Benb

Thanks Warnie, I am going to work on it now and i have been doing some thinking, i will continue to flush the front half out until no more slime comes out, i think that will be ok because the heavy sediment (rust) was all at the back of the tank which i have good access to and removed it all, it settles to the back due to the angle of the boat at rest and underway so i think it is only some slime at the front and a good flush with degreaser should sort it out with another inspection during summer when it will get a lot of use and stir up anything left. Thanks for all your ideas Ben

Thanks Geoff, Yes i have added some metho before it is a good trick but water in the fuel is not my problem now as i have drained all the fuel, scraped out the back half of the tank and flushed out with water but the front half which i cant access is what i would like to clean, the tank is not removable, made of fibreglass and about 500L. I have flushed out the front half with the hose and some bits of rubbish and slimy stuff came out but i cant see if i have it all so would like to give it a good flush with something. I can get the hose into the front section and i twist it around to help free up anything which helps a bit, i like the ball bearings idea and will have to think if it will work for me, thanks. Ben

Thanks Warnie, I have the large style water separator first inline from the tank to catch all the big stuff and then a automotive fuel filter for injected motors which filter much finer particles just before the carby for each motor so i think that should stop any rubbish. I have scraped the bottom of the tank and removed a lot of rusty sediment and then put the hose in and flushed it out with lots of water and it looks pretty good, the problem is the front half of the tank which is separated by a steal bearer which has a cut out section on each side to allow the fuel to flow through which i can fit the hose through and flush out but i cant see in that section and i thought of cutting a inspection hole but this part of the tank is in the cabin and i would prefer not to have any access holes as they can leak and smell the cabin out, what i need is a liquid that i can put in the tank that is safe for fibreglass and i thought hot water would be good but it is about 400 to 500L tank so might be hard to find so much hot water You can get builge cleaner that would be safe for fibreglass but not sure if it would leave a residue ?? an ideas would be great. Ben

Cleaning out my fuel tank after 30 years of crap has settled on the bottom including the old rusty fuel sender would rather be Ben

Yes i agree but if you can do it yourself you can save a sh## load of money all you need is time and an a that likes boating and fishing which i am lucky to have, time is the only problem Ben

And now some internal picks, go the 70s interior i made new seat covers over easter, black micofibre and new headlining to come after the timber has been re varnished.

Hi All, I have been reading all the posts for some time now and i have enjoyed hearing about all the different projects you all have done with your boats, its good to see i am not the only one . So here we go, after 10 years of my late 60s 21ft timber clinker half cab with a Volvo Penta 170hp inboard and 270T leg which has been a great boat but i i got sick of getting caught in bad weather and getting smashed about and wet on the way home so i decided that it was time to upgrade to something bigger. I was also looking for a project and did not want to put the time into the clinker so decided after much consideration to go for a Bertram 25 as it can be towed on a trailer (just) and worked on saving huge amounts in slipping fees. It also had a god rep for being a very seaworthy hull with a deep V which i wanted for a smoother ride. I found a cheep 1977 Betram 25 Corsair with twin 165 6cyl which needed some attention, a lot more than i expected but thats boats so to cut a long story short i decided to remove the donks as one had packed it in but not before doing the following while the boat was on the water: pulling the heads off and getting them serviced, new exhaust manifolds, risers, water pumps, timing gear covers and harmonic balancers and after all that which was a mission on the water one donk was filling the sump with water bummer so off with the head as i thought the head gasket did not seal properly and back on again with the same result i repeated this another 3 times before i gave up, after some thinking time i noticed that no.1cyl had a hole at the bottom of the stroke that had rusted through so the block was no good to put it nicely. Now i needed a trailer quickly as it had been on the water for a year now without a slip and it was looking like a forest under my boat i could not have been any luckier as i found one that had a B25 on it and was ready to go so up to Newcastle and towed it back to Sydney, i got a shock at how heavy it was about 900kg without the boat This is where it all started, lots and lots of hours and $$$, rebuilt donks with blocks that had not seen salt water and stainless steal valves for use with unleaded and fresh water cooled them, reco legs and 1 transom assembly due to corrosion, new starter motors plus a few other things anyway here are some picks of the action, sorry about the quality as they were taken on my phone. Before they were removed More picks to come I took it for its first good run last week and spent 4 days on it with the better half up past the spit bridge and around the area, did a bit of fishing and caught a Snapper and a flat head which tasted good, made it all worth while. Now all i need to do is finish cleaning out the fuel tank after 30 years of crap plus the old fuel sender rusting in the tank and about 200L of old fuel which has caused the inlet valves to stick a bit when its cold, bummer i should have drained it out but 200L is a lot of fuel to loose anyway i found out the hard way, any ideas on how to clean the second half of the tank that i cant reach from the access hole ??? any ideas would be great, its a fiberglass tank. Ben

