Transom door installation

[TG²]

Good evening!
We're new to the Bertram 33 forum and are slowly working our way through all the information available here. We are looking to have a transom door installed on our "new" 33 SF. Unfortunately, we're not having much luck finding qualified installers. Does anyone have any installer suggestions for us on the north shore of Massachusetts or Boston area? Thanks for the help!

[lobsta1]

Eric & Kathy, Welcome to the forum. I have a sawsall you can borrow.
Al

[TG²]

Hi Al!

[lobsta1]

Eric,
I suggest you foto your transom inside & out. Then print it out & draw the cutout you want with lines drawn in for the reinforcing structure on each side & also add reinforcing under the top hat I showed you. With that you can then bring it to Dions in Salem & Manchester Marine. Since the boat will have to be at their site, ask if you could schedule the work for the end of May after the spring rush.
Al

P.S. there is also Crockers in Manchester & I think there is a place in Gloucester

[Rick]

Welcome aboard Eric & Kathy !

You're talking to right guy about a door. Good luck with it and tell us about your boat !

[TG²]

Thanks Rick! It's great to be on the forum! We just purchased our 1984 Bertram 33 SF in September. We have a healthy "to do" list going. Besides the transom door a few of our projects are removing:
-the cassette toilet and installing toilet/holding tank and pump out.
-Replacing the rusted out water heater/fittings and lines
-Replacing the potable water tank
-Replacing the trim tab actuators (both are leaking)
We lost the bimini back in September so thats getting replaced
New LED's all around, plus new LED accent lighting.
.........the list goes on and on . It looks like the poor boat sat in someone's yard for a few years so we have been digging out the bilge forest filth every chance we get.
We love the boat and can't wait for spring to have her back in the water!

[greysole]

Welcome aboard Eric & Kathy !
I have a bimini frame and Radar Pedestal off our '86 sportfish
if you're interested.
They were removed when we went with a hardtop.
Cheers

[TG²]

Thank you! We're waiting to hear back from our canvas guy to see what exactly we need. Hopefully that will be this week!

[Rick]

If you want to install a new water tank that will fit through the existing hatch without pulling up the extension, the Ronco B545, a 55 Gallon tank fits like a glove through the hatch.

[TG²]

Hi Rick,
We removed our hot water heater, potable water tank, and old (and non-working) Lectrasan toilet system yesterday. We bleached the bilge today, and haven't had a chance to measure the available space yet. Thank you for the tank model I'll head over to Ronco's website and see what they offer for a 55 gallon tank. I think Al mentioned you replaced your holding tank? What size did you end up going with? Btw... Have you ever replaced your air conditioner water pump? Looks like we have to replace ours.
Thanks!
Kathy

[Capn Tony]

I replaced my HW heater with an on demand water tank( Artisan) is the mfg; never run out of HW and easy to install. Mounted it to the bulkhead between the cabin and engine. I did replace my A/C pump a couple of years ago piece of cake. Be happy to discuss if u need.

[TG²]

On demand? Never thought of that for the boat... Love the idea! Unfortunately, we don't currently have a generator, moor the boat and rarely ever have shore power available to us. So I don't think we would be able to go the on demand route. Am I mistaken?
Thanks for the help!

[Capn Tony]

On demand? Never thought of that for the boat... Love the idea! Unfortunately, we don't currently have a generator, moor the boat and rarely ever have shore power available to us. So I don't think we would be able to go the on demand route. Am I mistaken?
Thanks for the help!

You'll need 110 Ac to plug into. I ran a box to the bulkhead with a GFI outlet; too bad it works great.

[Rick]

Hi Kathy,

Yes, I've rep[laced my A/C water pump, thinking it was about $200 and an easy replace. That was about 10 years ago and it still runs fine.

I have never installed a holding tank, but have always kept the Lectrasan running. In fact, I keep a spare Lectrasan at home....bought Al's old one and had it refurbished. No good place to put one of any size down there. To me it's better than putting the 5 gallon tank in and pumping raw sewage wherever you go. If you put one in there, I'd be interested to see your setup.

[TG²]

Hi Rick,
We pulled out the old A/C pump and are looking for a replacement now. We've also removed the the old potable water tank, hot water heater and all old toilet components. We're ordering up new parts to get all our systems operational again, but our salon bilge is looking pretty empty these days.