List of "Known Survivors"

Well, after owning Ms Kitty for 16 years we sold her last year and downsized to a 31 foot Silverton Convertible. When you get to being in your 70's a high maintenance 55 foot boat is a little much. Our last long cruise was in 2016 bringing her from San Francisco to San Diego.. An absolutely delightful boat....

The new owner had her for 3 weeks and called me to see if I knew anyone that wanted her. It seems he bit off far more than he could chew.. Thought he could make a fortune taking people on dinner cruises...

As for me, I'll be lurking around here still and if anyone needs data I'm available and still have most of my notes and brochures...

Jim Bauer
San Diego

So, you see I don't post very often, but here I am again. I am here and afloat, this project did not go 'south'. Spoiler alert - project is 99% complete, cruising the Eastern half of the US, living aboard. Still lots of trim work and accessories to install, but she runs great, comfortable and relatively easy on fuel (1650 hours on the new John Deeres).
We'll bring you along a bit at a time with the completed boat pic a little later. I should warn the Roamer purists, this is not what you are looking for. The state of Michigan insisted that of there is an HIN, it remains a 1970 CC Roamer; so it is.
The boat was stripped to just a hull and trucked to Michigan. Set up in our back yard. Did I mention that we have a sizable back yard? Then 16 months of cleaning, measuring, and design work. Lots of correspondence between the Naval Architect and us resulted in a plan. June '06 was Aluminum shipment #1. Here we are clamping up the fore deck.

Late 2004 was purchase and trucking,
2006 vinyl building is erected so construction can move ahead thru the year. June start of construction.
Things move pretty quick the first few years. Big parts = big progress. Starts looking like a boat. This pic is about April '07



Yeah, you are seeing right. no longer a "Roamer profile". I hope Chris Smith is smiling somewhere. At least #0501 is not in a scrap yard.
It will be '08 before we consider the Superstructure complete, but at this point was can plastic wrap the doors and windows and heat the interior. We can weld from March till November, but when the aluminum is really cold, welding is not impossible, but let's call it tricky.
Interior work begins winter '07-'08.

Maybe this is a little out of sequence, but i found a couple pictures that show the process getting to the last post.

Weld sub assemblies in the heated garage. Slide them out in the snow. Lift into place.





This is cold weather so we preheat the aluminum to be welded.

Once the shell is complete, begin plumbing and electrical. No pics of this because it is truly tedious, uninteresting work. Without interior bulkheads or headliner the work goes pretty quickly. I can say that there are several hundred feet of PEX tubing, manifolds, 3 way valves, check valves, etc. then on to wiring. Easily 2000 feet of wire, from 18 gauge (LED lighting) to 3/0 marine cable.
Side story for those of you that work on your own boat. There are many projects that make you think hard. BUt I assure you that cutting a 10 inch diameter hole below the waterline WILL make your sphincter pucker.


Yup, that's the better half staring back at me.

Good, snug fit and level, whew ! !

Sure wondering where all the 58's have gone! Selma III, Mayflower, Tahiti . . . the 68's - Casa Nina, Brown 'n Surf, Runnaway . . . Anyone know what happened to them?

Be a shame . . .

Always preferred the Burgers (Tae-Foy, Panacea, Trevellen, Pink Lady V, and many other Burgers were part of my work list . . .
Different world now!

I remember painting one of the first Hattaras' off the line - 41 footer. My Dad used to call them "Chlorox Bottles"
Fibreglas has sure stood the test of time! Bertram built a great boat!!

Understood - But -
I spent a lot of time on a Nordhavn - N6230 - “Walkabout” around Japan, China/Hong Kong, and finally in the Indian and Southern Oceans (Freemantle to Adelaide)

Great boat. Solid. Nothing slowed her below 7 knots!

My personal boat - a woodie. Dropped a pair of Perkins 4-236 in her and spent six years from Lauderdale through all the Bahamas, Turks/Caicos, Haiti, DR, Puerto Rico, etc. 35,000 miles just ‘gunk holing’. As long as the pumps worked - we kept on going!

Different times . . . wonderful memories. My Dad said - every time we returned to Lauderdale - “Wings of Angels!” No other explanation for you making it back again!

Working with the ‘alloy’ boats is what paid the bills. LOVED spending their money!!!

Now I'm done.

Thank you for that!
I am pretty certain that in 1974 the "Rosebud" was bought by Myron Baker and renamed the "Tahiti" (We did the refit and re-naming at "Harbor West" Marina (Lauderdale).

"Cest Magnifique". was one of the 60 ft houseboats we used to care for . . . She was left pristine until I lost track of her in 1980 or so . . .