jointventureII
Active member
So, in November 2020 I went ahead and purchased a battered, neglected Bertram 25 which had been left to rot.
She was a mess, a total mess. I went for a sea trial and found the following wasn't working:
3 bilge pumps
Upper fly position (neither the steering or throttle or changeover system)
Nav lights
Interior lights
Wipers
Toilet
Spotlight
Instruments / dials (only the temp gauge seemed to work - oil pressure, rev counter, trim gauges on both helm stations showed no signs of life)
Water pump
Gas stove
In fact the only things operative were the lower steering (albeit very loosely) and the lower throttle, though this was very difficult to put into gear as it was so stiff it must have been close to seizing. However sea trial day was a stiff force 5 and this little boat just ploughed through it. I have never been so impressed, apart from a trip on a Botnia Targa a few years ago.
She was loaded onto a truck and moved from Marseille to Italy where I live.
Got her into a yard and set to work: the engine needed lifting out as it was a ball of rust. Steering arm rusted to bits, which meant the steering seal had gone.
Doesn't look too bad below, but from mid-engine down it was a total mess.
Once pulled, this was what awaited me...! There was a 10mm layer of sludge in the central compartment which even brake disc cleaner struggled to shift but after many hours, lots of swearing and about 40 cups of tea, it started to clean up.
And then a lot of grinding, chipping, sanding and general fun with the engine.....
I took off the turbo, oil pipes feeding the turbo, intercooler, heat exchanger, engine mounts, wastegate, starter motor, alternator and dealt with each one individually.
Flash forward a few months and suddenly it's starting to look better....a fresh coat of danboline, the transom assembly plate all repainted, new freshwater inlet valve added, pipes and cables either cleaned or replaced.
The extremely satisfying thing about this project was that I managed to save an awful lot just by cleaning, greasing etc. however the turbo was dead as was the riser, so I had to get hold of new ones.
All the removed parts primed and painted, ready to go back on with the new turbo and riser.....:
And then installed, having primed and repainted the engine itself....
To try to save the transom assembly, I used the JR Marine kit, a new steering lever, and a stainless steel steering pin to try to save it, modified to include a grease point as recommended by Spannerman. I didn't know at the time but my transom assembly was too far gone and this didn't work, looking back I should have probably realised this with the tonnes of rust in / around that area, but it looked like the steering seal sat well so I gambled and went for it.
The only thing I didn't do myself, was change the cone clutch in the sterndrive, which (having dismantled the upper half of the leg as much as I dared) I'd deduced to be a worn clutch. I don't have the specialist tools required to do this job, Mercruiser produce an awful lot of specific tools which would have cost a fortune and an error would have destroyed the drive, so I spent €400 on getting the leg serviced and a new cone clutch put in. Sourcing the cone clutch proved extremely difficult as it's the old, no-longer-available style, discontinued in around 2000 (?). I managed to source one in the US and had it sent over.
During this time I also changed the flybridge throttle cable, the shift cable for the sterndrive, the changeover plate (to switch between the upper and lower helms), the trim pump mount (to a stainless one) and the float switches.
And then, in March 2021, after 5 months out, she was back in.
Within a month, there was a slow drip leak into the bilge from the sterndrive transom assembly and I knew my gamble hadn't paid off. This continued to grow and consequently I knew I needed to replace it. Which meant engine out all over again. In the mean time sorted the electronics out (nav lights, instruments, water pump, gas stove, rewired loads of things, added some speakers) and gave the dashboard / dials a spruce up.
Flash forward to July 2022 and the boat is lifted again. This time, as well as changing the transom assembly, I planned to strip the hull back to gelcoat and epoxy coat it. Cue a few heart attacks.
Firstly when the transom seemed to just fall apart. This boat was originally built with twin petrol sterndrives. When the boat was converted to a single engine, the people that carried out the work did a great job of closing the holes and glassing, but not such a good job of covering them with gelcoat or whatever it was. At this point I stripped it all back and had a surveyor test for moisture. It came up slightly high but nothing crazy, and as the boat was about to sit in 35°c heat for 2 months, I was confident this wouldn't be a problem.
Whilst the transom was drying out, it was onwards with the stripping of the hull which started out like this:
And this is it nearly stripped, at this point there are the areas just about the waterline to remove but it's 95% done. This was around 60 hours of the most horrendous work I've ever done, and the transom is still to sort out.
