bertram31.com

Ironworker

I got the idea of the spray rails from Reel Cowboy and I'm most appreciative of the pictures that he sent me. Apparently there is a glass guy in Texas that has done this to several B31 hulls. I spoke with him about purchasing some pre-made units but he never followed up. Frankly adding the two part ...

Ironworker

Well I can't find a pic of the stuff being glassed but you can imagine the parts rough sanded, faired for shape, then rough sanded again. We added two layers of 1708 alternating the seams. IIRC, I extended the glass about 4 to 5 inches above and 4 to 5 inches below the unit. Here are a couple of add...

Ironworker

Its a rainy day in the Bahamas so I've got a little time to post a couple of pics. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sll6v5mi8l6n671m1jqbk/without-the-rail.jpg?rlkey=efos9st1y3hj7nhu5ouavnw84&st=tcwnt793&raw=1 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8r38m9cdbfs771qwlihex/prep-2.jpg?rlkey=4p6wztfqjhceqf00suskavl...

Ironworker

A local boat yard had a 28' that was being restored. Last time I saw the boat it was two years in the yard and the bill had exceeded $600K and counting for the renovation. The owner wanted a "New" 28' Bertram.

Ironworker

The guy running the 35 Bertram named the Pepper used to own my boat which was named the Pepper at the time.

I'll try to did up some photos on how I made my spray rails along with a description in case anyone is interested.

Ironworker

I came across what is a fairly boring video of Sportsfishing boats running an inlet but its very interesting watching the effect of spray rails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxywhI14sBM While I don't have a lot of time in my 31 without spray rails, I do have several hundred hours in it with spray...

Ironworker

Very interesting. It appears the livewell drains through the bottom?

Ironworker

My bride and I went down to the Exumas on Thursday afternoon, mermaid camped overnight and fished the next morning. We started fishing at 6:30 and by 9:40 had all the fish that we needed but we fished on. We stopped fishing at 11:00 am and headed back to the barn with 20 Mahi in the new Kill box whi...

Ironworker

Yannis, I contemplated using expanding foam insulation but it would have increased weight. I would have had to add a bottom and I would have had to build a frame to keep the sides from bulging. I couldn't find the XPS foam in S. Florida. I had to drive up to South Carolina and I bought the foam up t...

Ironworker

Does this box have any insulation? I mean, any foam, or construction type foam (or other) panel? Sandwiched inside the ply sheets? If not, how does it retain temps, as you describe? Thanks. The outer construction is 1/4" coosa with one layer of 1708, basically used as a coring material to provide s...

Ironworker

S Ritzert wrote: ↑Mar 8th, '25, 13:09 I am fiberglassing mine in. I am installing a head port and forward, where the "dash" used to be. I cut the dash out.

Are they Glass? I thought someone claimed them already.

Plastic. They did but never got back to me. They are not in great shape.

Ironworker

Rick Were you using the glass to cover crazing? Yes, but we took it down to mostly glass. there were some remnants of the gelcoat in hard to get to places but the epoxy and a layer of 1708 took care of that. I was trying to stiffen the bow but also the gunnels were in pretty bad shape from years of...

Ironworker

I really want to shave all the rotten core, and bad glass out of the cap, and go back with glass only, nice and thick and rigid. I'd like to glass in a plate at the bow to hold the windlass, and cleats. The only way I would feel comfortable doing that, is to flip the cap. If I cannot get it flipped...

Ironworker

Rick Glad it worked out. Maybe you should patent the design. If it works on a 31 it will work on other boats. I'm too old for that. I'm happy to provide plans for anyone that wants to build one themselves (you folks have certainly helped me out and if I can return the favor, I'd be happy too). The ...

Ironworker

Tommy,

If you're fishing in the Bahamas its not really work!

I think I'm going to tackle a radio box for the flybridge next unless someone has some other ideas for a project.

