38' bertram

[garylowery]

i am looking to buy a 38' bertram with 3208 cats any input on preformance.

[Questsportfishing]

3208's are great engines , they are an older engine by todays standards and if it is what you want, bulkheads are not rotted by the hull joints, wiring is good and you have the $,,, then they say 1 day on the water gives you two days back on your life!
keep in mind that they will take at least two people to go out all the time to get lines , dock or fish though.. good luck.

[Sportsman 45]

If you can live with a 33 sportfisherman, Bluewater yacht sales has one on a lift that looks like brand new

and an excellent price. As for 3208's ran my last pair for 14 years great motors.

waitin' on the fish to show.

[Avenger]

I believe the 38 went through three different design changes some of which involved the hull. Naturally that's going to affect performance. Be sure you know which one you're looking at. Also, they tend to be power hungry. I was looking at one before I bought the Hatteras and the consensus was you needed at least 1000 HP to get decent performance.

[Questsportfishing]

I have always loved the sea keeping abilities of these boats but like a 54' bert you need a bunch of horsepower to push her.
there are some great buys down here at Jackson marine guys they have 'National Liquidators' here and a bunch of the boats are bank owned and offered that way. you can see some great boats there but the whole repo thing makes me sick so I try to stay away from there. I helped 2 fiends find boats there and they went dirt cheap and the boats were well kept .. got a twin engine contender for less than 50k it was 4 years old and had radar, 2 large furunos and full dressed low hour boat you just have to put up $..

[OldSalt7]

i am looking to buy a 38' bertram with 3208 cats any input on preformance.

I was there ! You are right on with the Bertram. A really great boat. I even got caught in a "freek" storm of 20' seas - made it home after 4 1/2 hours of being tossed arround pretty good.

Now as to the 3208's - Bertram built many with different engines. These are really slow! and eat up a bunch of fuel!! I mean really a bunch. See if you can find a Bertram with most any other engines than 3208's.

Good luck and lots of good fishing to you.
OldSalt7

[Avenger]

So what's your other option? Cummins 903s?

The 903s won't be quite the fuel hog like a 3208 at high horsepower (I'm assuming 435...?) but they're even heavier and usually slower. Plus, despite Caterpillar's talent for turning cast iron into gold by painting it yellow you'll be stunned at what the marine parts for the 903 cost.

BTW, 3208s don't have long life expectancy once you get over about 375 HP. What's the HP of the one's you're looking at?