Bertram 630 Sportfish Sinks?

Remember though that drag is a cubic component of speed so between 25 & 70 kts is almost 22 times the amount of drag. The inertias behind the speed are irrelevant to damage occuring since the construction should be rated to the kinetic energy the vessel operates at, but does factor into the quantity of damage once something lets go.

What rumor and innuendo is it that you keep referring to? This boat should have never come apart as it did, period. The bouy is a red herring, there is no possible way that the damage on the bouy is reflective to the damage on the boat. The transom is completely irrelevant, the bow of the boat tore off. Even if stuffed into a wave, the result there should not have occurred. There is delamination obvious in several of the pictures, because you don't recognize it does not make it a rumor. The man was sold damaged goods. The captain screwed this royally by not making sure the trip was insured. If it had been, we probably wouldn't know to much about this.

The white sheet kinda half buried in the sand in front of the prop that pops up in a couple of places? Yep, I see it. Maybe thats what happened, they left a port light open and a sheet got out and caught the water and cut the bow off....

Shazam, why on earth did you set out in those conditions? They were well forecast and known. There is never an excuse to set out for a trip like that in a pleasure boat. You did a lot of damage and got your crew injured. Not wise in the slightest.

Carl-

Are held by a confidentiality agreement in that you can not share the video footage that was released to you?

Perhaps you could post it to the forum in DIVX format or something of the like?

Perhaps it was the captain's chart drawn crudely on a napkin that got caught in the pulpit, and a gust of wind caused it to shear the entire foredeck off along with half the hull sides? It would explain how the captain ran aground on Frying Pan Shoals and rammed that little plastic toothpick straight up through the gunwales!

No doubt it was a mistake but as you can see in the YouTube videos I posted it wasn't that bad when we left, by the time we got into the real nasty stuff it was too late to turn around.

Right after the back fell off when the tower fell over & hit it when the pigeon landed.

Didn't someone post that funny video "the front fell off" ?

On scene explanation; The story is that the captain was at the wheel on the bridge with the mate, chartplotter running, and yacht running approx 25 kts. The Bertram rose up and over one wave and dove into the next wave, with the “bow failing and folding inward”.

Speculation; The Bertram Yacht company representatives think the captain hit a buoy, but the captain disputes that theory. Bertram has claimed they have photos of the buoy and that it looks like something big ran it over.



If he hit something he would have admitted hitting something knowing there would be evidence. I think he was as surprised as everyone else is that the boat came apart like it did.

Guys, we had an interesing line of discussion, but it kind of got tangled. I had some free time last evenings and entertained myself to Youtube speedboat crash compilations (not unlike one posted here).
I'm way more boating enthusiast then professional (plus non native speaker so forgive my lameness with terms), but to my untrained eye, there are far enough crashes to call the following scenario a pattern: something happens with high speed planning, and the boat plunges into the water at enough angle that upper hull sides and foredeck area, normally never touching the water, take the brunt of impact akin to a needle's tip. Then, by the moment it emerges from the water spray, the whole forward area is catastrophically damaged/torn apart, and the hull/deck bonding is gone opening "crocodile's mouth", something remotely resembling the sight of Berthram on the photos.

Most of those speedboats are really light, so they pop back up above water and slow down almost instantly. I imagine would it be heavier, like, say, our Berth here, it could keep going semi-submersed just a little bit longer, with water pressure extending damage along the sides of a hull pretty much like what we see... For those of you with better idea, does this scenario seem plausible?

You're crazy.

You got lucky, hopefully you learned from that run and don't decide to do it again as an Arctic front is pushing south. We only have 2 weeks of winter here, a week in Dec and a week in Jan. Best to leave the boat in the Bahamas for an extra week.

I thought the video was shot AFTER things had calmed down?

"Here's a sampling of what we were going through, mind you I was able to take this video because things had calmed down enough where I was able to actually pull the phone out and record what was going on..."

After looking at the extent of the damage, it is perfectly obvious that this incident is the result of an improperly calibrated tractor beam.

The captain was probably trying to pocket some fuel money so he heaved a grapnel onto the back of a passing freighter...

Just received this afternoon an update regarding the situation from Mike Myers, President of Bertram Yachts.

"Dear Bertram Dealers, Employees, and Friends,
As I have stated previously, I am committed to providing you with solid, factual, up-to-date information on the Bertram 630 incident of November 6th.
And, as I have done on my previous five (5) communications to you on this matter, I will not offer idle speculation or unsupported opinions.
At the same time, I believe it is my responsibility to correct misinformation that is presented as fact. Some of the statements below bring into question the motivation of the parties making the statements.

For example:

• 
  The caption accompanying underwater photographs posted on one website claims that the images were taken from a video of the boat shot on November 11, just a few days after the sinking. These photos - depicting dramatic damage to the sunken boat - have been used to cast doubt on the possibility the sinking was caused by a collision and to support a number of negative theories about the quality of Bertram yachts. The FACT is the sunken boat was not even located until two weeks later on November 24 by a crew contracted by the owners. It was found 1.5 miles from the point of its sinking. Between the date of the incident and when the images were captured after November 24 there was a significant tropical storm in the area with very strong winds and violent currents with the strength to toss such a wreck about and move it some distance from where it sank. We cannot know exactly what happened down there during those two and a half weeks, but it is very likely that much of the damage we see was inflicted AFTER the boat sank and had nothing to do with the sinking in the first place.

• 
  Many of the statements made by one local poster to the website are entirely FALSE. We believe this poster is misrepresenting the facts because -- we also believe -- his family owns a Miami-based boat building company. Specifically his assertions concerning the source of the hull coring material and that Bertram subcontracts the lamination of its hulls are entirely FALSE as are numerous other statements he has made as “fact”. His statements must be viewed with great suspicion in light of our belief that he has not disclosed that he is in the Sportfish Yacht manufacturing business and is a minor competitor of Bertram.

• 
  The damage to the yacht depicted in the underwater photographs (taken AFTER 11/24) is totally inconsistent with the detailed description of the sinking boat provided by the captain during an interview after the incident (which occurred 11/6).

As I had stated in my previous update – although there is overwhelming evidence that the boat did strike a buoy marking an artificial reef (through the laboratory match of the bottom paint on this boat and the paint on the buoy) we do not know what brought down this vessel so we will not speculate.

We will continue to carefully gather the facts and provide updates as the facts emerge. Bertram continues to remain totally confident in our product and stands behind all of the boats currently in owners’ hands and those under construction.

As always, if you have any questions on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Michael W. Myers
President
Bertram Yacht Inc.
(305) 633 - 8011"

^^^Lawyerspeak.

It's actually comical. YMMV.

Well ... that settles it then.