Bertram Raceboat Steals The Show In Vintage Weekend
By Matt Trulio – offshoreonly.com
A 52-year-old Bertram raceboat proved to be the hottest ticket at Ocean Reef Club’s Vintage Weekend in December. Photo by John Tomlinson/TNT Custom Marine.
Set in Key Largo, the Ocean Reef Club is a posh, postcard-perfect-planned community in the upper Florida Keys. With a bounty of power yachts and sailboats in private slips, it’s more than a little luxurious. And that makes it perfect for the club’s annual Vintage Weekend, which showcases spectacular classic automobiles and aircraft, that wrapped up a [last month].
That an impeccably restored, 31-foot Bertram raceboat built in 1966 stole the show should surprise no one. The event is held, after all, in the Florida Keys, an area rich—to say the least—in go-fast boating history. But even Miami-based TNT Custom Marine’s John Tomlinson, as big of a name as they come in the high-performance powerboating world, was impressed with the responses from the attendees he took for rides in the classic raceboat called the White Tornado.
“You take people on a 70-mph ride in this boat and people just go crazy for it,” said Tomlinson. “They think it’s the coolest thing in the world, probably because it’s really loud and windy. They feel like they’re getting ripped out of the boat. They can’t get enough of it.”
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In January, Tomlinson will get a chance to run the White Tornado again at the Ocean Reef Club—last weekend was his third time piloting the boat at the event—for a group of visiting members for the New York Yacht Club. He’s even looking forward to it.
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This story was originally posted on offshoreonly.com.
