35 Bertram deck questions

YES, there is a boat yard on the Miami River that makes/made tons of those decks for Bertram and for Bertram owners. They may have even made the origionals. Call them. The name of the company is Glasstech in Miami,FL. Here's their website.

Glass-Tech Corporation

I removed the screwed down teak deck on previous 1979 Bertram 38 111. Under it was the original wood deck that once had Nautolex covering. Removed in cut up pieces & replaced it all with a fiberglass deck from Glass Tech that 4 of us simply lowered into place. More recently removed teak on top of factory fiberglass deck on current 46 but the gelcoat under it was a mess so refinished with Awlgrip. Owner at Glass Teck is: Nelson Fernandez, but good luck getting him on the phone. Wound up driving to Miami but he was not there and only one I found that spoke English was a girl in the office. Not at all impressed with the yard so wound up using one in Ft. Laud instead.

Best guess is it's going to be extremely heavy with the teak still on it and if you have a fighting chair we had to attach a keel mount when replacing the original wood deck on the 38. Once did a repair on both of the gas tanks under the front deck in a 27' Magnum Sport where they never should have been placed. When the MarineTex repair of the topside seam cracks did not hold up, the MarineTex people were very helpful in providing a more thorough prep procedure but I had already replaced the aluminum tanks.

I've pulled the deck on a Bertram 33' Sportfish. The Deck was fiberglass only no teak. I removed all screws and cut the caulk around the perimeter. It came out no problem although it was much heavier than I expected. In my case the balsa coring was soaked which is why I was pulling it. I ended up using the gin pole and block and tackle and a few people, but all was straight forward. Let us know how it goes.

My 1979, 38' Bertram had a large single fiberglass fuel tank. Never a problem due to diesel but ethanol is bad news for fiberglass tanks and fuel lines not ethanol rated and evidently some backward run states don't allow non ethanol which is all I ever use in the small outboard boat even though she has an aluminum tank.

Maybe that's why they changed to using aluminum.