Maintenance | Costa Rica Fishing Report from FishingNosara

October 25, 2016

It’s October 2016, and the boats are on the hill and the houses sit empty, but the action never stops at Nosara Paradise Rentals and FishingNosara. Like all great franchises, we don’t rebuild…we reload!

It’s the rainy season in Nosara during the months of September and October, so this is the time of year when our team prepares for another great season.

At this point our fleet has outgrown our facilities, so this off season we’ll be breaking-in our new 30′ x 40′ boat garage.

After years of dodging rainstorms, laying fiberglass under tarps, and scattering our tools all over the yard it is great feeling to have a dedicated facility to perform our maintenance.

The garage also features a new bodega just for boat supplies; this way we aren’t mixing up boat stuff with Safari Cart supplies:

Great work by Deiter, Javier, and the rest of the staff in building this marine mecca!

Our flagship Wanderer is getting a major facelift this season…after 30+ years on the water the hard top is finally going away.

The wooden top has become waterlogged over the years, and the heavy glass windows are starting to show their age; in place of these fuel-hogging wastes of weight we will install a new aluminum top built by our friends at Custom Marine Jacksonville

Troy and the boys knocked us out with the quality of the top for the mega panga Harvester, so it was a no-brainer to let them loose on the Wanderer‘s new top…clearly Captain William is already thinking about how it will look:

Custom Marine has produced another masterpiece. Measuring 9 feet wide and 10 feet long yet weighing under 100lbs., this top is a marvel of marine engineering.

We had to build a custom crate in order to ship this thing…after all UPS doesn’t make a box this size!

The top is set for delivery this week and we will have it installed in plenty of time to start the new season.

Also, all of the cushions on the boats are getting rebuilt and restitched by jack-of-all-trades Marino who is quickly adding sewing to his deep bag of tricks:

We are fresh home from Nosara and are proud to report excellent progress on the refurbishing of the Wanderer. To recap, this is what the boat looked like this time last year:

As our boat-building prowess grew, we came to realize the awesome power of synthetic Coosa Wood: super light and super strong. Last October we pulled apart the entire cabin and rebuilt all the pieces out of Coosa:

This change saves an estimated 400lbs. or more. It took the whole crew jamming for a week, but the new cabin made the boat ride like a champ and drink a lot less fuel.

This year we are continuing to shave weight by replacing the heavy wood top with a sweet tower built by our friends Troy and Harper over at Custom Marine Jacksonville

First step was to strip off the old top and prep the interior for sanding/fiberglass work.

There was a noticeable about of flex in the sides of the cockpit once the hardtop was gone; the windows, window frames, and top acted as a stabilizing connection. Therefore we had to replace the strength with these Coosa Wood ribs on the sides:

Fortunately the shipping crate for the tower has left us with a bounty of 12′ 2×4 lumber, so it was easy to brace these while the epoxy cured and layers of fiberglass were applied.

We test-fit the new top so we could mark our holes and epoxy-sleeve them:

It was obvious that the rear edge of the tower was a few inches too low, so we installed 2 inches of Starboard to lift the rear up to a 6’2″ clearance:

Our clients anglers tend to be big guys so we don’t want anyone knocking their head, however our Captains and Mates are short so the rod holders have to be reachable. This height seems like the perfect compromise.

Meanwhile, Brian installed our new command console to complete last summer’s wood-to-Coosa transformation. Here is the new console:

You can see that the switches and gauges has to be laid our differently per Captain William’s specs; after 1,000+ trips in 6 years the Master Captain has a firm grip on how he wants the tools laid out on the Wanderer.

This week the crew in Costa Rica will gelcoat the Wanderer inside and out, then reassemble her for the water.

We are aiming to be ready to fish in the first week of November, so keep an eye on the FishingNosara blog and we’ll let you know once she is back in her rightful place in Garza Bay.

After a whirlwind two month overhaul, the Wanderer is back in the water and ready to once again sit on the throne as the King of Garza Bay.

