Chasing the early light from Florida’s Useppa Island aboard the Bertram 61
BERTRAM CONTINUES ITS RESURGENCE, CAPTURING THE MAGIC AND SINGULAR DRIVE OF ITS HEYDAY WITH THE 61.
You should hear this, I thought to myself, contemplating how I’d elucidate to those not present the sounds that unfurled around the quay where the Bertram 61 sat. It had been pleasantly silent within the confines of my sleeping quarters—the 61’s full-beam master stateroom. But after I made my way on deck, the predawn air seemed to vibrate with life. I sat on the gunwale, bare feet on the dock and took in the melodies of Sanibel Marina.
The barrier island is rich in wild ecology, with the nearby J.N. “Ding” Darling National Refuge—home to 51 types of reptiles and amphibians, 32 mammal species and over 270 species of birds—occupying one-third of Sanibel. (Over half of the island is protected.) Many of its creatures seemed to be awake, jabbering away. Over the low hum of countless insects, tree frogs and other unidentifiable creatures, the grunts of roseate spoonbills intermingled with the high-pitched pizzicato of a pair of circling ospreys. A black-crowned night heron zoomed past, the wary bird flushed by my presence. As the sun rose and this little jewel of a marina came into sharper focus, the guttural, rapid-fire song of the elusive mangrove cuckoo erupted along with the chirps of unseen songbirds and splashes of baitfish breaking the surface.
In search of coffee, I walked down the marina’s neat-as-a-pin main drag lined with royal palms, trunks replete with holiday lights. A Cessna 185 received the same festive treatment, sitting on the hard as if it weren’t an oddball among the laid-up vessels. Photographer Billy Black was returning from shooting elsewhere on the grounds. “This is a special place,” he said, echoing my thoughts as he organized his gear on our way back to the 61. Thankfully, Capt. Danny Ford and mate Mike Murray had Nespresso coffee and microwavable breakfast sandwiches at the ready (add both to the long list of things that taste exponentially better on a boat) and the morning began in earnest.
I had met Ford and Murray the previous afternoon as they got the 61 cleaned and prepped for the next few days. “Two is one and one is none,” Ford said as he and Murray emerged from the engine room with the Eskimo ice machine pump the impeller jammed in what appeared to be a fatal position. Having the know-how to troubleshoot a yacht’s myriad systems and expounding on redundancy seemed to be their forte. That, and having a quiver of quotes and wide-ranging topics at the ready for any conversation. The two-man crew kept things light
and fun over the next few days, a testament to Ford’s two-plus decades of fishing in places most of us have only read about and to Murray’s years as a mate and a captain in his own regard.
Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast would serve as the backdrop for bottom fishing and island-hopping aboard Bertram’s flagship. The crew had run down from Tampa the previous afternoon with Black, who joined after a tour of the yard, once the Lazzara Yachts facility. “We were able to keep some of the Lazzara team on,” Bertram Vice President of Sales Tommy Thompson told me. That included retaining wood and metal workers, marine electronics experts and painters—part of a crew that proved to be integral in the brand’s relaunch.
There are few builders with the pedigree of Bertram Yachts. During its heyday, founder Dick Bertram was a household name thanks to ads in national magazines for Rolex and a massive billboard in Times Square featuring him weathering a storm via Camel cigarettes. (“Have a real cigarette,” the ad urged readers in its apparent lack of foresight.) The C. Raymond Hunt-designed, deep-V, 31-foot Moppie would launch the then Miami-based builder into the stratosphere for most of the 1960s and well after its founder left the company.
What followed were periods of feast, famine and multiple ownerships of the esteemed brand. There were models launched that set the bar in their genre—Thompson recalls the 1980 54-footer as “the first large, high-performance fishing boat,” and a few others besides the 31 that retained a cult following. In the mid-aughts under Italian yacht conglomerate Ferretti Group, Bertram launched new models and gained some market share. Some felt—and I agree—that Bertram lost its way and never really fit in to the Ferretti Group’s portfolio.
Just when Bertram needed a lifeline it would again come from Italy, this time via the Gavio Group, the massive construction and