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Bertram factory now a movie studio.

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by SHAZAM, Jun 20, 2011.

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  1. SHAZAM

    SHAZAM Senior Member

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    Sad but true. Most (a little more than 3/4) of the factory has been turned into a movie studio. I'm told the first project is a TV series called "Magic City".
  2. PropBet

    PropBet Senior Member

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    I think I still have the listing agents prospectus package on it along with my field trip images. We looked at the property when it came on the market. It was kind of eerie walking around with a haunting of nautical history still floating around. It was a great location for a lot of different things but a film studio, I would have never guessed.
  3. vlafrank

    vlafrank Senior Member

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    So, does anyone have any idea.....

    what's going to happen if/when the market turns around and yacht building begins again? Hattaras going to start building in China? South America? This is truly a heartbreaker.
  4. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Ummmm, Hatteras is alive and well in New Bern, NC. They now share the plant with Cabo, but are only at a combined operating capacity of 70%, so they have room for production when things get moving again. They do still have their other mothballed facility in NC as well, just in case.

    What does Hatteras have to do with Bertram?
  5. Capt Buddy

    Capt Buddy Member

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    bertram has/had a plan to move to NE Florida or NC
  6. vlafrank

    vlafrank Senior Member

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    Ooops! It was late, I was groggy, and I got confused. Mea culpa. So does this mean Bertram has ceased production, or what? See? I'm still confused.
  7. Loren Schweizer

    Loren Schweizer YF Associate Writer

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    As the Factory is sort of on the way to the Triumph shop, I rode past today and was amazed by how full the parking areas were (with, yes, movie people), yet the outside areas where boats are normally shuffled around is akin to a ghost town. No activity in the marina, bay doors closed up tight...no aromas of styrene! Their international sales guy just left.

    From all indications, production over the past year amounted to a dozen +/- boats completed: the 80, a few 63s, some 50-foot class product; that likely won't pay the light bill.
    Sad.
  8. CaptEvan

    CaptEvan Senior Member

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    Loren, honestly, you should be elated and quite thankful for the missing smell, now that our trusted government has listed styrene as "reasonably anticipated" to be a carcinogen.
    How do you anticipate a form of cancer, just by pre-naming it stryrenoma?
  9. ArcanisX

    ArcanisX Senior Member

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    So how is Bertram doing "officially speaking"? Any relevant announcements or something?
  10. SHAZAM

    SHAZAM Senior Member

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    What's sad is that all the boat building tools, molds, etc have been haphazardly pushed outside. The molds for the 360, 410, 450 & 511 are all sitting outside under a tree. It looks like someone has recently started to shrink wrap them. Considering their location, it's safe to say they're no longer in production. While Bertram is gravitating towards larger boats, I really think considering the economic downturn, they should have gone the other way and started mass producing smaller boats in the 20 to 35' range while still building their half a dozen or so "big" boats. Remember Bertram center consoles?

    It's a shame that they couldn't keep a piece of Miami's history in Miami. Really a sorry state of affairs.

    Attached Files:

  11. Loren Schweizer

    Loren Schweizer YF Associate Writer

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    Ah, the old 20 Sportsman as it was known....
    Back during the 1981/1982 recessions, Bertram did exactly what you suggested--reintroduced the 26 (until then, the 28 was the least expensive model) with twin 185 inboards as well as twin 150 outboards to get buyers into the fold. And, boats were sold!
    Problem was, as one of the accountants explained, nothing less than a 36-footer ( or thereabouts) would allow for a profit.

    The brand has great value and will somehow prevail, if not in it's current iteration, then in some form that harkens back to the glory days. Just like my Triumph Bonneville.
  12. morbert

    morbert New Member

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    The movie people are building a scale pool and cabanas that replicate The old Fontainbleau Hotel for a cable series about the "Rat Pack" days of Miami Beach.

    Bertram has consolidated into a couple of buildings and is hard at work on a 64 to debut at the coming FLIBS.

    Nice 20 Bertram pic!
  13. outlawten5

    outlawten5 New Member

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    remember Bertram race boats of the early 70's? I'll try and dig up a pic
  14. Liam

    Liam Senior Member

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    360, and 450 have been stopped in production.
    While 410 now available with a lower helm front windhsield, and 511 which is also a newer model should still be in production. This always according to the Bertram website.
  15. SHAZAM

    SHAZAM Senior Member

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    Went by there today, it's amazing that the space where I watched all sorts prototypes and boats being built now looks like the interior of a hotel!
  16. meblom

    meblom New Member

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    Unfortunately, one of the results of the industry catastrophe of the early 90s was that the US went from a net exporter of mid-size and larger pleasure boats, to a net importer. This trend has, unfortunately, never been reversed.
  17. Marmot

    Marmot Senior Member

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    Maybe because during that period a "mid-size and larger" boat got bigger by such a large degree that the American boat building industry could not even begin to compete with European yards who had generations of experience building small displacement inland and coastal trading vessels. We built speedy little fun boats for a middle class market that simply doesn't exist anymore.

    Asian factories can assemble an acceptable production boat for the few remaining buyers at a price we can't match. Their market is price driven and if their product is imported with a Scandinavian or European sounding name, first time owners will buy them - once.
  18. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Maybe they are filming an informational movie on how to layup fiberglass and cored hulls so that they are light!
  19. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    I wonder if the number of foreign built foreign flagged boat didn't jump up around that time... Thank you luxury tax... A mistake that some in DC are trying to repeat.