So once it was all removed, the epoxy coating was ready to go on. I used Boero Delta followed by Boero Defender (2 coats) for a total of 3. I didn't do the transom at this point as I needed to level it out first.
By now, it was near the end of September and time to move inside. In reality I could have gotten away with more time outside but after 3 months sat in the baking heat, I was confident the transom was totally dry and thus ready for repair. This was another extremely lengthy process using thickened resin, followed by Awlfair (the red / pink stuff) followed by another extremely fine filler by Boero. It took a month alone.
Below is just after another round of sanding before the next application of filler. It was literally endless and I decided I had to stop eventually as this area is underneath the swim platform, so not really visible, but also that I would probably never be totally satisfied that it was perfectly flat despite using the 1 metre long ruler, shining light on it to see shadows and various other weird and wonderful methods.
In the mean time I'd sourced a 2nd hand transom assembly, for a decent price, that had hardly been used. It was from a superyacht tender that was kept out of the water. This was perfect so once the transom was covered with epoxy, I set about installing the new transom assembly. The Mercruiser manuals say to simply put in the foam seal, torque it and and that'll do but I couldn't resist putting a thin bead of underwater silicone around the edge. I also installed the Spannerman grease point, as I'd done the last time, and changed the steering pin for the stainless one.
The engine could now go back in, and all the extras that come with it - attaching all the hoses, cables, gear lever setting, connect the steering and replacing the side panelling. Just the engine alignment alone took a good few hours, to get it absolutely perfectly straight. This is done using a specially manufactured stainless bar that slots into the gimbal ring and is then very lightly pushed into the coupler - the manual says it should be possible to slide the bar (which weighs a good few kgs itself) using 2 fingers to push.
After the engine was properly aligned, the leg went back on. This included changing the oil, then sanding it down, primer and antifoul.
Then a day or two later, she was ready to go back in again, after a 2nd 6 month yard stint. I won't lie, this time I was quite nervous about having forgotten something and plenty of nightmare scenarios ran through my head.....peering into the engine bay with the torch and watching water flood in, oil seeping into the sea, something not working. But it went well and the boat hit 26.5 knots on a sea trial with no leaks, strange noises or smells.
I've got to clean the teak border and put on some SEMCO before I'll be taking pictures of the other end!
She was a mess, a total mess. I went for a sea trial and found the following wasn't working:
3 bilge pumps
Upper fly position (neither the steering or throttle or changeover system)
Nav lights
Interior lights
Wipers
Toilet
Spotlight
Instruments / dials (only the temp gauge seemed to work - oil pressure, rev counter, trim gauges on both helm stations showed no signs of life)
Water pump
Gas stove
In fact the only things operative were the lower steering (albeit very loosely) and the lower throttle, though this was very difficult to put into gear as it was so stiff it must have been close to seizing. However sea trial day was a stiff force 5 and this little boat just ploughed through it. I have never been so impressed, apart from a trip on a Botnia Targa a few years ago.
She was loaded onto a truck and moved from Marseille to Italy where I live.
Got her into a yard and set to work: the engine needed lifting out as it was a ball of rust. Steering arm rusted to bits, which meant the steering seal had gone.
Doesn't look too bad below, but from mid-engine down it was a total mess.
Once pulled, this was what awaited me...! There was a 10mm layer of sludge in the central compartment which even brake disc cleaner struggled to shift but after many hours, lots of swearing and about 40 cups of tea, it started to clean up.
And then a lot of grinding, chipping, sanding and general fun with the engine.....
I took off the turbo, oil pipes feeding the turbo, intercooler, heat exchanger, engine mounts, wastegate, starter motor, alternator and dealt with each one individually.
Flash forward a few months and suddenly it's starting to look better....a fresh coat of danboline, the transom assembly plate all repainted, new freshwater inlet valve added, pipes and cables either cleaned or replaced.
The extremely satisfying thing about this project was that I managed to save an awful lot just by cleaning, greasing etc. however the turbo was dead as was the riser, so I had to get hold of new ones.
All the removed parts primed and painted, ready to go back on with the new turbo and riser.....:
And then installed, having primed and repainted the engine itself....
To try to save the transom assembly, I used the JR Marine kit, a new steering lever, and a stainless steel steering pin to try to save it, modified to include a grease point as recommended by Spannerman. I didn't know at the time but my transom assembly was too far gone and this didn't work, looking back I should have probably realised this with the tonnes of rust in / around that area, but it looked like the steering seal sat well so I gambled and went for it.
