January 17, 2016

It’s been a fun two months of fishing like unemployed teenagers, but now we finally have wrapped up The Harvester Project and shipped the boat to Costa Rica.

We cleared customs and are driving her across the country on January 15.

The Harvester scored huge in her first day on the water. 7 sailfish released by Captain Alex and Mate Kevin with client Rob Hodde of Texas.

Fantastic work by Costa Rica’s newest fish-fighting weapon!

Eduardono Factory Tour

Eduardono is one of the most prolific boat builders you’ve never heard of. There lineup of panga-style hulls are in service throughout North, South, and Central America.

A quick look at their offerings reveals that their pangas are equally adept as pleasure boats, port tenders, and both commercial and recreational fishing.

There hulls are incredibly strong and seem to get a magic amount of performance from a minimum amount of horsepower.

We’ve had a wonderful experience dealing with Nicholas and the rest of the staff at Eduardono, and after a months of The Harvester Project we wanted to know more about how these hulls are built.

Our good buddy and fellow panga enthusiast John Bisson headed down to Columbia to take a tour of the factory, and he gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the Eduardono operation.

The hull we’ve been working on came bare, however if you look at these pics you will see that it is high-end finish work that really sets Eduardono apart from the competition.

Check out the detail work on this optional forward cabin:

These hulls are set up for single or dual powerplants, and based on the powerful ride we are getting out of a single 200hp, I can’t even imagine what a rocket ship ride a dual powered panga would deliver.

Eduardono also has their own in-house paint facilities, and they boast a wide variety of eye-popping flavors of hues.

One thing I notice from these photos is how tight the shop itself is…everyone working is wearing the proper safety gear and a high level of safety and professionalism is on display.

This certainly shatters the perception that a South American boat builder is somehow ‘third world shotty’… I would put this operation up against any in the world.

The showroom is awesome, but we wanted to pry a little deeper into the back of the shop where the real magic happens:

This foam core board (above) and marine plywood (below) are sandwiched together to create bulkheads that are both strong and lightweight.

Here is the in-house woodshop where these elements come together:

Eduardono also installs gas tanks for boats that need more range than an 8-gallon portable tank can provide.

Here’s an item that definitely kicked out butts on the Harvester…stringer systems incorporate challenging geometry, precise cuts, and lots of hunched over hands-and-knees work:

Here is the fiberglass shop. You can see lots of blank panels for consoles and fishboxes. This is the way to crank out high-quality work time after time.

Finally, the tool we really REALLY wish that we had in our boat shop:

Awesome…just awesome.

Eduardono is clearly a world-class building operation, however their hulls don’t demand a world-class pocketbook from the buyer.

The Harvester Project came in way less than any 31′ boat should, and we know that the hull will be rock solid for years and years of charter service.

If you want to put a panga in your port, contact Nicolas Olarte:

nolarte@eduardono.com
Eduardoño S.A.
+(574) 372 29 55 Ext. 4133
+(574) 444 58 88 Ext. 4388
www.eduardono.com