The closest buoy I found lists a max wave height throughout the day of Nov, 6 at around 1.7 meters. If my memory is correct the thread at yachtforums also indicates the captain of the boat claims he was traveling at 26 knots.

I used to work for a well known custom sportfishing builder in the Outerbanks years ago.This was back in 95 when we were building hulls fully framed out of 2 by 8 juniper frames on 12 inch centers with 1 inch juniper planking and covered by 1/4 inch 5 layer ply in and out with a layer of 18/o8 on the outer and the inner also.All built with epoxy

These 60 foot hulls weighed in at 50,000 and were running circles aroung the Production guys.Now the production guys are trying to duplicate the speeds with their hitech layups and they aint gettin it right.A lot of the strenght and speed of the hull is built into the shape of the Carolina boats.Deep sharp entrys and heavily flared bows with an almost flat transom area.

The builder i worked with built boats in the winter and ran the chit out of them in the summer at tournaments.They didn't know what a blueprint was but built a hell lof a strong and fast boat by eye.

He told me a story one time that he was running side by side downwind in some big waves at a good clip with a big Hatteras, he was in one of his boats.Next thing they know they look to their side and the boat disappeared. They had stuffed it and peeled the deck off and it drove straight to the bottom, Fortanately the captain and crew were on the bridge and floated off it as it vanished.

It appears that this happened with the with the Bert but if the damage was that bad it seems it would have gone down before a mayday was called. No timeline how long it toook to sink so far.

http://www.paulmanncustomboats.com/

Nice stuff! That 81 is a sweet piece. I can sit an look at build pics for hours :cool:

Quite amazing they are all built by eye huh.Paul showed me a video one time of him jumping 10 foot swells in a 54 he built like he was running around in a 18 foot Donzi.

Hey Dave I have a old Woodenboat that has the full story about the Carolina builders in it from years ago. I think i can buy the PDF online at Woodenboat. I will see if i can send it over i think you would appreciate the story.

Just a could of quick points... Allegedly the seas were 4-6' where the boat sunk on the day in question, and the captain did SAY he was going approximately 24 knots, but there is speculation that he was going much faster. The owner wanted the boat delievered in a hurry, and the captain was trying to meet a dead-line. I know if I was in a hurry, behind schedule, and a disgruntled boat owner breathing down my neck, I would probably not drive a boat that can go 43 knots at a speed of 24...

This is absolutely correct.

Foam Core is Really light, but not as strong as balsa.

Balsa is technically "wood" (although end grain balsa has vastly different soak properties) but if vac bagged/infused will display none of the weaknesses or downsides of "wood".

As has been said before, without vacuum bagging or resin infusion its VERY hard to get the core material to bond properly and you get what you see here.

I looked at the bertram site and they dont specify what layup style they are using, but this looks like they are having a bonding problem.


Dave Sampson

definitely man that would be great. Thanks

I'm with tommymonza's opinion on this..

There was an article in professional boatbuilder about the Carolina Boat Builders.

Turkish boatbuilder Vicem builds in the wood epoxy style, as written about in professional boatbuilder. This link has the text from the article. Unfortunately, the build photos are not included.

http://www.marina42.net/cgi-bin/p/m4...yachts&id=1389