bertram31.com

A friend of mine is interested in a 31 Bert up in Northport. He called me to ask if I knew the boat. I told him I would see if anyone is familiar with it.

The boat is named Chloe located and is up on the hard at Long Island Marine up in Northport. He ran over there today to look at it. They are asking in the 90's and is supposed to have only 90 hours on a pair of Yanmars.

From the pictures she looks pretty good. In fact he said the pictures did not do it justice.

So if anyone knows anything about her I would appreciate your input.

I ve seen the boat ... absolutely gorgeous. Spoke to a surveyor friend recently that also saw it (not sure if he surveyed), but he too thought it was absolutely gorgeous. Looks like it was done with open checkbook.

A boat of that name was in Huntington a few yrs ago. It received 315hp Yanmars at the boat yard on Maple Av in Bay Shore. Fred Geis was given the opportunity of a life time in that he got the take outs. Fred runs the "KAR-FRE" out of Morriches.The Chloe was owned by Billy Joel although he denied it. My bro-in-law does a lot of work on Joel's estate in Oyster Bay and he swears Billy never owned a Bertram. Well, he didn't. A boat corporation did and he owned the company.
The Chloe has a pedigree .... The Piano Man

Thanks

I will pass the information on to my friend. He could not get on the boat when he stopped to look at it. He has been chasing the idea of owning a 31 Bert for a few year now. Everytime he gets a buyer for his boat, he goes and buys something differnt. Go figure, but this time I think he might take the leap.

Billy has never owned a Bertram. As a true and very knowledgeable boat lover, he realizes the 31 is a near perfect boat, but he has never owned one, nor has any corp. he was involved in. Sorry.

I know Billy's captain and as a result have met Billy on several occassions .... I don't think he had a 31 either. But I will say that Chloe was redone with that kind of checkbook. It was not really done as a "fish-boat" ... more like a picnic kind of boat.

Bertramp wrote:I know Billy's captain and as a result have met Billy on several occassions .... I don't think he had a 31 either. But I will say that Chloe was redone with that kind of checkbook. It was not really done as a "fish-boat" ... more like a picnic kind of boat.

do you mean brian?

Gene

ditto

One of the best captain's jobs out there....all in all Billy is a great guy and knows boats like few do.....He's not just another rich, you know what, with unlimited $$...He really has a passion for boats

Take it for what its' worth. Fred Geis gave the check to Joel's captain/manger. And the guy kept throwing things in besides the engines and shafts. He got a great deal.

And another thing. Joel bought the boat in Fla from on of our brothers. Can't remember the own but I bettcha' UV knows.

Joel was building boats out east on Long Island at the time. Would he say"I just purchased the best boat EVER?"

carens cousin has a billy boat....very very nice. ive spoken to him a few times also. very nice guy in person and christy has one of my pieces.

brian who we've known since he was a little kid works for him and captains some of the boats.....he has a bunch.

One of the way-back-when Faithful, Sonny Morrel, a retired Delta pilot who is dead now, sold his B31 - forget the name, but it was yeallow - to Joel. Sonny attended at least one UVI. Think his engines were near new Cummins that Joel took out, sold to Fred, and replaced with the Yanmars....Sonny told us in great detail about Joel coming down to southwest Florida to sea trial the boat and Sonny was on board, so I'm assuming it all was true. Saw a pix recently of Sonny on the dock at Port Eads holding a wahoo....he liked wine as I recall....funny guy. His wife, who was an airline stew, called me when he died and I put something up on this board about it.

UV

i remember sonny saying he came in on a private helicopter also

my first meeting with billy was outside a bar in 1970. he was playing the piano. about ten years ago he was having dinner with his daughter at a sushi restaurant. he was driving a citroen 2CV . i parked the austin healey next to it. after dinner i stopped at his table and asked if he bought it like that or had it restored. he said it was the last one ever made and we jawed about cars for about 10 minutes. very unpretentious straight up guy. i saw the car today.

I've met Billy many times ... superstar, yes .... but when you meet him on the docks, he's a regular guy and a very knowledgeable boater. I spoke with him one morning when we were having some coffee while checking our boats in a pretty heavy breeze (his boats are a stones throw ...litterally from mine). We chatted for about 45 minutes. Billy is a total gentleman and seems to only get "skittish" when folks don't treat him like a normal guy. And he is a TOTAL boat nut !!

Wow, quite a discussion here. This group continues to amaze me. Is there any important or famous person, someone on this board does not know or somehow have a connection too?

(his boats are a stones throw ...litterally from mine).

well i guess i know where your boat is then. we had some friends from australia visit this summer and went to dinner at dockside. um...you see that black and orange boat across the street..................

Yeah! I see it. A friend of mine knew a neighbor who said his uncle saw that boat at Block Island a few yrs ago. It was a different color then be he can't remember what.
Say, waiter, another round of drinks for everybody.

Randall ... my boat is same place now that it was years ago when we first met. It looks different without the not needed tower and now just has a hard top.

right.....i knew it was across from dockside but couldnt remember which part of the marina it was slipped in......i know exactly where billy's boat is...go figure.

Guys great discussion. Thanks for all of the information, but my friend called me today to tell me someone beat him to Chloe, it now has a new owner.

Evidently was not on the market long, so it looks like the right price to sell a redone 31 right now is somewhere in the low to mid 90's.

Based upon the sale, I guess my surveyor friend was working when he saw CHLOE

CHLOE moved to her new home in Southold this morning and is being wrapped for winter as we write - beautiful boat.

Surveyor friend was from Mattituck .... hhmmm . I wonder who picked it up .... summer will tell !

Does not look like who ever has her is on this board or we would have heard.

We should be hearing from the new owner shortly...

Welcome Aboard to Tom Hart!

hello ,im the new owner of Chole,Tommy Hart,to answer what i know about the boat prior to its 2003/2004 refurb .its was bought by a huntington ny businessman from Merritt yacht sales in may 02 and brought to long island.the owner of record prior was Melissa Morrill ,i assume the delta pilots wife ,that you mention .It was named YELLOW BIRD.I dont see any association with billy joel from info that i have.We took a sea test before the blizzard and got her to her new home on eastern long island.shes in exceptional shape with a top to bottom makeover,112 hrs on yanmar 315s.i feel fortunate to find such a beautiful boat and look forward to meeting some of you on the water,I think greenport would be a great location to have your yearly get together.thanks for the interest. if anyone has any more history of this boat of photos ,it would be appreciated ,thanks tom

Enjoy her she is really beautiful.

The Huntington NY businessman was a beard. That was Billy Joels boat.

where is she going to be slipped now?

it will be in the southold area,not sure where yet,although i did not meet the owner,his name and the home he lived in was not joels' He also named the boat after his daughter.tom

Roger what Mike says....Joel held it under another name. Melissa was Sonny's wife and the record owner, not Sonny for reasons that are not relevant. Yellow Bird she was. Welcome aboard, Tom.....you have a treasure there.

UV

thanks

Tom

Welcome to the family. Good luck with her, great looking boat.