When you think of boating, fine art isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. But when two fine art consultants decided to buy and refit a 1983 Bertram, the result was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Tim Gudewill and Todd Towers, who own Vancouver-based Farmboy Fine Arts, come from completely different backgrounds. Gudewill, a passionate fisherman, hails from a salty West Coast family well familiar with the secret salmon spots and gunkholes of British Columbia, while Towers, a farmboy at heart, comes from a fifth-generation Alberta ranching family and, until recently, couldn’t tell you stern from bow.
Their differences, however, didn’t stop the expert fisherman and the nautical newbie from seeing the same potential in a rare, classic Bertram, and the duo decided to embark on an adventure that would cover 3,860 kilometres, and cost eight months, thousands of dollars and a lot of hard work.
Finding The One Boaters are some of the strongest believers in love at first sight. Gudewill, a longtime boater but first-time buyer, had been online “dating” on www.yachtworld.com for years before he finally found her. When he did click onto her profile, two years ago, he knew she was The One.
Having grown up on boats, when it came time for Gudewill to cast out on his own and buy one, he knew exactly what he wanted—something fast he could use for fishing with family and friends, and something reliable enough to cruise remote areas of the coast.
“The idea is that I want to use this boat anywhere on the B.C. coast from Vancouver to Prince Rupert,” Gudewill said. “I spend a lot of time in Bella Bella and Rivers Inlet, and I’d like to be able to take it up there for a few weeks a year and fish out of some of the lodges.”
Having always admired Bertrams, Gudewill found himself drawn to the brand’s well-deserved reputation for building high-quality, rugged boats. Dick Bertram’s commitment to quality combined with Ray Hunt’s revolutionary deep-vee hull design make these boats appealing to sport fishermen and fast cruisers wanting no frills, top of-the-line boats that can weather anything.
“I was looking for two years, burning some time and daydreaming, and I always leaned toward Bertrams because they are so durable, fast and seaworthy,” Gudewill explained. One thing Bertrams are not known for, however, is having outboard engines. So when Gudewill crossed paths with a Bertram 26.6 II Sport Convertible listed for $50,000 by a broker in Annapolis, Maryland, his heart skipped a beat.
“I came across this boat and it had outboards, and I had grown up on outboard boats and I like how you can take them in and out of the beach,” Gudewill said. “So I did some research, and this boat was a 26-footer with a 10-foot beam, a huge cockpit and high freeboard, with a deadrise of almost 30 degrees—perfect for the B.C. coast.”
Gudewill’s research showed in the 1980s Bertram decided to partner with an outboard motor company to increase fuel efficiency. However, at the time, outboard technology was nowhere near inboards in terms of capability. As a result, the 26.6 was the only factory-equipped outboard model that the original Bertram factory ever made.
Buying the Bertram Making one’s first big nautical purchase is no easy decision, and Gudewill took his time deciding whether this particular boat was for him.
“I followed this boat for two years. I wasn’t in a position to buy it at first, but I followed it hoping that no one would buy it, and there was price reduction after price reduction,” Gudewill said.
He saw it needed work, but knew the boat had the fundamentals he was looking for. Gudewill, whose family is no stranger to challenging refits (see “Sprite V: Rebuilding a Family Investment” PY August 2008), saw potential in a boat that had been neglected and had probably been sitting in the water for years.
Joining him in this venture was his business partner, and soon to be co-boat owner, Towers. Having grown up on a ranch in Alberta, Towers had yet to get his sealegs wet, but was interested in getting involved in boating.
“I’m the farm boy and he’s the fisherman,” said Towers. “Coming from the prairies I had no understanding of boating and the water.”
What Towers did have was an appreciation for and desire to explore B.C.’s world-famous coast.
“Coming from the prairies and becoming a member of this community—it’s such a beautiful place but there are only so many places you can get to by car. Having a boat gives you accessibility to the really beautiful gems the West Coast has to offer,” Towers explained.
He liked the idea of the open concept boat and was drawn to the classic, American design.
“It’s like finding an old, classic corvette in a barn somewhere and bringing it back to life; I value that,” Towers said. “Having a part of that rarity and that nostalgia was really important to me.”
They decided to pull the trigger on the Bertram, and Gudewill flew to Annapolis to take it for sea trials. Knowing the boat had been on the market for quite some time, Gudewill offered the broker $16,000, and the bid was accepted.
When the boat was safely in B.C. it was time for Gudewill and Towers to lay out a plan for their newest purchase.
Getting to Work The initial plan was to do some light work on the hull, give it a shiny paint job and fix some of the simple, aging components of the boat. Gudewill and Towers hired an independent shipwright named Ryan Ainslie who was recommended by a friend, and brought the boat to Halfmoon Bay in October 2011 so the work could be done over the winter.
Meanwhile, Towers enrolled to get his Canadian Power and Sail Squadron certificate.
“I just felt that I needed to have an understanding of being on the water—I didn’t know the bow from the stern—I thought it was really imperative to do my power squadron courses because you learn about navigation. Now I’m the nerdy stickler for the regulation details,” he said.
While Towers was busy learning about trim tabs and tidal charts, Ainslie began work on the boat and it became clear it needed much more than just a few cosmetic repairs.
“As any boat owner knows, when you start to pull back the layers of a boat built in 1983, there are going to be issues. It was a way bigger project then we anticipated. Any boat owner would have known that—but I didn’t because it was my first boat,” Gudewill said.
The biggest issue was that a carpenter had previously gone in and done a bad repair job on the transom and as a result, it was all rotten plywood. The structure had to be taken out and the transom completely rebuilt.
