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The
world debut of Bertram’s 670 Convertible was preceded by a thunderous
ovation—literally. For a week thunder and drenching rain had soaked
Great Abaco Island and the flotilla of yachts gathered there for the Bahama
Billfish Challenge. I had wangled an invitation to sea trial the yacht
as she made the 100-mile trip from Marsh Harbor to Paradise Island, site
of the next leg of the tournament. I figured the lengthy trip would let
me put the yacht through her paces in a variety of sea conditions—maybe
swells from the previous day’s storms or fresh chop from the next
weather front moving through the islands. But it was not to be. Not only
did the sky clear, but the wind also died, leaving the sea as placid as
a millpond.
Even
though the seas were calm, I have no doubts about the yacht’s rough-water
capability. She is a Bertram, after all, with a classic deep-V hull form
that’s indelibly associated with her name but, equally as impressive,
fine-tuned to improve on her legendary predecessors. Her forefoot is sharper
and deeper, with more bow reach at the stem to punch smoothly through
the sea. Slightly convex sections aft should soften the ride, while chine
flats that widen to 10 inches at the transom are designed to keep spray
down and provide efficient lifting surfaces.
The
smooth trip did provide an excellent chance to study the flow lines around
the hull. Forward, in the strike zone (the area of the hull that first
hits the water), oversize strakes are canted up at a 45-degree angle,
and I could see how they deflected the spray into a clean sheet that washed
well outboard of the chine. Aft of the strike zone, there’s clean
flow separation at the chine all the way back to the transom, with blue
water extending well outboard of the hull, then folding into a smooth
sheet of spray. The net effect was an exceptionally clean whitewash, critical
to chasing down a prize tuna.
Schedule
constraints prevented us from going after gamefish en route, but we did
make a stop for lunch near Hole in the Wall, at the southern tip of Great
Abaco. Maybe we were just lucky, or maybe the Bertram’s a fish magnet,
but within 20 minutes, deep jigging in 700 feet of water, we hauled in
two large black grouper and an impressive pair of yellow-eye. We were
back underway so quickly I barely had time to take in all the features
of the 168-square-foot cockpit.
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