While it was a fun challenge to re-arm this flagship for another year of battle, clearly everyone is ready to get back to fishing…escpecially Master Captain William:

October 1, 2015

The boats are on the hill and the houses sit empty, but the action never stops at Nosara Paradise Rentals and FishingNosara. Like all great franchises, we don’t rebuild…we reload!

It’s the rainy season in Nosara during the months of September and October, so this is the time of year when our team prepares for another great season.

Last year the FishingNosara crew obliterated every record on the books for trips run and billfish released, while the staff of Nosara Paradise Rentals established a new high mark with over 500 weeks of rental guests on the books.

The boat crews are hard at work getting the fleet refit for another record-breaking campaign.

The Wanderer takes center stage as she has been dis-assembled and prepped for a fresh coat of white and blue:

The main focus of this off-season is the rebuild the cabin of the flagship Wanderer.

This cabin has served us well, but the lesson we have learned from the Discoverer and Harvester is that wood is a liability…therefore we plan to rebuild the cabin out of super-strong and lightweight Coosa Wood.

The crew has been preparing for a month now for Craig, Matt, and Brian’s arrival next week.

We plan to have the process complete inside of a week, just in time for the start of the fishing season in November.

Meanwhile, the property staff is keeping ahead of the aggressive Nature preserve by trimming the dead crown of this tree over Casa Bonita.

They also trenched out a segment of the land for a new wall on the north edge of the campus.

You think you’ve had problems digging through a root…look at this monster:

Of course all the buildings get treated to a fresh coat of paint, including our main office in Guiones Beach:

Off Season Maintenance 2013

It’s the rainy season in Nosara during the months of September and October, so this is the time of year when our team reloads for another great season.

The boat crews are hard at work getting the fleet refit for another record-breaking campaign.

The Explorer is the focus of this year’s boat work. With over 400 trips under her belt, the Super panga has outperformed all exceptions. However there are a few rough spots that we hope to address during the next two months.

Captain David and Captain Carlos have already strengthened the soft spots in the floor with fresh fiberglass.

Mate Kevin assisted Captain David in adapting our new outriggers to the existing outrigger bases…funny how new stuff never lines up perfectly with old stuff.

Lastly they rolled the whole Super panga with a fresh coat of white and grey gelcoat, plus added a sweet chair for the Captain.

The flagship Wanderer was thoroughly rebuild last year so she is still good-to-good as the best fishing vessel in the area. However last season in our haste we ran all over our freshly painted interior and left smudges that only a sander could remove. After a complete sand-down the Wanderer‘s interior was rolled with a fresh layer of bright white gelcoat.

This time we left it to cure for several days and the quality of the result is obvious. The exterior blue still looks good, however the local bottom paint has been shy about sticking to the fresh gelcoat from last season.

This now-iconic image of Charlie Phillip’s Marlin release revealed this adhesion problem, and left un-

We are currently experimenting with different sanding and paint combinations to make sure the next layer of black bottom paint adheres without incident.

First Mate Alex poured time into maintaining his ‘office’ by completely refinishing the fighting chair.

Panga

The growth of FishingNosara has substantially increased the burden on the local panga drivers of Garza Bay, and with the increased traffic comes increased chance of delays.

To remedy this we are proud to introduce our new addition to the fleet of Garza transport vessels. The new Transporter was ordered from NBC Boatworks / FibroMaster and picked up from Nicaragua last month.

This is the same builder of the Explorer and Adventurer, so we know that is it up to the challenge of ferrying supplies, anglers, and crew from the beach.

Captain David is our resident expert in marine construction, so he took the lead fashioning a beautiful floor for the new panga.

Marino helped to sand the beams to perfect level with the horizontal stringers, and David attended to the final details to make all the pieces fit smoothly.

It goes without saying that this is the sweetest little panga boat you’ve ever seen!

Meanwhile, we have two exciting expansions to announce at Nosara Paradise Rentals. The first is the acquisiton of our newest property, Casa Serene. This oversized studio is intended to fill the needs of the couple or small family wanting the intimacy of a studio combined with the larger property footprint of a two-bedroom house.