Well done on all the good work, i know how much time it takes as i have been doing up a Bertram 25 for the past 2 years and the has not been happy with all the time i have been spending on it but if you keep going she will eventually get used to it, mine has and i am not up to the the carpet yet I just spent 4 days on it last week and it makes it all worth while and the agrees

This quote worked better Hey Kelvin, do you know the estimated fuel consumption ? i have twin 165hp so i guess i could double yours I am also looking at what sounder and GPS combo i should use, i would like to hear your thoughts on what you select. Have you thought about if your transducer will be transom mounted or through hull ? i also have a 21ft timber half cab which i have had for 10 years and it has a transom mounted transducer and i cant get it to work over 8 to 10 knots no matter what i do also i was thinking of an all in one unit just for the ease of removal and installation in the boat, is there a downside to these ? Cheers Ben

Now that is a nice unit look out kings 24 degree deadrise, now thats a deep v. I purchased a Bertram 25 for the same reason and i am refitting it now and should be ready about the same time yours is so i cant wait. I have not had the chance to test it in wild seas yet due to mechanical problems but from what i read about boats with a deep v i cant wait to blast through it, see you out there

Hi raiders, i have been looking for some time now and decided to post a pic of my boat, its not a very good pic so i will try and post a better one later. Its a Bertram 25 Corsair with twin 165 hp Mercruisers, im refitting it at the moment so its out of action, cant wait to get back out on the water motors have been rebuilt so it should

Hi All, I am a new member and have a 1977 bertie 25 corsair which i purchased about a year ago for $18,000 with twin 165 inline six's. There was a small oil leak which turned out to be coming from the timing gear covers which were rusted out from the water pumps leaking over the years and needed to be replaced which involved removing the crank pully and front engine mount, i managed to do this while the boat was in the water by using 2 car jacks and a large piece of hardwood to span the 2 motors to take the load of the front engine mount. The heads needed attention bucause some of the valves were sticking so i took them off and had them serviced, i also replaced the water pumps, manifolds and risers. I cleaned the blocks and painted them, there was a lot of rust from the leaky pumps and i got a small sand blaster to clean up the small bits that i could remove like the valve covers. After doing all of this and waiting on parts from the US i put it all back together thinking that i would have fairly reliable motors as i pretty much replaced all external parts except the fuel pumps, alts and carbs. I started one engine and got it running ok, started the other and it was running ok but had a small miss so i thought i would check the oil to see if there was any water in it, removed the dip stick and to my horror the oil was white not good. To keep a long story short i thought the head gasket was leaking so drained the oil and removed the head, put a small bit of sealant aroud the water passages thinking thats where the the water was coming in as all other parts were new and the heads had been tested, put it back together hoping that was that but water was still getting into the oil, convinced it was the head gasket was the problem i repeated this 3 times each time putting more and more sealant. After doing this 4 times in 4 days and going though about 6 oil filters, 40L to 50L of oil i had to look at other causes but by this time i was just about to go crazy so i gave up for about 3 months and just ran one one donk. The only thing left to check was the block so i filled up the block with water while the head was off and i very quickly found the problem, number 1 pot was also filling up with water and i spotted a 3mm to 4mm dia hole which had rusted through, problem solved. After feeling sorry for myself for a while for buying a lemon i decided that it was time to take action once again, had a look at my options to repower and started feeling sorry for myself once again. Decided to keep looking on the net to see if i could find a second hand block but was concerned that it would have the same problem after 20 or 30 years in salt water, started feeling sorry for my self once again. Cant beleive my luck, i found a guy who was repowering his bertie 25 with outboards and i got the complete set up and a swag of spares, 2 complete motors fresh water cooled head has SS valves and seats, 2 reconditioned legs and trim, 2 spare blocks that have come from trucks so no salt water, 2 new 3 blade props, 2 used 4 bladers and so on all for $4500 which i thought was a bargin, well it get me out of the s...t if you know what i mean. I was looking for a project when i got it but i never thought it would get this big So if your looking at a bertie 25 and it has twin 165's all i can say is make sure it is fresh water cooled