We have big things planned for the boats this off-season as well. As usual, all boats are being sanded, cleaned and resprayed with fresh gelcoat
It’s a lot of work, but this is what is required to keep the fleet in tip-top shape.
The crews started working in late-August to strip the boats of their accessories and trim pieces. Craig arrived in mid-September to oversee final prep and spray.
Once young Dario showed everyone how it’s done, Captain Carlos led the way on sanding the Discoverer:
Supply chain problems got you down? Not us…We are too deep in the gelcoat game to worry about that noise!
Both the Discoverer and Wanderer got new rubrails thanks to our friends at Taco Marine. These black straps are critical to protect out hulls from the constant panga docking maneuvers.
Most people prefer marine paint instead of pure gelcoat for boat finishes. The gelcoat is many orders of magnitude stronger than paint, but it lays down with a flat finish.
To achieve a glossy, paint-like finish takes many hours of sanding. You can see here that the results are awesome when you put in the time…it’s like a mirror!
The sneaky switchblade Adventurer also got a lot of attention from Captain David.
Her fresh paintjob was augmented by new cushions for the clients, including a new center bench seat.
Two years ago, we shocked a lot of folks when Captain David modified a hand-me-down bottom machine (from the Explorer) to the 23-foot weapon. This year we’ve upgraded the brain to this new Humminbird Helix 5, which is the same machine we use on the 32-foot boats.
Captain David even built a cool mini-windshield to protect the machine from sea spray.
The last major job was to reinforce the in-hull fuel tanks in the Wanderer and Discoverer.
These protective layers of rubber matting under the takes will work in concert with the new double-coats of Rhino bedliner on the tanks.
A few spots of spray foam and a couple pieces of holding wood will keep the tanks secured in place for the whole season.
Also, the Harvester start to develop small cracks in the top. We recruited a welder from San Jose to spend a weekend in Nosara, and he repaired the top in short order:
We finished off-season maintenance for the Harvester and took advantage of a break in the weather on October 10 to return to the blue water.
Sam and Missy Morrow’s group nagged this excellent Sailfish release, then followed up with a nice stack of Dorados.
Sam and Missy Morrow continued to excel on October 11th. The Harvester stayed near-shore and delivered excellent Rooster Fish action:
All live released as usual. Super work by the mega panga.
Sam Morrow finished his three-day campaign on October 12, reporting a nice stack of Dorado filets for his efforts.
Hard to fell anything but joy after a week of fishing like this.
Also we are excited to announce the promotion of Wilson Mendoza from mate to Captain of the Harvester.
Wilson is the son of Master Captain William, but is very much his own man; he has proved his mettle with more than 600 trips on the mega panga over the last three years.
Everyone on the team is excited to see Captain Wilson take the fight to the fish this season.
After two months of strong effort, the entire fleet is ready for action on November 1.
All boats are ready for battle, and we can’t wait to get the season underway.
The Casa Bianca build was a wonderful way for our staff to stay motivated during the pandemic, but it also showed us the building talent we have on the staff.
This offseason, we wanted to bring some of the original Nosara Paradise Rentals houses up to the new standard of Casa Bianca.
Our main focus was the two original houses: Casa Privada and Casa Tranquilo.
Casa Privada was built by the legendary Richmond Phipps and she sold us the adjacent Casa Tranquilo. Those early years of being neighbors with Richmond set us up for the challenges of expanding into Nosara Paradise Rentals’ current footprint.
Richmond’s house has served us well for 15 years now, but the original red tile has seen better days.
Top priority for this off-season was to incorporate the lovely slate tile from Casa Bianca into the other houses…out with the old, in with the new!
It’s a little tricky to move the furnishings out of the work area while still keeping them safe from the rainy season conditions.
We love using the locally-sourced Costa Rican hardwoods throughout out houses. For Casa Privada we reimagined the entry way with this beautiful double-wide glass door trimmed with local teak:
Another thing we learned on Casa Bianca: we can build better furniture than the store-bought, IKEA-knockoff garbage that most of the hotels around here use. Check out these awesome new beds, cabinetry, and dividing walls:
The poolside duplex Casa Tranquilo also got new tile, wood trim, and new furniture:
New wood trim throughout really gives a sweet warm glow, especially in the afternoon.
We also sealed up the passageway between the new units; in the era before we built four two-bedroom houses, Casa Tranquilo was expandable to a double unit. In recent years this feature has become obsolete so now the two units are permanently separated.
The kitchen also got an upgrade, once again to match the vibe of Casa Bianca.
Finally you can see the results of many trips up and down the ladder to sand and stain all the woodwork in the ceilings.
We built so much momentum on these projects that the boys decide to bite off another chunk of work by performing similar upgrades to the two bedroom house Casa Caribe.
We are super-excited to see this house’s new look in the coming weeks.