great story, i happen to own (28 bertram baron) one also.best of luck in your restoration. the scooter

She is realy home now !!!!
 

Bill & I today sold the Bertram Baron to Chip Miller who's father owned & raced this classic some 37 years ago. As much as Bill & I wanted to restore this Baron we knew it should go back to the Miller family who brought it to Lake St Clair originally back in the early 70's. One look at Chip standing at helm of his late fathers race Bertram we knew Bill & I made the right choice. Chip who has put together some awesome Flight Club skaters will restore this classic back to the way she raced back in the day. This has to be the best offshore I have ever laid hands on, but some times you have to do the right thing, Chip I cant wait to see the progress. :ernaehrung004:

Thank you so much Mark for everything you and Bill did for us and the ol Super Moth! My whole family is so excited!!!
Time to wipe off the tears and start into the restoration..Cant wait to take you for a ride when she's done!

Chip

Bill and Mark are two of Lake St Clair's finest.

The old Bertram has made it home!

Chip, promise you won't paint it up like a tennis shoe, put fluorescent guages in it or a Cigarette sticker on the side.

Jeff

No way man!!! lol she's being restored to like it was in 1976 when Dad raced in modified with it

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Awesome :D :D

Congratulations Chip! Thumbs up to h2o for turning it over after all they did to locate it and bring it home. Hope to see plenty of resto pics to help cure the winter blues.

This story really restores my faith in man........no exploitation, no angles, just 2 guys understanding of what the right thing
to do is and when to do it........................this will be a very meaningful restoration for Chip......can't wait to watch it unfold.

28 baron
 

Mark,

What a GREAT job bringing such a special piece of local history home.

Congrats Chip, Can't wait to see it.

Chris

How cool is that! Congratulations Chip, look forward to seeing the resto unfold. And Kudos to Mr. Bill and Mark for allowing him the opportunity.

Hats off to Bill and Mark, class act.

----I really was just one tooth on the gear of this great story. Mark can be very tenacious when he goes after a boat with a pedigree, especially one as historic as "Super Moth"!!! It was a real pleasure to help the whole process along from beginning to end, but Mark is the one who made it happen. I just greased the skids a bit. Chip is a good guy with 110 octane in his blood, and he will do this old Baron proud. I cant wait to view the end result, and then we have to take it back up the St.Clair river where it raced and duplicate that same picture in front of "Charlies Crab". Theres got to be a party wrapped around that somewhere. Im in!!!!!!!!!.........Bill S

Here are a few pic's from yesterday @ Chips shop, the Baron looks better already...:ernaehrung004:

Here is the pic from Google maps that made this all happen. The Baron is the third boat from the bottom. I found this other pic from a old OSO post that showed a Merc & Kendal Oil sign. When I showed these pic's to Bill last year as all we had to go on he thought I was nuts :crazy: but he was all in to start the search.

What a Happy Thanksgiving this made for Chip and family
Mark - Bill,,, Great job in finding the Baron and then bring the Gift home to Chip and his Family
A wonderful Hallmark story.

Best regards
jim

H2O how did you figure out which marina it was just from Google maps with all the marinas in the area? Especially since the Google maps are not updated very often!

Great detective work!!

Good job on all sides.
I know how he feels. From another Mark. I guess it goes with the name. lol

Under statement of the year for you :) Trying to fix stuff that isn't even made anymore ain't easy. If you didn't give up on the last one you'll never give up... :) Good Job

I used Google & Bing maps. Once I found what I thought might be the boat Google street view gets you right there, it saved a lot of driving time. I did get lucky finding this Bertram as you said the maps are old but without the use of a U-2 :party-smiley-004: that's all I had to go with. Now if I could only get so lucky with some winning lotto numbers. :D

Wow! Thanks, guys!

Your enthusiasm had made this an even greater event. We're so glad Super Moth is home. Can't thank Mark and Bill enough for doing all the dirty work and letting us have this opportunity. I hope I can live up to everyones expectations for her.

How is this a little brother to the 28' Baron.....

http://miami.craigslist.org/brw/bod/4226454588.html

Mark, Very nice I like it.
Rare and low production numbers.

Chris

Wow mark you told me some time ago about this boat but I had not seen a pic of it now that I have I LOVE IT.
I love your mag but this is one you won't be able to top......can't wait to see it...

Hi Dave hope your feeling better. Chip the right guy to restore this one as it deserves a over the top restoration that I know Chip will do.

Chip I found some pic's I had of the Bertram Baron when it first came to Lake St Clair, it was called then 7-11 Hell Of A TIME. It's also in the pic behind the first WOLVERINE race boat.

Mark, when are you going to open a library? Need a place to hang during these long winters. No one has a better collection of photos. Heck, now that Belle Isle has been repoed from Detroit, you could reopen the boat club with a restaurant and library. Plenty of room to have a boat restoration barn...

Belle Isle is a cool place but the down side is you just have to make it through the Detroit war zone to get there. Jeff & I have been talking about putting are offshore collections together then ????????? I glade he is almost 30 years younger then me, as he may get it done. :lolhit:

WOW Super Cool!!!

Hello Mark ,

I also have a bunch of old 35 mm slides from the 70s racing times , I need to get a scanner and start scanning them
once scanned , I would be happy to donate them to the Library
I also have a complete set of Bekin's off shore calendars from the 70s and 80s
still in the original Bekins boxes.

thank you
Jim

Very cool Jim the time is now to save them. , I have been converting my VHS tapes to disk before they deteriorate also.

ill donate the steel for the offshore repository, with all the stuff that mark has thell need to be a wing added onto the estate, the wood in the atic will crack under the load. This will be like the dossin musiem in detroit, well need some interactive displays a snack bar, some meeting rooms for catered affairs, and a board of govners

Since the renters have fled, ideas have been swirling around in the Ghouls head.

well that means hes looking for the camo hat the red glasses the baggy rental pants with the belt thats too long and the beard is fillin in ans BAM the GHOUL is back in da house. gotta be careful the pluming is fragile in the rental house last time me and the mentor tried to snake it out the snake is still in the pipe

Snakes in the sewer pipe would make a better movie than snakes in the plane, :eek: just need to see if Samuel L. Jackson is available for the remake. :party-smiley-004:

In the scale of things (back then) what were the production numbers of the bertram 28' compared to the 27' mag sport?
Were the lamination schedules any different?.....................and what year is the "Moth"?

Pete the Super Moth is titled as a 1973, but there are no transom ID numbers. My thought is it may be a 1971 or 72 hull not sold till 1973. I think back then manufactures could get away with that, I know Mr Klem did. I had a 1973 Cheetah 24' offshore I bought from him & it was titled as a 1974. Production numbers for the Bertram Barons are vague at best but I heard less than 50 boats were built. I believe Magnums out sold them many times over. Mark

I was told Bertram built about 10 28 foot Barons and the years 1969 thur 1973 but I've been wrong before lol
Im planning on calling Bertram and seeing what kind of info i can get out of them about my Dads ol Moth

Chip

I am sure more than 10 were built - there were at least 5 at Stone Harbor Marina in south Jersey back in the day - also a few in New York - plus any in the midwest - I heard that over 40 were built specially for the Israel Navy , fitted with a Machine gun near the bow - they were Slime green in color - I was at the factory once when they were being built !

Sammy James would have the numbers - if some one knows how to contact him - thats where the knowledge it !

Phil

Thanks Phil !

I called the Bertram Factory yesterday and talked to a young guy named Kyle who seemed anxious to help..going to email him tomorrow with my hull id and he's checking in to the history of the ol Barons for me