bertram31.com

Just returned home last night from Los Suenos Signature Billfish Tourney in Costa Rica. Yesterday morning before I left for the airport, I was eating breakfast at the Hook Up and someone told us a small boat had sunk at the dock. We finished eating, walked down the dock and here was a beautiful Bertram 31' sunk, the name - Straight Up With A Twist. They had fished in the tournament. The marina crew was working to raise it before I had to leave to catch my flight. Didn't have my camera. Ugly!!

Good, glad you didn't have a camera.

I hate that gut wrenching feeling of seeing a boat underwater...even a bubble boat underneath makes me quezzy...not sure how a 31 would make me feel.

Condolences to the owners...

As a 31 owner, it was sickening!

Greg (Thumbs Up) has friends down there. Maybe he will hear what happened and fill us in.

Tony,

I'll try to find out. I believe that boat was just painted this season by Ben. Beautiful boat if it is the same one.

Sounds like it was a problem with the livewell system. She's high and dry now.

Scary!

Thanks Greg.

That is scary. By the way are you doing the AC Show? Thought I would make it down but have family things that look like I will have to pass unless I can sneak down sunday.

I was going to but I have to much going on. Maybe next year.

It would be nice to know what happened so that we can all avoid a similar fate!

I talked to my buddy last night who had just returned from Costa Rica (he keeps his little Merritt at Los Suenos) and he said it was a Dripless Shaft Seal.

he said it was a Dripless Shaft Seal

I'd almost put big money on it being the Strong brand seal... I know personally of two near catastrophic failures thanks to Strong and heard of several others.

capt. we have had one here on a beautiful topaz. i wonder if those guys at strong sleep at night.

CaptPatrick wrote: I'd almost put big money on it being the Strong brand seal... I know personally of two near catastrophic failures thanks to Strong and heard of several others.

What goes on them that allows so much water thru? I'm thinking the Bellow give out or let go?

Even if the seal just fell out... only a few gallons a minute or so should enter boat with normal specked clearances of gland. Strong has that standard lip seal right?


I remember hearing about the old Ceramic Dripless from Johnson that would crack...but now with the PYI all I hear about is tightening the bellows every few years...a trouble free product.

Nothing that keeps water from entering your boat should be considered anything but high maintenance.

While my choice for shaft seals is the PYI, I've seen my share of failures from both. Most all were installation errors, the rest were lack of maintenance, some were even crap that had been thrown in the bilge that moved up to the seal.

I've never seen either one where the product just failed on its own. I'm sure it happens but I never saw it on the many hundreds of seals I installed and serviced.

One of the most common issues was clogging of the cooling hose leading to overheating the seal and failure.

Because they are so hands off, people forget to check them.

My PYI Dripless failed in 2010. It cooked from having a clogged coolant hose caused by a piece of zinc. Had to get boat hauled within a few hours of failure because the water was coming in fast. So the boatyard replaced PYI dripless and back in I go the next day. They never checked the coolant hose but I did and found the clogged port off of the trani oil cooler.
Dripless require maintenance and when they fail they more than drip.

I guess I'm old fashioned and have no trust in marketing words like "dripless". My shafts and rudders are packed ones. I know the shafts are supposed to have a small degree of drip and I check the degree every time I enter the boat and after a trip. Guess I have heard too many stories of dripless failures, this one being the worst. Is the water intrusion so severe the bilge pumps couldn't handle it?

The forward pump was doing fine but cycling every 2 min. I was now at dockside and plugged for 4 hrs contemplating the condition and I realized that I wouldn't sleep unless it was hauled out. Of course it was Sunday afternoon so I had to pay up for an emergency haul. The lack of cooled water to the dripless made the seals cook and then the dripless spun resulting in the boot twisting & tearing.
I tried gorilla tape to stop the leak but NG.
My 80 yearold father said he would never convert from bronze and packing flax to dripless. I guess older and wiser...

Wursty wrote:The forward pump was doing fine but cycling every 2 min. I was now at dockside and plugged for 4 hrs contemplating the condition and I realized that I wouldn't sleep unless it was hauled out. Of course it was Sunday afternoon so I had to pay up for an emergency haul. The lack of cooled water to the dripless made the seals cook and then the dripless spun resulting in the boot twisting & tearing.
I tried gorilla tape to stop the leak but NG.
My 80 yearold father said he would never convert from bronze and packing flax to dripless. I guess older and wiser...

We sell PYI, recommend the PYI to all that want Dripless, have helped a few Buddies with the Dripless install...but on my boat, I have the standard Ol'packing gland with good old fashioned Flax Packing that needs to be checked and tweaked from time time to time. I may someday go with that new seal material...but for me...I don't mind a little bilge water from a few drops of shaft packing. I kind of like simple...less to check and go wrong.

Still think the PYI is a darn good system...it's the only ones we recommend.

At the advice of the Cummins dealer, when I repowered I put the good old bronze packing gland back in. As he said keep it simple, have you had a problem in the 35 years you owned the boat he asked. I said no, he said so keep the bronze.

If it ain't broke . . .
or as Uncle Vic would say, "the enemy of good is better."

Mikey wrote:If it ain't broke . . .
or as Uncle Vic would say, "the enemy of good is better."

True...but then you have people like my Brother from Another Mother that will vacuum every drop of water out of the bilge before and after he uses the boat. Just watching all that work makes me tired...