Chesapeake Rendezvous??

[JohnD]

The time is now, there are many contributors and lurkers from the Chesapeake. Let's pick a weekend and a place to meet.

I don't and will not take away from the Atlantic City Rendezvous (I'm planning to attend)

I have thought it would be nice to raft up, or make a marina destination for a Chesapeake Bay Rendezvous of all bertrams.

Let me know what you think and where??

A free raft-up at Farlee, dobin or WhiteHall Bay would work. If we want a Marina or destination I'd be happy to work on it.

What do you think??

[John F.]

John-

Mikey was going to work on something at the Tides in Irvington. It'd be nice to get some of the lower Bay boats involved. Mikey?

The Hyatt in Cambridge is pretty nice for a night or two, or inner-Harbor/Canton can be pretty good. Time it so we can all see the Orioles (lose).

John F.

[Charlie]

Let me know if I can help with anything.

[Mack]

I would be glad to offer up our community marina on Lake Ogleton. It would be a raft up in the lake, however we could use the shoreside (clubhouse) facility as well for a cookout and kegs, etc. We actually have similar boat rendevous throughout the summer (Alberg 30 blowboaters among others).

Say the word and I will get some available dates from the marina manager.

[Mikey]

Talk about great minds in the same gutter and all. This has been on my tiny little mind of late. Love to do this at the Tides Inn on Carters Creek, off the Rappahannock River. It is a fabulous central-Bay location with several of us including Rawleigh Simmons, Chris Paige, and yours truly very close. The Inn has done Bertram rendezvous' in the distant past and I have had one very preliminary conversation with the manager. Across the creek from the Inn (part of their property) is the old Tides Lodge with many slips in a row. Power, water, bath houses, restaurant. Very conducive to a good time. They host several rendezvous here every year and know how to put on a good show. Charlie, indeed, we will need your expertise to pull this off. Not sure we can do it this year, but with the permission of the "group" I will pursue it with the Inn. As Charlie will probably tell us this is one hell of a lot of work to make it as successful as his. Lots of hands-on. I will need the group to commit to making it a huge event and enticing enough to draw Capt. Pat, Uncle Vic and Richard Kidd out of their respective holes to come and be a part. There are a lot of others who are an integral part of our camaraderie that participate on an irregular basis that I also hope would be here. Even Thudddddd! This should be an all-inclusive "Bertram" event sponsored by the stewards of the best boat ever built. Well, I've gotten carried away a bit, but it has, as I said, been on my mind and now is on my lips. Let's get'er done!

[John F.]

Mikey-

That sounds great, but if you can't pull something big off this year, I'm OK with something smaller for this summer. Tides, Hyatt, Solomon's, whatever. I definitely don't have the time to do much more than call up with a reservation, so if you've got to much going on, we could just phone it in and show up. Get an idea of how many boats, make sure they can be accomodated (way boating on the Bay was last year I think marinas will be pretty accomodating), and then have each boat phone in reservations for a slip and dinner.

John

[Rawleigh]

Go Mikey!! Go Mikey!!! Let me know if you need any help.

[JK]

Any ideas on when? I'd like to see if I can make the trip. These potential locations can't be too far from the C&D Canal, can they?

--JK

[Rawleigh]

JK: The Rappahannock is the next river south of the Potomac.

[John F.]

JK-

I'd estimate as follows from the C&D-

Baltimore about 40 nm; Annapolis about 60 nm; Cambridge (Hyatt) 90 nm; Rappahanock (Tides) about 140 nm. The Rappahanock is relatively close to the mouth of the Bay. If Mikey can't get a Tides Rend. for this summer, I'd rather do something closer to mid-Bay than the Rappahanock.

John

[JohnD]

Good Stuff!! I’m glad to see others interested!!

I think we’re getting a good spectrum of options too, from a raft-up to organized and catered.

John F. – Good suggestions, the Hyatt is a little more central, Baltimore is an option and lots of other stuff to do.

Mack – Thanks for offering you’re marina, you’re in the Severn river, right?

Mikey – The Tides is a good idea, and you’re gracious to offer to help in organizing…

JK – I just looked a google map (I’m at work this am) and it eye-ball’s that from the canal, The Tides would be about the same distance as Atlantic City?? John said 140nm’s So, get them solo controls fixed and hammer down…

I’d like to see us bring out as many folks as possible, though don’t want to have to setup a formal club or non-profit for booking and representation.

So, as of now we’ve got about 6 or so boats interested (responded to this thread), lets here from anybody else who could make it and any preferences on location.

