on the boat today, I think I have everybody in town that I would work with working on the boat. And then as a special treat, harold called his dad in from Puntarenas and two of his brothers in from Puntarenas to help with the final blitz. Here are some pictures from earlier this week!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25A.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25B.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25C.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25D.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25E.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25F.jpg



This is a picture of Harolds dad making the frame that goes around the outside of the Smoke colored Lexan windows. I gotta get a picture tomorrow, he mounted them today to test fit them and they are cool. We are going to paint them white, but this was something I don't know if me and Harold could have pulled off as neat. He is also building the doors to the back fridges/benches, I gotta get a picture of that too. It's another tricky project that me and Harold were dreading.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert25G.jpg


I'll try to get some current pictures up here tomorrow. Been doing the 6am to 9pm thing, so not too much energy left.

amazed by the speed of this build! It's really in the final stretch. Any plans to make improvements to the head or state rooms? Were you able to find a rudder that you like?

I am officially fired as the picture taker. I thought I was shooting more pictures today, I don't know what happened, I looked at the phone and I only found two. Either way, I got the upstairs all wired up, got the Nav lights wired up and the front LED light strips. All the GPS, Radar, Sonar, and gauges have the wires ready to go. The guys put the ceiling in the cabin today as well, I don't know how I missed that picture. We are really wrapping up. I went in to get a date for inspection and the captian of Quepos said there was a month waiting list!!!! I almost passed out. So I took a road trip to Puntarenas today and got a date with them for next Friday (Thank God). So I have to be in the water by Thursday with full gas ready to make the 10 hour hike (I like to go slow to not burn too much fuel) Here's a picture from today, and then a picture from last night when we got done painting everything. The hard top turned out amazing, I'm really happy with it. If only I had measured out 6 foot 6 inches, but hey I gotta leave something for next year...

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert26A.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert26B.jpg

I'm out of money and time this time. I'm just going to try to clean them up the best I can and then that's that for this year. They weren't terrible, the bad part was the rotten kitchen. On the rudders, I'm not touching the running gear now. i haven't driven the boat enough to know what it is like and what I want to change. Give me a bit though, I may end up cutting off the keel or something else crazy like that. I like to tinker :)

Ok, the hardest part by far, we got the gauges in. I actually made something on the PC, and then printed it out to get all the circles equally spaced. The wiring was terrible, but I think they work.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27D.jpg


Then we got the roof stuck up with silicone 5200. There is nothing under the roof, everything goes in the side parts, so we are sticking the middle down so it doesn't vibrate. We put screws in to hold it down until the silicone dried. Then we are putting wood strips that are white and small screws over the seams. I also cut some holes out for some JBl 6X9s up front. TV or something with a screen going on the right on that wall.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27b.jpg


Then I realized that we didn't put wood so we could screw in the doors to the ice chests. So we drilled out where the screws go and we are going to stick in some wood plugs and epoxy them in.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27c.jpg


Put the doors on, and then you can see we put the LED's over the doors installed and wired. I got the speakers in too, but forgot to take a picture.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27a.jpg


Here's what the ice chests look like with the top installed. The elements are installed as well.

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27e.jpg


Then we got the top on. We had test fitted it, but now it's painted and permenant!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/35Bert27f.jpg


I wanna have it in the water by the end of next week. Tomorrow I'm going to put all the lights and speakers in the hard top. Been some long days with alot of people. We put 3 guys all day long sanding the sides of the hull with 1000 grit too to get it to shine. We got ahold of some bad paint for the hull sides, and it didn't lay flat so we had to start with 220 grit on the sides, but finally it's looking like it should have from the start. More pictures coming soon!

Here's some shots from last night. We got all the color changing LED's installed. We also started both motors again with all the new start switches. Pretty much all of the wiring is done, the gears and gas work, and right now we are putting in the new steering wheel. It had the old crappy system with the air tank, that is now gone! Here is the color changing LED's! I got them from Larry but I can't find the name of his store. Larry, if you see this, tell everybody where I got these things!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28a.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28b.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28c.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28d.jpg


And these are some mid day shots. I'll get the finished pictures up tonight. But we are cutting and installing the windows and just finished the barrier coat on the bottom. Bottom paint and windows should be done today!


