Bertram 31 Fly Bridge Cruiser

Life doesn’t stay the same. Boats don’t, either. Dug Stowe has had his Bertram 31 for almost 20 years, and it has made the transition from a “fishing with the guys” boat to a family cruiser that’s a perfect fit for his companion, Kerri, and their 2-year old daughter.

- Steve Knauth

Stowe, who is 48 and lives is Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, bought the iconic deep-vee boat 18 years ago as a fishing platform to replace his center console. “I didn’t have a specific goal in mind when I bought it; I just wanted a stock Bertram 31 that ran well and was comfortable,” he says. After spending the night in the middle of Fisher’s Island Sound at anchor in the fog, on a boat without shelter or electronics, “I wanted to have something more than a center console.”

As he puts it, he decided to take charge of his boating destiny. “I wanted to do more than just catch bluefish and stripers,” he says. “So I decided to buy a platform that I could do basically whatever I wanted with.”

Just out of business school, Stowe in 1999 paid around $22,000 for his 1969 Bertram 31 Flybridge Cruiser. “There were a couple of Bertrams in our harbor [in Mystic, Connecticut], and they struck me as a very good looking boat,” he says. “Of course, I knew their reputation.”

But buying the boat was just the beginning. “It was in bad shape,” Stowe says. “It had twin 440 Chrysler engines, which should strike fear into any knowledgeable boater. We drove it from Swansea [Massachusetts, where it was purchased] to my home port in Mystic, and to this day I don’t know how we got it there.” In subsequent inspections, Stowe says, he found many “scary things,” including rotten plywood and worn-out engine parts.