The current structure sits next to Casa Caribe and beside Casa Jardin. This pushes the outer perimeter of our campus to the main access road, so this privacy wall will deliver the level of quiet and comfort that our guests expect.

Of course the ink was barely dry on the sales agreement by the time Javier had a few guys over there starting with the renovations. Javier is a building machine!

Casa Serene features the same authentic Tico archetecture of Casa Tranquilo and Casa Surfeando. The difference with Casa Serene is that we will open up the floorspace of two small units into one oversized studio.

The staff is hard at work getting Casa Serene ready, and we can’t wait to see the results.

North Loop Office

We are very excited to introduce the new FishingNosara office located on the North Loop of Guiones Beach near Kaya Sol and Guilded Iguana.

This office will serve as the headquarters for our airport transfer drivers and also offer fishing trips, safari tours, and safari cart rentals. Only 1km from our main office, this substation will serve the community of surfers and vacationers who come to the North Loop and never make it over our way.

This office used to be our off-campus house Olas Pequinos until Craig and Javier began the reconstruction back in May.

Here’s how Craig’s magic marker works:

Front:

Side:

Back Wall:

Landscape Barrier:

We managed to transplant a few of these trees back to the main campus which adds that much more vegetation to the nature preserve.

Front Entry:

Once all the major reconstruction was complete the crew plowed ahead with the new parking lot and garden. Also a fresh coat of paint helps the new office really pop out of the jungle.

We are in the process of furnishing the new office and expect to have it open for business on November 5.

Back in the US we are burning the candle at both ends to finish up and deliver the Discoverer to the boys in Garza.

Off Season Maintenance – 2013

The boats are on the hill and the houses sit empty, but the action never stops at Nosara Paradise Rentals and FishingNosara. Like all great franchises, we don’t rebuild…we reload!

Captain David and Captain Carlos have already strengthened the soft spots in the floor with fresh fiberglass

They also plan to revamp the cabinets in the consoles, touch up some hasty mid-season fiberglass repairs, and of course go around the entire boat and service every bolt, nut, and washer with fresh 5200.

The Wanderer received such a thorough rebuild last off season that this year the maintenance is mostly cosmetic.

Clearly a new coat of bottom paint is in order, along with a new set of stickers for the prow (look close…the port side says “WAND_RER”

First Mate Alex is redoing the finish and stain on his custom fighting chair. This item takes a lot of abuse from clients during the year so it needs to be tightened up. In addition to being an excellent carpenter and a world-class fisherman, Alex is a perfectionist and will do whatever it takes to get this piece up to his high standards.

The property staff is also busy getting Nosara Paradise Rentals ready for another banner year. As usual all of the houses are getting fresh paint and varnish, but the real star of this year’s work is the facelift for Casa Caribe.

This two bedroom house on the outer perimeter of the Nature Preserve has pleased many clients over the years, yet we never loved the drab pastels of the paint scheme, especially the pumpkin orange.

Here’s the new look of electric blue and yellow. These pictures barely do it justice, but believe me that now this house POPS out of the jungle.

Also the upstairs patio deck was starting to get a little soft so in the interest of safety and longevity we ripped out the old deck and installed a completely new one.

If you need someone to defy gravity you can always count on Grevan Hernandez…Look how he flies with the greatest of ease!

So the property staff is on the houses and the boat guys are on the boats, so where do you think the office guys are?

That’s right…Repainting and reorganizing the office!

Anybody want to help Arturo inventory the our shirts?

Didn’t think so!

Work continues and we look forward to sharing the results in the October report.

June 25, 2013

Anyone who has been to Garza is impressed by the authentic, laid-back nature of this classic little fishing village. However this rustic feel has it’s drawbacks as municipal services are slow to react to the growth in popularity of fishing in Garza.

Trash accumulation is one of these services that are lacking, so we took the initiative to create this garbage collection station to help keep Garza clean and beautiful.

Nice work by Javier, Arturo, and the rest of the NPR staff to put this project together. If everyone pitches in then we can keep Garza clean without sacrificing her native authenticity.

