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I am a huge advocate of core construction, and I about became sick to my stomach looking at those photos. Core can do so many things for boat construction, in this case it clearly destroyed it. Every few years I build a custom boat ,the largest to date is a 40 footer, all are fully cored and not vacuum bag. I mention this as a way of saying that I know a little bit about the subject, and even from thousands of miles away I can clearly see workmanship issues. Although the outside skin appears thin ,without knowing more about the structure ( the skin is in proportion to the unsupported square, not the size of the vessel) I can't blame the failure on that. I would guess that the failure is a result of extensive" oil canning" in areas of the hall compromised by "never bond" { oil canning refers to a panel that flexes excessively, never bond refers to places where the core was never in contact with the outside skin.} As I said at the beginning, the mere sight of this is sickening, the manufacture needs to step up now. I can't imagine the owner of that vessel ever having confidence in that vessel again.
OK here is the scoop as I know here in Stuart. I talked to someone in the know. Apprently the crew heard a large bang! They thought they hit something then when forward to inspect and oh $hit!
Bertram said they would take care of it and the owner will have nothing of it he wants his money back. Then Bertram calls the yard and tells them to cover up the delamination. Then owner tells Bertram to FO and leave it uncovered for the world to see......Back to you Shep in the studios
__________________ "God is not our side because he hates idiots" TGB and U
"There are 2 kinds of people in this world those with guns and those who dig..........you dig"
I find the last two photos in the post # 2391071 to be the most telling. You can see the core with no skin attached and no evidence of damage to the core ( when a properly constructed cored panel fails, the failure will be within the core). In the second to the last photo there appears to be at least 6 square feet of never bond ( surely more that we can't see) and in the last photo we can see where the bottom laminate came up 4-6 inches above the chine with the thinner topside laminate carrying on up. This formed a heavy let off ( change of thickness) that was bridged by the foam core without enough core bonding putty to fill the relief . These are simple QC issues to find during construction. Simply stated, this is what gives cored construction a bad name!
Ever since the Italians got a hold of Bertram, it's been going down the drain.
Those pictures are just unbelievable. The only sportfish production boats I trust nowadays are Cabo and Viking. End of story. Hatteras and Bertram are wayyyyy behind the pack.
This takes us back to Finnseeker and what he went thru with his Rampage falling apart and the need to do thermal imaging on these supposedly superior boats.
Wow! I have seen some delam in the past but thats wild. That email speaks volumes. If it were me I would'nt want another Bertram either, though the odds he would get another bad one would be slim. Still...I would go to a Viking.
Well let's not cast stones yet... we haven't heard from an owner, a rep, a surveyor or anyone to refute/rebut/confirm this case first hand... no offense Afishionado, not as I don't trust you, just giving due diligence here...
Can we all put feelers out on the other sites to see what has happened here...
Lets get the word out and see who comes up with some info on the situation.
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Lets have a Sexy Party! 38 Henriques FB 2000 ~ 17 Montauk 1978
i was wondering why the boat was left in practical full view and not stuffed away under tarp or covered up, then i read r.waddill's comment that this was a replacement for the problematic 57'er. Unless Bertram said we'll give you the boat for free, i'd left it out in the open too as i'd be pissed.
Re: Ugly 
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