Miss Berdie Gets a Makeover

By Alan Haig-Brown August 25, 2015

The new Miss Berdie maintains her graceful lines.
Initial sea trials let to prop pitch modifications to get optimum speed.
The QSK50-M main engine with the reservoir Cummins CENTINEL- (Adavanced Engine Oil Management) System.
The Cummins Application Engineer Brian Pinkstaff checks out the QSK50-M main engine.
A trawlers dream wheelhouse.
The modified hull rides well.
The impressive beam is carried from hull to wheelhouse.
The galley interior was updated while the Miss Berdie was in the yard.
Twin table provide easy access for a larger crew.
Fifteen monitors track activity on board and around the boat.

When she came into the Fred Wahl shipyard in Reedsport, Oregon, the Miss Berdie was a fine looking boat with a bright red hull. When she left the yard this summer she was still a fine looking red vessel but bigger and better. After taking the 77 by 27.8 by 11.5-foot boat apart, the crew at Fred Wahl’s, working with a design by Hockema & Whalen Associates, put her back together with a 39-foot beam, a 12.7-foot molded depth and an overall registered length of 80.8 feet. In order to keep regulatory requirements regarding the overall length, they reduced the rake in the bow and shortened the bulbous bow. The job involved sponsoning the hull forward of the engine room bulkhead, rebuilding the stern and raising the main deck aft of the engine room bulkhead, replacing the joinery, the pilot house and the trawl gantry along with a host of other smaller items.

Built at Rodriguez Boat Builders of Coden, Alabama in 1987, the boat has landed a lot of fish. With her hold sized increased from just under 4,000 cubic feet to 7,562 cubic feet she seems destined to deliver a lot more fish for her owner. While the overall length was increased only slightly, the waterline gained 3.8 feet.

To offset the increased displacement and to improve towing performance, the boat’s 1,200 HP Cummins KTA 38-M was replaced with a new Cummins QSK50-M1 Tier 3, keel cooled engine delivering 1,800 HP at 1,900 RPM. The shaft-line was upgraded to handle this increased power and a NautiCAN high efficiency nozzle with triple rudders and stators was added to optimize thrust while towing. A power take off is mounted on the front of the engine. The marine gear is a remote mounted Reintjes WAF675L gear at a ratio of 7.476:1. The main engine was mounted with Chockfast. The electronic controls were ZF CruiseCommand with 2 wing stations in the pilothouse and the main helm where the C-Command Elite digital display is located.

In addition to the QSK50-M1 main engine, the vessel also is outfitted with two new Tier 3 Cummins QSB7 gensets 480V/210kW with Marathon Generators. The existing Cummins QSM11 hydraulic pump engine was retained.

The QSK50-M1 main engine, supplied by Curry Marine of Newport Oregon, generated a range of upgrades in addition to the increased horsepower. On the old engine, the KTA prefix designates a mechanical engine, while the 38 is for the 38-liter displacement of the V-12 engine. The new engine bears the QSK prefix that indicates an electronically controlled engine while the 50 indicates a 50-liter displacement of the V-16 engine.

In addition to electronically controlled, common rail, fuel injection the QSK50-M engine on the Miss Berdie is fitted with the optional Cummins CENTINEL - (Advanced Engine Oil Management) System. At duty-cycle-dependent intervals, CENTINEL removes a small amount of used oil out of the lubrication system and sends it to the fuel tank. The used oil blends with the fuel and is burned during combustion. Simultaneously, CENTINEL adds the same amount of new oil from a makeup tank into the engine. This constantly replenishes oil additives, improving oil quality over the life of your engine. For industrial and marine applications, oil changes are extended to 4,000 hours. The engine is also fitted with the Cummins’ Eliminator technology that replaces oil filters with a centrifuge that extends the maintenance intervals while contributing to environmental sustainability by eliminating filter cartridges and oil losses.

With her beamy new hull and 1,800 HP in the engine room, the Miss Berdie made 13-knot speeds on her sea trials. However the true advantage of the additional power will be in filling those enlarged fish holds.