January 22, 2013

Time for another installment of the FishingNosara maintenance odyssey! This time, the crew of the Wanderer replaces mooring point in Garza bay that we have used for over 3 years to tie off the beloved flagship.

You can see here that the rope itself has begun to fray and stretch:

Not pictured are the four 55-gallon drums filled with concrete that serve as the anchor point for this rope at the bottom of the bay. Captain William and Alex prepared a new floating ball system and affixed it to a hefty length of 2-inch diameter marine-grade rope.

Next up the boys strapped on the re-breathers and dove down to the bottom. Let’s hope no vengeful Sailfish find their way into Garza and exact revenge on the two most productive fisherman in the area!

Everything went smoothly below the surface and the Wanderer is sitting pretty on her new leash. Excellent work by the best crew in Costa Rica on the water, on land and even under the water!

November 1, 2012 – Launch Day

Time to see if all the hard work pays off! The entire FishingNosara team was on hand to re-launch the refitted and repainted Wanderer.

As usual we waited for the high tide to peak at the western end of Garza, then David backed the mighty Wanderer into position on the shoreline.

Here is her last view of the shore without the water in the way for the next 9 months.

All hands were required to push her in, so we don’t have photos of that endevor, but you can always check out the Explorer Beach Launch Video to get the idea.

Our flagship vessel should now be ready for another 600+ great trips and she looks better than ever.

The refinished wood cabin, fighting chair, and teak covering boards are the eye-catchers, but those who have followed the Wanderer refit know how many essential non-cosmetic repairs went into the refit.

It was a grisly couple of months, but the sight of the blue beauty in the water and ready to fish makes it all worth the effort.

October 30, 2012 – Wanderer Refit Update

Thanks everyone for the great response to the Wanderer refit thread. Here are some fresh photos of the flagship as we get ready for our fishing season to kick off next week.

We addressed the Morse code-esque holes along the rear lip of the hull where a few generations of trim tabs used to be:

Next up was installing the rub rail and the thru-hull fittings on the outer hull. Lots of 5200 now means less troubles later!

The boys also tightened up the transom deck and painted over the fiberglass repairs from the trim tabs. The end result is a new-looking transom that should provide years of good service.

While Captain William and First Mate Alex tidy up the flagship and get her rigged with fresh line and new tackle, Captain David and Captain Carlos painted the bottoms of the Explorer and Adventurer to match the bad black on the Wanderer. This look helps tie the fleet together and should last much longer than the chip-prone blue paint we’ve used in the past.

It’s been a whirlwind eight weeks but I am proud to report that all three FishingNosara boats are ready to rock and roll! Keep a sharp eye the FishingNosara blog for catch reports, photos, and videos from the Best Sportfishing team in Costa Rica!

October 19, 2012 – Wanderer Refit Update

Craig and Captain Jack have completed their first day of finalizing the Wanderer repairs. Here are the highlights:

First up was to fix the constellation of screw holes in the transom where the trim tabs have broken off multiple times (Thanks snorkelers!) and water had begun to intrude. Here’s what we were looking at back in September:

The water dripping down the rail tells the tale. We overdrilled these rotted holes until we found good wood and then left these holes under heat lamps for the last month. Confident in their dryness, the boys filled all the holes with fresh fiberglass.

We removed the trim tab piston (see the three hole pattern at the top of the photo) and snatched the pump out too…Captain William doesn’t even use trim tabs! He is able to trim the Wanderer with the motor tilt alone, so this will clean up the transom a bit.

We had a small intrusion spot on the port gunnel, so Jack and Craig cut out and replace a large precautionary section. Jack has gotten a crash course in this kind of work recently on The Discoverer Project.

A fresh layer of glass and it should be ready to go.

Lastly we have installed some of First Mate Alex’s master carpentry into the Wanderer. Here’s the bathroom door:

The fighting chair is an amazing redesign. Behold:

Here’s the big surprise. Polynesian Teak covering boards for the cockpit:

Once the glue dries and we get the batteries off, this is gonna be a beauty.

Tag: Maintenance