Whew where to start. Approximately twenty years ago when I started fishing different destinations I fell in love with sportfisher style boats and always thought they would be cool up here. I ended up buying my striper and loved that boat and had more countless hours of happiness with my father before he passed and many friends and other family. As I now have two babies at home that was no longer the ideal fishing vessel for our family. I wanted something to be trailerable since westport has no services and don’t want to be left stranded there.
Two years ago I saw a boat called a Chris craft tournament 30 and was very intrigued. Come to find out Chris craft hired ray hunt which if you don’t know is the original designer of the Bertram Moppie and the deep vee hull that most of us run today. Chris craft hired him to fix all the issues with the Bertram 31 and he did which ended up landing this line of boats being called the better bertram. Bertram sued Chris craft and won so there was only 300 approximately of these made.
A little over a year ago I found the one I wanted down in Florida and spoke with the owner who is a stubborn 80 yr old man. After our initial conversation you would have thought we were best friends and after 8 hours of talking to him, that night he sent me a text and asked that I made sure it wa legal to trailer it from Florida. The next morning I woke up and did my due diligence and planned to go to Florida and told the owner I was going to pay cash. The guy completely ghosted me and put my number on ignore. I tried calling from my wife’s number and he blocked her too. I gave up on the boat and kept seeing it for sale on Craigslist. I called a buddy from palm beach fire and he talked to the owner. The owner said “ ya I had an amazing conversation with Ryan but he’s got to be a scam artist because no way in my lifetime would someone from Seattle come to Florida but a boat, no way no how would that ever happen and no way will I sell it to him”
So a few months went by and he listed the boat with a broker and Apparently became even more disgruntled with potential buyers to the point he said he was non negotiable, no sea trial, and he would not show the boat only the broker could and it had to be moved off his dock in 24 hours. At this point I finally gave up all hope because without a sea trial I can’t get a survey and without a survey I can’t insure it therefore I can’t move it to a new marina. I spoke with Peter ricks and he said even with no survey he could insure it. I know to many this sounds crazy but I knew the boat floated and I had heard it run on FaceTime on original conversation. I finally arranged a time in march to go see the boat and loaded up the wife and kids and flew to Florida. Up until the day I got there he said price was non negotiable and he was moving soon and if nothing else would just give the boat away and would not provide any receipts or anything on the boat for work completed. So tensions were high on arrival and he also said no kids allowed. My buddy watched the kids in the truck and my wife and I went to the boat with the broker. The broker ran interference for an hour going between us and the seller asking all questions. Finally he came out to start the boat and genset and I met him in person, I asked him a question about how to prime the genset and from there he proceeded to show me how to start the engines and it was like a light switch flipped he started showing me every detail about the boat and showed me reciepts which total over 150,000 he has put in this boat over the last 28 years. He then agreed to let the kids and wife listen to it running and i can only assume it was like it brought back memories from him and his family on the boat and he became the nicest guy again and was laughing and joking with us and kept pointing out every detail of the boat, he in fact switched so much he allowed me to keep it there for two more wwwks then had it towed to the marina for me since i couldn’t make it back down. I made an offer that day and he accepted. My patience paid off and I ended up getting the boat half of original asking. Sorry for the long story.
The boat itself is a 1975 Chris craft tournament 30 with upgraded Yanmar diesels, dripless shafts, and new transmissions with 530 hours which he guarenteed me Atleast 480 of those were from starting it on his dock a few times a week and he only took two trips on the engines to their island cabin after install. The boat needs new electronics and some cosmetic stuff but that was known going into it and I don’t mind. It has rupp tournament outriggers, brand new genset and air conditioner, most interior is brand new but I will be upgrading certain things.
I am very excited to take in this project. And make it exactly how I want it. I’m having a custom trailer built and will be bringing it home soon.
Sadly I only have one picture of it but will be many more to follow.
Let’s go catch some fish
Two years ago I saw a boat called a Chris craft tournament 30 and was very intrigued. Come to find out Chris craft hired ray hunt which if you don’t know is the original designer of the Bertram Moppie and the deep vee hull that most of us run today. Chris craft hired him to fix all the issues with the Bertram 31 and he did which ended up landing this line of boats being called the better bertram. Bertram sued Chris craft and won so there was only 300 approximately of these made.
A little over a year ago I found the one I wanted down in Florida and spoke with the owner who is a stubborn 80 yr old man. After our initial conversation you would have thought we were best friends and after 8 hours of talking to him, that night he sent me a text and asked that I made sure it wa legal to trailer it from Florida. The next morning I woke up and did my due diligence and planned to go to Florida and told the owner I was going to pay cash. The guy completely ghosted me and put my number on ignore. I tried calling from my wife’s number and he blocked her too. I gave up on the boat and kept seeing it for sale on Craigslist. I called a buddy from palm beach fire and he talked to the owner. The owner said “ ya I had an amazing conversation with Ryan but he’s got to be a scam artist because no way in my lifetime would someone from Seattle come to Florida but a boat, no way no how would that ever happen and no way will I sell it to him”
So a few months went by and he listed the boat with a broker and Apparently became even more disgruntled with potential buyers to the point he said he was non negotiable, no sea trial, and he would not show the boat only the broker could and it had to be moved off his dock in 24 hours. At this point I finally gave up all hope because without a sea trial I can’t get a survey and without a survey I can’t insure it therefore I can’t move it to a new marina. I spoke with Peter ricks and he said even with no survey he could insure it. I know to many this sounds crazy but I knew the boat floated and I had heard it run on FaceTime on original conversation. I finally arranged a time in march to go see the boat and loaded up the wife and kids and flew to Florida. Up until the day I got there he said price was non negotiable and he was moving soon and if nothing else would just give the boat away and would not provide any receipts or anything on the boat for work completed. So tensions were high on arrival and he also said no kids allowed. My buddy watched the kids in the truck and my wife and I went to the boat with the broker. The broker ran interference for an hour going between us and the seller asking all questions. Finally he came out to start the boat and genset and I met him in person, I asked him a question about how to prime the genset and from there he proceeded to show me how to start the engines and it was like a light switch flipped he started showing me every detail about the boat and showed me reciepts which total over 150,000 he has put in this boat over the last 28 years. He then agreed to let the kids and wife listen to it running and i can only assume it was like it brought back memories from him and his family on the boat and he became the nicest guy again and was laughing and joking with us and kept pointing out every detail of the boat, he in fact switched so much he allowed me to keep it there for two more wwwks then had it towed to the marina for me since i couldn’t make it back down. I made an offer that day and he accepted. My patience paid off and I ended up getting the boat half of original asking. Sorry for the long story.
The boat itself is a 1975 Chris craft tournament 30 with upgraded Yanmar diesels, dripless shafts, and new transmissions with 530 hours which he guarenteed me Atleast 480 of those were from starting it on his dock a few times a week and he only took two trips on the engines to their island cabin after install. The boat needs new electronics and some cosmetic stuff but that was known going into it and I don’t mind. It has rupp tournament outriggers, brand new genset and air conditioner, most interior is brand new but I will be upgrading certain things.
I am very excited to take in this project. And make it exactly how I want it. I’m having a custom trailer built and will be bringing it home soon.
Sadly I only have one picture of it but will be many more to follow.
Let’s go catch some fish
