Bertram delamination issue

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rduhon

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Got this from an interview with the Bertram CEO:

Question: A particular Bertram suffered a lamination failure about a year ago that received a lot of press. Although Bertram successfully resolved the issue with the owner and his captain, the company chose not to discuss it publicly. What do you tell customers today about quality control?

Answer: That boat was corrected. It's kind of a non-issue once the boat is fixed. The photographs look like hell and make the problem look much worse than it was. Customers that know of this type of problem that has occurred with this boat or with our competitors boats ask what quality control measures we take to assure this will not happen again. Any responsible builder would review the procedures in place to insure they were being followed and the appropriate quality control inspections were being made to prevent a reoccurrence. Our procedures are reviewed and appropriate inspections are made during the building process and after the boat is completed. The owner of this boat has purchased a larger Bertram.
 
I wonder what he'd say about the one that came apart and sank in seconds on an offshore delivery a few months ago?
 
Keep in mind that some highly regarded boats have passed through several changes of ownership in which the brand was maintained but the quality changed from time to time as the manufacuring process was modified. I suspect that it would be hard to be specific and accurate without a great amount of identifying information.
All to say that such a comment doesn't hold much worth to me.
 
The boat that sank off Charleston and the boat that delaminated off Palm Beach were made under the same (present) ownership and were of similar vintage. Has it really been determined yet to what extent manufacturing flaws contributed to the sinking?
 
The owner of the delammed bert got upgraded to the 70' and is also having "issues" with it. I believe its his 3rd bad bert.
 
Sounds a lot like how Toyota has been handling things, you don't do anything other than on a case by case bases as those come into the dealerships so you don't have to have a recall or tarnish your image for reliability.
However in case's such as this one the failure to admit to that they have a problem that is bigger than just one boat could have tragic results for the poor unsuspecting souls who have a catastrophic failure at sea.
Bertram should have a recall and check all suspect boats for delamination potential produced during the suspect period of time or I think they could be found liable for any loss of life resulting from one of their defective boats.
 
Bertram used to have a reputation for good construction and seaworthiness.
NO MORE.
I'm afraid no amount of public relations is going to erase last year's sinking.
"The photographs look like hell and make the problem look much worse than it was" WTF !!!
How worse can it be? IT SANK ON DELIVERY!!!!
 
different boat.. the Bert that sunk on delivery sunk in november off SC, afaik that accident is not settled and lawsuits are flying all over the place...

the delamination issue the interview refers to is about the Bert. which delaminated in Palm Beach but made it back with large panel of fiberglass flapping all over the boat...
 
His "Statement" sounds like B.P.'s B.S. !! Where are the facts of the delamination?
 
His "Statement" sounds like B.P.'s B.S. !! Where are the facts of the delamination?
 
quote:
Keep in mind that some highly regarded boats have passed through several changes of ownership in which the brand was maintained but the quality changed from time to time as the manufacuring process was modified.
Click to expand...


I wish Bill’s comment could be engraved on the minds of all boaters. There are few if any brands that have had the same management, process or methods over time.
Investors acquire a popular brand name to exploit peoples ignorance on the subject of a brands history and in the hope that selling will be easier and to charge a higher price that cometition. Brands with a poor reputation eventually get dropped while brands with a good reputation are stamped on new stuff from new owners. In the boat buying world “buyer beware” is very important. If you buy a 2005 Viking. Hatteras, Bertram, Carver, Bayliner Maxim etc making any association with the performance of 1995 models with the same brand is folly. Researching the performance of the exact year and model of the boat you are considering provides the only valid data for comparison.
 
absolutely and even without any change in ownership, quality often go up and down from one year to the next, and more importantly with model/size. Bayliner is probably the best example of that, with the older larger boat (40+) being totally different from the smaller ones.

In Bertram's case, it's clear that the boats built after the company was restarted and purchased by Ferreti have little in common with the older battlewagon.

the problem for Bertram is that there were at least TWO well documented incident in the past 12 to 15 months of two 63 delaminating. the first one made it back home to Palm Beach with large section of outer skin flapping in the waves, the second one sank almost instantly. In both instances, pictures and/or video made it out in the open before Ferreti/bertram could do anything. who knows if there were others that FB managed to keep quite by upgrading the owner to a larger boat at no cost?

the CEO statement clearly refers to the first one (Palm Beach), not the one that sunk 20NM off Myrtle Beach. Last i heard, that case is still increasing the wealth of a few attorneys... Bertram tried to blame the captain by claiming he hit a buoy...
 
You have to hit a pretty big bouy very fast to sink a well built sport fisher. IMO.
 
Yeah. And the buoy in question wasn't big and it was made of plastic as I recall.
 
yeah it was one of those yellow buoys marking a reserve or something... mostly plastic. Bertram went as far as pulling paint samples from the buoy to "prove" the boat hit it but it's not like it was a big steel ATON, a large sportfish should have survived the impact and not disentegrated
 
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