Ironworker

I wanted to give one last post in this thread on the fishing results of the killbox/tackle station. The angler reviews were great. All had fished in the boat both without and with the new unit. All much preferred fishing with the box. Comments were that it was very convenient to be seated while figh...

Ironworker

Rick, When you added that layer of glass to the bow and gunnels, did you sand off the gelcoat entirely or just rough sand and clean it and lay the glass right over the top? What did you use...some type of fibeglass weave and then mat on top? Most of the gelcoat on my boat was in pretty bad shape. I...

Ironworker

Thanks for the update Jenks.

Ironworker

BTW, The product that I was talking about that holds screws is Trevira. This is a company that sells a lot of stuff but the product is a blue felt like product in a roll about 4" wide. You can use this product anywhere in a laminate or coring that needs to hold screws. Once the resin drys its hard a...

Ironworker

I think I saved a thread (I think it was yours (?) ) where one of our members posted a bunch of pics of their cockpit rebuild, as well as, explained the materials used (coosa/fg sandwich). I'm just not sure what computer it's on. I'll be starting next month. I have a bunch of photos that I can send...

Ironworker

drill some random holes in the coosa board to allow the resin below to be forced up through the coosa. That will help drippage on the finished surface. Regarding you floor supports. I laminated 3 or 4 layers of 3/4" coosa with 1708 between. You can build your supports direct into the beam then shape...

Ironworker

I watched the video. I would do it a little differently with hopefully a lot less work. I would cut out the rotted material from the bottom much as on the video being careful not to damage the top side of the deck. I would clean the best I could with denatured alcohol. Instead of poly resin, I would...

Ironworker

I would absolutely use 3/4" coosa bw26 for your floor repair. You'll on have to do it once. It is also lighter.

Ironworker

The ratio of rod holders to beer holders maybe a little skewed!

Ironworker

Carl, My boat is heavily modified including a transom door and wash down and live well faucets at the stern which mostly would eliminate a built in transom box. No room under the floor because of fuel tanks and exhaust. I thought I would be happy with keeping fish in the fish bags in the cabin floor...

Ironworker

I hope Jenks comes back to this thread. I'm betting the final solution to the cavitation issue is removing and reinstalling the bracket.

Ironworker

Large quantities of ice is a must for quality fish. Several years ago we started cleaning our pelagics to sushi grade standards. It takes a lot of ice to keep a couple of hundred pounds of fish properly chilled. The jury is still out on how well my new box will keep ice. I had been storing extra ice...

Ironworker

Here is what I was dealing with before the Kill box project. These two coolers had almost the same footprint. The Kill box is about 6 inches wider but the entire bottom is usable space where as the coolers were not fully usable and the vertical space for rigging baits and storing tackle is free spac...

Ironworker

That s till its gets loaded with fish! But that's a good problem to have. Crazy a 31' boat with a cabin can fit something that size with room to get around, gotta love the 31 Bertram! The 31 is a great boat. It definitely fights above it's weight class, especially drawing only 3 feet. In the Bahama...

Ironworker

Rick Nice work. Looks great. Question, how easy is it to move should you need to get into one of the hatches in an emergency? I assume you are bolting it down to the deck. Good question! I only have one hatch in my deck which is at the stern for access to steering and bilge pump. I eliminated the o...

Ironworker

I rebuilt my deck using 3/4" coosa bw26. It reduced the weight about about 40%. In hindsight, I probably could have used the 1/2" coosa and it would have been fine.

Ironworker

Here is the Kill box in the boat.

Ironworker

Thanks Carl. I had conceived originally of having the tackle station removable and adding a live well atop of the base unit. That got complicated from an engineering standpoint. It would be a lot of weight atop what is a pretty light box relatively speaking, I haven't taken that option off the table...

Ironworker

Well here is the final version of Killbox/Tackle Station 1.0. The unit provides much needed seating which faces the stern. Maybe my crew will keep a better watch on the spread. Also behind the backrest is storage for tackle boxes. I'm still looking for the perfect tackle box solution. There are thre...

