Gotcha continues her refit with the new power being bolted down on custom made engine beds. The alignment looks great and the engines rolled over and fired up without much trouble. As these engines were taken out of a sportfish boat damaged by fire there were no wiring harnesses of any kind and Cummins charges an arm and a leg for a wiring harness, that runs start and stop, tachometer, engine temperature, gear pressure and voltage, and alarms to the main helm. We are building our own wiring harness using Duetz plugs and US boat wire. The engine room has newly built wire harness that run to the battery switches(new) and to the main engine alternators. So the work with the main engines has gone smooth and Mauricio is a real artist, and Mike Henderson is an amazing wiring expert.
Captain Dave has designed and installed a new fresh water system for the boat up until now Gotcha carried only gallon jugs of fresh water, and now we have fresh water wash down for fishermans comfort and to make washing down on the way in a part of the program. While the engines were out of the bilge we had a chance to replace a couple of the deck support timbers, and to paint the engine room. With all of this work and the chance to inspect our through hull fittings and main engine and generator sea cocks, and the decision was made to replace all the engine room bronze, so we have all new double wall thickness 2 ½ through hulls and 1 ¼ generator and wash down through Hull. We are going to get hauled out on Tuesday and install the through hull fittings and propellers and touch up the bottom paint and check the cutlass bearings.
The house has been being sanded, body work done, faired and filled primer and 3 coats of new paint and the house of Gotcha looks really good. We have been working on a system for cockpit shade and I think we have a system that will make the cockpit more comfortable in the hot afternoons.
Captain David has worked long days and until 9 pm every evening, as some of our labor pool does not visit Gotcha until they finish there day job, Captain David Jensen has done a great job on this project and is a shining example of keys Charter boat skipper with a great work ethic and a fabulous sense of humor.