Bertram 630 Sportfish Sinks?

CTdave, i would suggest to read the whole thing (including most of the dribble), it will give u a better perspective on what happen (could happen).

there's a few pissed off members on here to say the least wanting answers. weather they will get the answers/truth... well i doubt it, so tred lightly when choosing your speculation with respect to the people involved... (just a suggestion) cheers

also just with that theroy, isnt the waters velocity increasing, but the pressure decreasing when going through a hole? (please correct if wrong)

far

A few misconsceptions here though in your theory. The interior joinery *should* be a lot weaker then the foredeck of the vessel. Therefore the water would push through the joinery before ripping the deck off. I think the bulkheads broke free from the stringers, vessel started delaminating, with nothing to really tie the deck into the hull, it just collapsed. As for the transom, the coring has no resin attached to it or soaked into it. It wasn't properly bonded to the fiberglass matting to begin with. The coring looks like you took it off of the shelf in raw form and never attempted to glass over it.

When the helm broke free of the vessel, I am sure the hydraulic steering hoses broke free and if the rudder was allowed to turn 90 degrees, the water pressure at 30 knots could rip it out.

I highly doubt you could get a tug and divers out there without someone seeing it. And, it's highly illogical to try to tow a boat that is sunk and completely submerged any distance.

Hello guys. May I start by commenting my admiration with the pleasant manners of many members of this community, keeping such a... troublesome topic relatively civil.

I've been wondering if there are any official or semi-official updates on the matter. Specifically, is there any reconstruction of events that is backed up by something like a proper investitgation, settlement or like.

Because while the hull failure can be concievably described by some of abovementioned scenarios, I am, for one, still intrigued and mistyfied by the transom (or lack thereof). And in reading the whole topic I hadnt' seen any semi-conclusive ideas about that (might have missed, obviously). To postulate it broke off from the impact on seabed would, errm, probably be stretching the so-called "bashing of FEB laminates" far beyond imaginable...

Well, the transom. Keep in mind it is not supported from the starboard hullside to the port hullside. You have the marlin door and flip over coveringboard, so it does not go all of the way across as a unit. What really holds the transom together is the port hull side and cockpit floor essentially. I would say once hell started breaking loose, the port hull side started moving fore and aft in relation to the starboard hull side and cockpit floor held rigid. and the back and forth movement just cracked and snapped it......

I think that is the best theory yet.
I would bet to think that some tow salvage-rs very well would had like to have stolen that wreck. Especially before not knowing how much damage there really was. Could had possibly been a gold mine.

Huh? Gold mine? Hardly unless it was actually transporting Gold! Who the hell would try to salvage/steal this thing without anyone finding out?

I used to have a salvage business in CA. If there was no insurance to pay my bill and I had to lien sale the property and sell it, I always lost money.

When I speak of "semi-conclusive ideas" I usually mean those that weathered a good shave with top quality brand Occam, Hanlon and other razors.
I somehow think that the fast-and-stealthy salvage/submerged tow attempt that rips the transom off is bound to leave more marks on the scene, the same scene that is later throughly examined and filmed by divers. Then there is a mystery of who is that someone, then there... well, come to think of it, as usual for conspiracy theories, this one hardly answers anything any more then it transcends the issue to a new level of questions.

CaptJ's variant sounds more adequate, especially if the bonding between hull and cockpit floor is less then ideal. I would still expect maybe several cracks in that situation or even some partial rip, but not the total one evident on photos...

Drag a 41,000 lb boat along the ocean bottom in 100' of water in the hopes of making $ on what you get????

If that boat was a simple sinking (not so much damage) and possibly an easy floater in a later time and date, you do not think there could had been some scrap profit to be made? Especially with the Carolina's being hit hard with the recession and people are getting hungry?

Who's talkin about the draggin'? Just diving, ripping it away piece by piece, checking for a secret compartment with contraband diamonds someplace inside transom mould. Guess that would be a truly marvellous deed of King Kong's strength and intelligence!

You would clearly need to get something more then hungry to inflict the pictured kind and level of damage on *simple sinking* boat at below 80".

Well, in order to hook up to it, someone would have had to dive it. A salvage operator would have stuffed the boat best as he could with lift bags. and then slung a couple more on it. He would not be trying to tow it on the lift bags either. Those are just to get it to the surface to get a set of slings and minimally pontoons to it if not fully up on a barge.

So, what on that vessel do you think would have a value that could be recovered to make up for the expenses involved in getting it?

You obviously do not know what those salvage boys are like in the Carolina's. It doesn't take much to motivate them $$

No doubt about it being a floater, the kind found in the night commode...

Since the discussion has turned to the nonsensical, has anyone investigated the whereabouts of this fellow when the accident happened?

I actually thought about the different dude, the big green "you won't like me when I'm angry" one. He just might be working as a salvage boy in the Carolina's, squeezing the money (and else) where others can't.

But on a more prosaic note, the actual condition of a transom seems to lend it's share to this "nonsesical turn" of discussion.

Like Dave had originally said, just trying to move it for the time being and then when the heat clears, do what they have to do. You would have to imagine that if they went out there to attempt this, they probably had minimal info and did not know much and was hoping for the best. If that is what happened they would had quickly realized it was not a good idea or would not work.
But to answer your question, I am sure those engines could have been rebuilt and sold to some one in a dishonest manner. I am sure those salvage boys can squeeze money where others can't.

wasn't that in the 1700's

I think the transom area IMO is the easiest of the damage to explain. Picture the boat sinking bow down, just before the boat completely disappears under water the air that's trapped in the cockpit of the boat blows off the full beam hatch that's just aft of the prep center, the air left under the cockpit blows off the remaining hinged and dogged hatches covering the lazarette. That leaves some air that's is at the very back of the boat trapped in the gap between the hull, cockpit liner and deck. Taking into account the shoddy workman ship evidenced in the installation of the core materials it isn't a big stretch for that approximately 18' x 3' pocket of air to rip off the stern of the rapidly sinking yacht.

That's good but you did not explain the rudders being pulled out

The only way I can explain that one is by the boat dragging across the bottom but the near pristine looking prop contradicts that theory.