Location – The Tides is as far south as I think I’d like to go. The Hyatt sounds interesting and could accommodate those that couldn’t make it by boat but would like to drop by for the day. Mack’s community marina, I like the simplicity of it and is a north-central location. Baltimore or Rock Hall would be good for me, though may be a little too far north for our Va. Brothers. One location I haven’t heard would be Herington Harbor (Chesapeake beach/Solomon’s) area.

Food – Let’s see, Summer on the Chesapeake make me think of 3 things: Crabs, Corn & Beer. I’d also prefer picnic/cook-out over sit-down dinner. We could go catered or do it ourselves??

When – How does late June or Mid-August sound to everyone??

So, Mikey & Mack if you could check on availabilities. I will give the Hyatt a call to see what could be done there.

[scooter28]

i vote for solomons lol its only 10 mins away also the closer the dates are to mid to late summer the better. I'm still in tryin to finish up the repower give me time to work out the kinks. lol

[STeveZ]

Rock Hall is nice since it offers harborside dining, a small town feel and plenty of reasonable dockage and lodging.
Our YC had a weekend cruise to The Sailing Emporium last year that everyone raved about.

Cambridge Hyatt is pretty sweet too. My kids loved the pools. Food and lodging at the resort is pricey though.









Chesapeake Beach / Herrington Harbor is on my to-do list so I might be up for that.
As big as the bay is, it might make sense to organize a North and a South rendezvous.

[gmelvin]

Hello to all. This is my first posting to the site. I joined the forum a couple of months ago while searching info in B31s.

I am posting to this topic cause I just puchased a 76 B31. You may have seen it on ebay last year. It's a ex-Virginia marine police boat the "MV WICOMICO". It's been sitting in dry-dock in Daltaville since Oct 07 and I plan to get it in the water this spring and motor over to Southern Maryland and keep it at our place on Herring Creek.

I want to sign up for the Chesapeake Rondy this summer and vote for Solomons also but since we are near mid-bay I would't mind running north or south either to meet and visit with you guys.

This being my first post I want to let ya"ll know that I appreciate the helpfull ways you guys work together to keep the B31 flame burning and look forward helping when I can. Also if anyone knows anything about the "MV WICOMICO" good or bad please let me know.

Glenn

[matt ciarpella]

Fellas,
Im new here as well. We are out of Millers Island and would love to make it. The later the better though, the Berty may not not be ready till July.
I could catch up with you guys with what I have now but I would " feel like a pair of brown shoes.............."
Matty

[Rumrunner]

When we brought the Rumrunner home from Florida it took 13 hours and 700 gal of fuel to run from Hampton Roads to Cape May. We will c ome but it needs to be near the mouth of the bay or closer to the CD. Have it in November and we will stop on the way to Florida. LOL. We can run the coast to norfolk faster then the bay and canel.

Capt Tom

[Tony Meola]

Matt & Glenn

Welcome to the site. I am sure you will find help with any questions you might have. If you are upgrading your boats and not sure about something. Ask, someone here has probably done it. If not, you will get a wealth of opinions.

Tony

[JK]

I'm still interested. I figure anything less than a 4hr run is good for me. Now I need to round up a crew. As long as it is not in May/early June I should be fine. I'd prefer not to raft up as I am incredibly anal when it comes to this boat!

--JK

[JohnD]

Greetings Matt & Glenn,

Good to have you here. If you can make it by boat, bring it and don't worry the condition. All of these old boats are projects, just in different stages.

I spoke briefly with Mikey and in the next couple of weeks he's going to check out The Tides (which really sounds nice with golf, shopping and food, not to mention there's good fishing down that part of the bay.) I will check on the Hyatt & Herrington South just to compare notes.

So we should have something soon.

br,
JohnD

[joeh]

I am in Annapolis and may have a couple of slips at my house if anyone need them for this or whenever you are in Annapolis. If the schedule permits, I am definately in if it is anywhere remotely close.

Joe

[JK]

Are we looking at a Fri-Sunday thing or Thurs-Sun? All of these possible locations should be fine for me so even leaving Fri am would put me at the facility by noonish. That would leave plenty of time to hang out and relax. Is there a rough boat count yet? My family is a bit young to make the trek with me so I will either bring along a few friends or possibly have the family meet me by car. Too far in the future to predict but I'm excited about running the bay and seeing some new sights.

--JK

[Alex]

I'm middle bay as well -- Yeocomico River -- not too far from Rawleigh, Mikey, and Chris. July is going to be a ball buster at work, but I'd be glad to do any grunt work if my schedule allows.