Ironworker

Carl,

Check out the new Broadband Radars. They are getting better and better and the power draw is less. The issue is though most of these are black box radars and need an interface such as a chart plotter or other screen.

Ironworker

We are planning on doing some Mermaid camping in the Fly N Fish in the next couple of weeks so we made some needed improvements, Starlink and a TV which is tied into the chart plotter. I also added a Furuno SC20, which I have been wanting to do for a year! https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rji594bn3vhp...

Ironworker

If you are buying a radar for fishing and looking for birds then get the most powerful old school radar you can afford. If its everything else then the new broadband radars have come a long ways and integrate very nicely with new electronics.

Ironworker

Rick, As these scupper covers receive no stress, you could just prep the surrounding area with a sand paper and bond them with sikaflex. They will not budge until the end of time. No drill no screws. The last ones that I had stuck on with adhesive. I can't find those anymore. I bought some from Gem...

Ironworker

What kind of harness are you using for standup? I'm sure you know this but when I was doing standup for Bluefin, I always had a safety rope on any angler that was attached to a bluefin or other big fish on stand up. I've had a couple of close calls with anglers leaning over trying to get a view of t...

Ironworker

Yannis wrote: ↑Apr 6th, '25, 11:31 Rick,

There is this tool that attaches to your drill and allows to reach into areas at an angle, like the scuppers' lower screws.

I'll see what I can find. It's going to have to be a pretty tight fit.

Ironworker

One of the other mods that doesn't show up in the photos very well is that we eliminated the step down on the flybridge deck and I raised the height of the water deflector at the rear. Here is the best pic of that. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4wg7prajtfoe40ssk9yzt/IMG_4733.jpg?rlkey=5z0uxy8f4ld7k...

Ironworker

Interesting deck floor drains to cleat openings and closing off the railing hawse pipes... Good catch on the cockpit drains. I raised the floor and eliminated all but one hatch in the floor. I removed the side panels to capture useful space and installed the side and rear drains to the scuppers whi...

Ironworker

There is never enough rod holders! I'm adding four more with the Kill Box for hooked fish and rotating them out.

I appreciate all the compliments. We made a lot of changes to the 31 Platform. I'll give you the widening of the helm. Can you pick out the other differences in the pic?

Ironworker

I finally got the two jump seat pedestals installed on the fly bridge on the Fly N Fish. We took a little tour of the ICW today to do a shake down run before the trip to the Bahamas. Here is the photo. Widening the fly bridge of the 31 is a a game changer! https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qarkqvdxhopb...

Ironworker

Depends on how you load the boat. I'd put it a couple of inches above the waterline with the boat empty.

Ironworker

These LT Marine rod holders are the best that I've found.

https://ltmarineproducts.com/

Ironworker

Add backing plates to your rod holders!

Ironworker

Bob, You make some good points. I gave serious consideration to adding in floor boxes but at the end of the day, more fuel/range won out. Traveling in the far and southern bahamas one could easily go through 200 gallons of fuel then find the fuel barge didn't make it the marina that week and may not...

Ironworker

My buddy found this top on ebay and switched out a rocket launcher for it and put some rod holders on the side of a smaller box https://photos.app.goo.gl/t8MGTeKWrLXjpF8s5 That wouldn't work for me but its gives me an idea. To open the lid of the cooler everything has to be moved from the top. I'm ...

Ironworker

how about a bonar box? a lot of the comm boats up here run these, there are multiple sizes. https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/arctic-insulated-bin-680-50197-1500-lbs-capacity-48l-x-43w-x-35h-blue?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-qi_BhBxEiwAkxvbkLuy-odSgMEanwy2yVbYVFnIFoLIW8AfnKKspZ5Wt9D6vZPj6FBKFhoCrHM...

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