“We were in this deep and figured we might as well go deeper,” Ainslie said.
As they went deeper, of course, more problems popped up. The pod needed replacing, the bracket was old and the hull needed major work, so Gudewill and Towers gave Ainslie the green light to basically rebuild the boat from the inside out.
The boat was full of water so all the wiring and metal parts had to be replaced or re-finished.
New custom-made fiberglass floor-boards and hatches were fitted to the original structure.
In addition to some serious work repairing cracks and blisters in the hull, the entire top deck of the boat was cracked and had to be replaced.Refitting the Boat Once the boat was stripped right down to the fibreglass, Ainslie found that the hull, having sat in the water and been neglected for years, needed major work.
“The hull had demons,” Ainslie said. “There were spider cracks and blisters everywhere. Every square inch got stripped and painted.”
Like in most old boats, when you start to peel back the layers you keep on finding areas that need attention. Gudewill and Ainslie had an emergency meeting to figure out how they would proceed, but it since both felt the hull was special, with few like it in existence, they were willing to do whatever it took.
In the end, once everything had been stripped, sanded, smoothed and epoxied all that was left was the original Bertram hull. After all the repairs the hull got new gelcoat and was painted blue.
“It was incredible, intact and as good as new,” Gudewill said.
Ainslie also said a significant amount of water was drained from the boat.
“That’s what happens when a boat is left in the water and endures mother nature’s wrath through the seasons and through the years. Every piece of metal was corroded, all the wiring was completely destroyed. It was almost like the boat had sunk.”
As a result, the whole top deck of the boat was cracked and had to be replaced. New fibreglass floorboards and hatches were custom-made to replace the old ones and fitted to the original structure.
Gudewill and Towers wanted an interior deck that could be easily hosed down, so Ainslie planned a restoration that allowed for a no-fuss approach.
Ainslie rebuilt the fibreglass side hatches, custom made the bolsters and floor, rewired everything, fitted a 50-gallon freshwater tank and a saltwater wash down as well. A new custom Armstrong bracket with added floatation was measured and ordered from Florida and installed for the outboard.
New custom seats were built from fibreglass bases and upholstery fitted by Royal City Bedding. All the original Bertram Decals and chrome were removed, re-chromed and placed in their original positions from 1983. A new four-speaker Clarion stereo with a 12-inch subwoofer was also a must.
It’s All in the Details Gudewill and Towers named the Bertram Farmboy after their art consulting company, and when it came to finishing touches they wanted the boat to reflect the classic features of the brand, but with all the modern fixtures they would need. Ainslie, who Gudewill describes as an “absolute professional,” was the perfect man for the job. “He’s a craftsman. In the marine business it’s hard to find someone who is so passionate and attentive to detail—in terms of the work he does, no stone was left unturned,” Gudewill said.
After the major work was complete, Ainslie began on the “small” details, arguably the most important part of the refit. “The most challenging thing is to try and keep it classic—making alterations that are small, but make a huge difference. The goal was to keep it original but spice it up.” Ainslie spent more than a thousand hours from October until the end of June working on the Bertram.
“Now we’ve got a brand new boat with a custom-built Armstrong bracket, blue paint, new seats, stereo and GPS. All of the old chrome piping and all of the emblems that were original—we re-chromed them all. And it’s all fibreglass so you can hose the whole thing out and nothing will rot,” Ainslie said. The boat also has new electronic trim tabs, underwater LED lights, a Lowrance HDS 10 fishfinder/chartplotter, and a port-a-potty.
The Final Product The end result is a unique boat that turns heads everywhere she goes. Bertrams are relatively rare to see in the Pacific Northwest, something that’s surprising to Gudewill.
“It felt like this boat belonged in B.C. waters with its deep-vee hull. It was built for Miami and the Bahamas, where the water conditions are a bit similar to the B.C. coast, with the six to eight-foot waves that are close together, so it’s perfect for getting from A to B in virtually anything,” Gudewill said.
This winter, Gudewill and Towers plan to replace the two-stroke 200-horsepower Mercury saltwater series outboards with two 250 Mercury Verados to increase reliability and fuel efficiency.
“Right now it cruises at about 36 miles an hour at approximately 4,200 RPM and does about 50 miles top end. The idea with the new engines is the boat will cruise at about 40 miles per hour plus at about 4,000 RPM taking advantage of a much better fuel efficiency,” Gudewill said, adding that the fuel economy of the deep-vee design is not for the faint of heart.
With the new engines, he estimates the boat will burn about 35 to 40 litres per side per hour. In choppy conditions the boat can take advantage of the two huge skateboard-sized trim tabs and put the bow down to do 30 to 35 miles per hour in a four-foot chop without spilling coffee on the dash.
The repowering will also allow Gudewill and Towers to take the boat on some more “serious adventures,” to Rivers Inlet, Prince Rupert or even up to Alaska.
Although the 26-footer sleeps two comfortably, neither Gudewill nor Towers has been able to convince their wives to go on an overnighter yet. But Towers, already a dad, and Gudewill, a soon-to-be father, are both looking forward to teaching their kids how to fish on their newest 26-foot member of the family.
For now, the two boat owners, who just put Farmboy to bed for the winter after a very successful inaugural fishing season, are incredibly happy with the result of their refit.
“When we bought the boat we saw a lot of potential for what it could become, but it turned out better than we could have ever imagined,” Gudewill said. “People stop to take pictures and ask about the boat all the time, and although it looks great, the best part is how well it performs on the water. We could have bought a new boat, but having the classic Bertram design, with all the history behind it, in a custom boat, with everything we need makes all the effort worth it.”