On second thought, maybe I'll just hook the BlackBerry up to the laptop. If I send a lame email once every couple of hours, they'll think I'm actually working.

Alex

[Mack]

John D-
Sorry it has taken awhile for me to reply to this thread. Considering the economic conidtions out there, I would suggest that we keep it inexpensive and simple in order to draw the widest crowd of owners. The Hyatt and the Tides are great ideas, however maybe when this economy improves! Our community had a "pot luck," BYOB holiday party this year at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters (overlooking the bay and Thomas Point light) and it turned out to be one of the best attended events in years. No glitz, just good people and good food/drink.

I checked with our community clubhouse manager this evening and most weekends this summer are open so far. Renting the clubhouse and grounds costs $150/day. We could get it catered by Red, Hot & Blue or a similar outfit, or grill out ourselves. The adjacent community marina has a few guest slips and several available moorings. I could borrow my neighbor's Carolina Skiff to act as a shuttle for those moored/anchored out. The Ahlberg sailboat guys do it every year here and it seems to work well.

Location- Lake Ogleton ("1L" daymarker) just inside the mouth of the Severn River (south shore) in Annapolis. Might be a little far by boat for the southern guys, but certainly within easy reach for those from C&D down to Solomon's. There are also many fans and owners of classic Bertrams in town that do not particpate on this board who would probably also show up and fit in just fine.

Let me know what you think. I will certainly not be offended if everyone thinks the Tides or Hyatt is a better option.

I have also attended gatherings at Herrington Harbor South (just below Deale) and that may be a very good option as well. They have a beach, pool, and Tiki Bar and the cost would be limited to transient slip fees.

[JohnD]

Greetings All,

Wie're still explorin options.

I feel that it may work out in the following ways.

-- a loose rendezvous at the end of June
-- an organized evnet at the Tides dates and detials to follow (Mikey is working on this)

If nothing else works, we will do at least one or more raftups between Annapolis and Baltimore. And maybe a land based happy-hour??

br,
JohnD

[Mikey]

Here's the skinny.
The Tides Inn can accommodate us in June. They have an event the last weekend so probably one of the two middle weekends is best. We will need to set the date and try to contact all the Bertram owners in the area and get reservations to hold the date.
They have approximately forty slips that will take up to forty footers. Additionally they have about six slips for boats up to sixty feet. The fare is $22 fee for power, water, wifi, cable, phone, etc plus $2.00 a foot. If we get a reasonable number of reservations the dockmaster, Stormy (his real name), will give us a break on that. We'll see.
If we have any dining events at the Inn they will cater. This would be fun for sure but probably expensive. I have not talked to the catering department as they were closed, but will do so if the group wants to do something fancy. The alternative would be to go to Rawleigh's dock or mine and do something ourselves. With this we can do anything including have my next-door neighbor, a first-class chef, prepare an evening event or we can get a bunch of grills and do it ourselves. Also we have several caterers who do B-B-Q's that will knock you out. I have access to four docks within walking distance so we could cruise up to Casa Chaos for an evening's repast and either remain for the night or cruise back to the Inn. The distance is about four miles and a beautiful cocktail cruise.
The Inn has three meals a day so you won't starve. They have transportation to Kilmarnock (the big city) for provisioning. We, the locals(Rawleigh, Chris, your truly) will be able to help out in a pinch with transportation if necessary.
To see the Inn in all of it's glory check this site:
http://www.tidesinn.com/
Located on Carters Creek, 11 statute miles from Windmill Point and the Intracoastal Waterway, the Tides Marina offers a full service 60 slip, transient marina able to accommodate vessels up to 125 feet. After you dock, come ashore to enjoy complimentary amenities.

Marina guest amenities also include a beautiful creekside pool, wireless internet access, tennis, and bicycles to explore the area.Our Marina is also home to PremierSailingSchool, which offers an extensive range of sailing courses for children from age 6 as well as US sailing certificate courses for adults.To rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit, visit The Spa at The Tides Inn. Golfers are encouraged to bring their clubs to play on our complimentary Par-3 Course or to visit the famous Golden Eagle Golf Club.

One of our really cool local attractions is the Steamboat Era Museum which is within walking distance of the Inn:
http://www.steamboateramuseum.org/

Additionally, one of my favorite men's shops is within walking distance:
http://www.jimmyandsook.com/

This is a start. If we agree on the Inn we can get started with details. Let me hear from the Faithful. If we can pull this off with any aplomb possibly we can coax Captain Pat and Uncle Vic to join us. Of course we will need Charlie's expertise and that of any other organizers of rendezvous to make it happen.
This is the launching, Splash!
Talk to me.