The only thing I didn't do myself, was change the cone clutch in the sterndrive, which (having dismantled the upper half of the leg as much as I dared) I'd deduced to be a worn clutch. I don't have the specialist tools required to do this job, Mercruiser produce an awful lot of specific tools which would have cost a fortune and an error would have destroyed the drive, so I spent €400 on getting the leg serviced and a new cone clutch put in. Sourcing the cone clutch proved extremely difficult as it's the old, no-longer-available style, discontinued in around 2000 (?). I managed to source one in the US and had it sent over.
During this time I also changed the flybridge throttle cable, the shift cable for the sterndrive, the changeover plate (to switch between the upper and lower helms), the trim pump mount (to a stainless one) and the float switches.
And then, in March 2021, after 5 months out, she was back in.
Within a month, there was a slow drip leak into the bilge from the sterndrive transom assembly and I knew my gamble hadn't paid off. This continued to grow and consequently I knew I needed to replace it. Which meant engine out all over again. In the mean time sorted the electronics out (nav lights, instruments, water pump, gas stove, rewired loads of things, added some speakers) and gave the dashboard / dials a spruce up.
Flash forward to July 2022 and the boat is lifted again. This time, as well as changing the transom assembly, I planned to strip the hull back to gelcoat and epoxy coat it. Cue a few heart attacks.
Firstly when the transom seemed to just fall apart. This boat was originally built with twin petrol sterndrives. When the boat was converted to a single engine, the people that carried out the work did a great job of closing the holes and glassing, but not such a good job of covering them with gelcoat or whatever it was. At this point I stripped it all back and had a surveyor test for moisture. It came up slightly high but nothing crazy, and as the boat was about to sit in 35°c heat for 2 months, I was confident this wouldn't be a problem.
Whilst the transom was drying out, it was onwards with the stripping of the hull which started out like this:
And this is it nearly stripped, at this point there are the areas just about the waterline to remove but it's 95% done. This was around 60 hours of the most horrendous work I've ever done, and the transom is still to sort out.
So once it was all removed, the epoxy coating was ready to go on. I used Boero Delta followed by Boero Defender (2 coats) for a total of 3. I didn't do the transom at this point as I needed to level it out first.
By now, it was near the end of September and time to move inside. In reality I could have gotten away with more time outside but after 3 months sat in the baking heat, I was confident the transom was totally dry and thus ready for repair. This was another extremely lengthy process using thickened resin, followed by Awlfair (the red / pink stuff) followed by another extremely fine filler by Boero. It took a month alone.
Below is just after another round of sanding before the next application of filler. It was literally endless and I decided I had to stop eventually as this area is underneath the swim platform, so not really visible, but also that I would probably never be totally satisfied that it was perfectly flat despite using the 1 metre long ruler, shining light on it to see shadows and various other weird and wonderful methods.
In the mean time I'd sourced a 2nd hand transom assembly, for a decent price, that had hardly been used. It was from a superyacht tender that was kept out of the water. This was perfect so once the transom was covered with epoxy, I set about installing the new transom assembly. The Mercruiser manuals say to simply put in the foam seal, torque it and and that'll do but I couldn't resist putting a thin bead of underwater silicone around the edge. I also installed the Spannerman grease point, as I'd done the last time, and changed the steering pin for the stainless one.
The engine could now go back in, and all the extras that come with it - attaching all the hoses, cables, gear lever setting, connect the steering and replacing the side panelling. Just the engine alignment alone took a good few hours, to get it absolutely perfectly straight. This is done using a specially manufactured stainless bar that slots into the gimbal ring and is then very lightly pushed into the coupler - the manual says it should be possible to slide the bar (which weighs a good few kgs itself) using 2 fingers to push.
After the engine was properly aligned, the leg went back on. This included changing the oil, then sanding it down, primer and antifoul.
Then a day or two later, she was ready to go back in again, after a 2nd 6 month yard stint. I won't lie, this time I was quite nervous about having forgotten something and plenty of nightmare scenarios ran through my head.....peering into the engine bay with the torch and watching water flood in, oil seeping into the sea, something not working. But it went well and the boat hit 26.5 knots on a sea trial with no leaks, strange noises or smells.
I've got to clean the teak border and put on some SEMCO before I'll be taking pictures of the other end!
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