Bertram 630 Sportfish Sinks?

Have we all forgotten how that other 63' Bertram came apart while fishing a fishing tournament off of Palm Beach a year or so ago, and that was the owners warranty replacement boat for his 57' Bertram that was coming apart.

Also, the 57' Bertram I was running back a few years ago that was new. All of the bulkhead to stringer tabbing broke free on the entire vessel and I can confirm that the roughest sea it saw was 5' or so.

I have no doubt that when it comes down to it, it will be a build quality issue. My guess would be that the outer core got breeched and started peeling away from the coring material and then the inner core and the running water just peeled it all apart until it breeched a large part of the inner hull side of the coring and down she went. Running at 35 knots or faster will pump a TON of water inside the vessel in a matter of seconds if the hole is in the front 2/3's of the boat.

I have heard of all kinds of Bertram build quality horror stories that the factory has kept under wraps since 2004. The first (I cannot remember exactly which one now) 57' or 63' they built had transom exhaust, and they switched it to side exit exhaust before launching it. They then filled/glassed in/patched the holes where the exhaust exited the transom and didn't overlap the fiberglass hardly at all. On its maiden seatrial the patches fell out and the boat came in with 2 8" holes in the transom where the rear exhaust used to be, the crew stuffed stuff in the holes, and it went right into the travel lift and was hauled out otherwise it would have sunk instantly.

It depends on their situation. I have a guy, he trades his boat in every 2 years. For him, the extra hours at sale time are more expensive to him than the fuel. As you point out, I can do 27 kts on the same fuel I do 12 with that boat. I can actually do 23 on less than 13. Having a Low Hour Boat is worth hundreds of thousands in the market and makes it easier to sell, at least that's been his experience, so he has me rock on as hard as I can.
BTW, I used to push benzine from Jax to Norfolk inside with 9+' of draft on a loaded barge. Rarely did I ever have to make a channel.

Not sure where that $30K-$40K figure comes from. Just checked an invoice from last fall (granted the boat is only a 50). 2329 gals. $7848.67 NY to Ft. Lauderdale. At $700 plus meals a day for crew, plus dockage and lugging his motors at a inefficient speed is no favor to the owner.

Without any knowledge of what happened with this boat, I am surprised that boaters expect a fast boat to cope with all kinds of sea states at WOT?

Do they expect the same with a 200 km/h top speed SUV when going offroad?

Not all sea states at WOT, but I usually cruise at 75-80% power in the 61 Viking SC with 1100 common rails, and that will give me right between 27 and 30 kts. In a larger following sea, call it greater than 8', I prefer to be slowly overtaking the waves. It makes for the best ride and handling, the boat is perfectly comfortable doing it. That has me doing in the mid 20s depending on the period of the wave. I will run it like that in up to 16' following or quartering seas. She's also a planing hull boat so she gains a considerable amount of her stability dynamically. Now going into the sea is a different story. Into 6' and I'm down to 16 or 18 kts. Anything bigger and I'll be at the dock until conditions change. The 61 Predator long nose version he had before that was even worse for going into it. 3' and I was down to 10 kts or the interior would fall apart, but she was fun to drive down hill and in the winding flat waters between Coinjock and Norfolk.

The short answer is NO. AND, I doubt the Captains mentioned were out in 20' seas running at cruise, for one your body would not be able to take it. From the sounds of the weather that day, it was very moderate.

I once had an owner with a 35' Cabo fishing the Bahamas Wahoo championship, run his boat at cruise in 10' seas. He ran it so hard that both rear Tuna Tower legs snapped and a deck hatch cracked. Other then that, there was nothing structurally broken. A 65' Donzi sportfish weathered a full blown hurricane at SEA, and did not have any structural issues and did not sink. One would expect a new 63' SF to not come apart and sink in moderate sea states.

As for doing a delivery at slower speeds. On most all diesel boats you save a considerable amountof fuel on 90% of planing hulls to do displacement speed. I delivered a 45' Searay SB from Fort Lauderdale to St. Croix on under 1200 gallons of fuel (I think it's a tad over 900NM if memory serves me right), running at hull speed over 80% of the time. I also ran a 75' Hatteras through the entire great loop 5300NM on 7500 gallons and the generators ran 24 hours a day almost every day (we had to anchor the majority of the time), when the boat normally burns 6 GPM. And, it is cheaper then the additional crew time costs in most all cases.

Hi,

Sure, If the salesman tells them it can cope.

in 1996, I delivered a Magnum 56 from Miami to La Romana DR and had to contend with the remnants of a hurricane coming out from under Jamaica.

The Owner took a lot of convincing that we couldn't just go outside at WOT no matter what the weather- thanks to the sales speel and cheque book journalism.