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28e.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28g.jpg


And then this is something to prove I'm still ghetto. Here is my diagram explaining to our company mechanics how steering systems used to work and how they work now. And, it doubles as a rash guard for people climbing over the transom! Maybe I'll leave it?

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert28f.jpg

Not too much to post, it's all details. We painted the floor, put all the windows in (I didn't get a picture of the back doors with windows, but they are in too), got alot of small electrical stuff done, painted the bottom, and mounted it on a terribly ugly trailer that I hope can make it 30 yards. We were going to splash it today, but the guy told me they would work Sunday for free doing details under the shade if we splashed it Monday. I'll pay them the extra day, but I hate to douse enthusiasm. Small things left. There is some electrical issue with the genset. It's the fuel relay/run switch, it's easy I just have to look at it. And we have to hook up the gauges on the generator. A little bit of paint on the inside. We are going to fill the screw holes on the window borders so they are cleaner looking. We have to paint the floor upstairs and in the cockpit. And then we are going to mount a fighting chair out of one of my other boats I'm not working this year while I fix the nice fighting chair somebody sent me. I'm hoping to be in the water Monday and have the AC guy out Monday or Tuesday. And that's a wrap. I'm sure we'll still have small stuff to do, but it'll be fishable and it's busy for the next three months. I'll keep the pictures coming when I find something work shooting, here's a few from yesterday and today:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert29a.jpg


http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert29C.jpg


And I'm sure this is the worst trailer ever posted on THT

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert29b.jpg


I just hope it doesn't drop the boat....

Dude this is incredible. I need to get you to copy me a Yellowfin 36!!!

We could do it! I think it's almost time to go fish now though :grinpimp:

So today was the day! Talk about taking the hard way. The tides here are usually 9-10 feet, so there is a bunch of water in the estuary. Thursday ends up being the LOWEST high tide of the year, and we only had around 6 foot and change of water in the estuary. But the ramp was built for the big tides, so we couldn't launch it in the morning. We had to wait for low tide, and then launch have a backhoe bring it down into the middle of the dry estuary, and then wait for the tide. Definitely the hard way. So it gave us another day to fix the bugs. It kind of stunk because the AC guy was here in the morning but with the boat out of the water, he couldn't do much. He connected up all the copper tubes, but tomorrow we have to run the 240V. So tomorrow we should finally get the AC going, and that's the last hurdle. Got a fighting chair all cleaned up and we'll put that in tomorrow. And then we gotta put the outriggers on. And wash it. Probably twice :)

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert30a.jpg


But we got it in the marina. Only took from 7Am to 10:30PM, but we made it!

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/Bert30B.jpg

You did a great job on her!

Hey guys, I guess I'll be the first to post about it, because I'm sure when Marlin magazine comes out everybody on here will see it anyways. I just had my 5th kid, a baby girl, and the charter business down here has gotten super busy (1515 trips in 2018 on 6 boats). And so it looks like I'm going to have to pick between running a charter business in paradise, which I love doing, or building stuff here in paradise, which I love doing too. The wife is worried with the 5 kids that if something happens to me she won't be able to take care of 5 kids and one of the busiest charter fleets down here. So I got an ad for Marlin magazine that will be hitting shelves July 23rd:

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/FinalAd.jpg

Wife wants me to get a vacation rental home, which will probably make less than half what I make now, but it's something she says she can handle if I kill myself seeing how fast my old chevy can make it around corners here in the mountains.

It took a lot of work to find the crews that I have and rebuild all the boats, I'm definetly not going to be broken up if it doesn't sell. My hope is that whoever buys it wants to add a boat to their fleet, and me and Harold and hopefully the new owner can put the 31 Bertram mold to use. I'd love to stay on, like indefinitely :), to help out. I just got my Costa Rican Citizenship (I was a permenant resident before) so I refuse to leave. But I promised her I'd list it. If you any of you reading this want to move to Costa Rica and have somebody that's been here 11 years watching over you, this is your shot. I'll contractually stay on for a year, but in reality am never moving away and my heart is in the boating business here.

Anyways, check out the website we made, and if you know anybody wanting to retire in Costa Rica making an easy 6 figure income, send them the link:

www.LiveYourCRDream.com

Anybody that is booked with me don't worry, I will make sure the owner keeps me on for at least a year (if it even sells). And I really expect that none of the crew will change out, John W included. Hopefully this will just get me more time in the boat yard.