15 or so years ago while at a marina in Stuart FL, a nice 50-58' American Custom Yachts sportfish came barreling into the marina with pumps coming out of every opening. Seems he was pushing it way too hard in rough conditions right off of the inlet. The big boat could only take so much & split down the chines
I'm 98% that it was an ACY. It was a long time ago but as I recall, they were trying to make it up the river to the ACY factory before they had to resort to "the closest travel lift".
As we all know, boats can be built above and beyone the highest standards but can and will fail if pushed. I used to race a state of the art offshore v bottom. It was the most evpensive 37' and built just for racing. During a race I commented to my throttle man that something was seriously wrong with the boat. When we pulled into the wet pits to pick up the checkered flag (naturally ) everyone was wide eyed and pointing at something. It wasn't until we got out that we saw bulkheads & stringers sticking out of the sides & deck The manufacturer was very quick to wrap the boat up and remove it under the cover of darkness.

I heard that it was dove on Monday. Can someone confirm this to be true? If so are the speaking about it?

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I spoke to someone very close to the situation today (Nov 24, 2009), and although some of the following information is speculative, there are bits of facts (as per the parties involved). This was a credible source but asked that names not be used.

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”. Wow! That would make sense as to the quick sinking as mentioned earlier in the thread.

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. My source says they have not seen any photos yet from Bertram.

The real trouble is that they have not yet located the vessel. The past two days have been spent with a team searching the general area with side-scan sonar looking. As currents and such have influence on objects, perhaps the yacht shifted a few hundred or thousand feet off the mark. And the mark may not be perfect because the crew bailed into their life raft within 15 minutes of the incident and picked up in about 5 minutes from then by a fishing vessel. Unsure if anyone hit the MOB button on the loran or plotter or marked it on a chart. Since the Coast Guard would not be on scene for over an hour, the fishing vessel wanted to transfer the crew so they could get back to their duties and ran to meet the CG vessel, with no apparent vessel remaining on site.

Later a CG helo spotted debris in the approximate area but no fuel sheen, even thought the 63 Bertram can hold up to 1800 gallons (unsure how much was in the tanks). So, it’s presumed the yacht has sunk. And as mentioned to me, the captain told the source that while in the raft drifting past the sinking bow, he saw the section of the hull, where it meets the forward deck, with the “planes folded back” (which I imagine could happen after it stoved-in and once stopped).

As for location, I was told it was not near Frying Pan Shoals, but that the yacht had overnighted in Cape Fear and was making a course to Hilton Head. I have not yet looked at my chart, but it was stated that the course transits a wreck area where there is a marked buoy. Winds were from the NE and seas were about three feet when they departed.

Understand that this is information by a reliable source, but cannot be substantiated since I have not spoken to the captain or mate, or any recovery or Bertram reps, yet. Regardless of the make of yacht, this is an interesting situation to follow and see how it works out. And there are a number of lessons but first and foremost is to be ready for the unexpected.

Hopefully more to come.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

It's only par for the course for the mfg to state "nope, sorry, you hit something" when the skipper is saying the boat basically folded into itself and sunk within minutes. Quite interesting, but not surprising that the manufacture claims they have images of the buoy however are not releasing them. I'm sure if they do in fact have them, they'll come to light at some point, and of course after armies of legal council has poured over them.

I have a hard time thinking they can't find the boat, if in fact the mfg knows which buoy they hit. Understandably there is a room for currents and such to do a little movement and shuffling of the wreckage, but it's not going to pull it so far out of reach from side sonar after a few X/Y passes.

At the end of the day, you have a skipper and a crew who got off a sinking boat and are alive and kicking. Let the attorneys [rats] and insurance companies argue it until the cows come home.

Will be interesting to see how the grand finale plays out.

PB,
You're right about crew being alive and kicking. Too often we lose sight of the important things.
But I was told that just about everyone has lawyered up, including captain, owner, MarineMax, etc. So even if found and recovered, this one has the good possibility of lanquishing for a while. Will be interesting for us that do deliveries how much liability the captain is straddled with.

I'd have to guess that the captain is about done, at least until such time as the boat is raised (and hopefully for his sake it is- soon). His connection to that marina goes back a generation and I doubt they now can touch him until that question is answered. There goes his income at a time when he has legal expenses added to his budget. This is a captain's nightmare.

Word I've always gotten from the factory mechanics was that 80% is the recommended and most efficient setting. Lately they've been saying 90%. At 65% load most boats aren't even on plane.

Maybe a whale?

If I had a dime for every time an owner misjudged his distance or angle to a buoy or a bridge or how many helmsmen have lost concentration on a relaxed run. I believe there are several unlit yellow buoys in that area along with a few reds. Guess it will all come down to paint transfer. They need to find that boat.