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Anyone remember the old Bimini ? Got a story ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WA2DDL
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WA2DDL

WA2DDL

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  1. OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
Hatteras Model
53' MOTOR YACHT (1969 - 1988)
In my lifetime, Bimini is divided into 2 time frames...before and after Ossie died.
Weekends In the summer, when the Angler was really hopping with Ossie's band and the dance floor was standing room only was truly something to be experienced. The electrical outlets were plug upon plug as each guitar and microphone were begging for current. It was THE place to be in Bimini.
 
The old Bimini is gone, sadly, bulldozed and concreted over. While the construction took place on the northern half of the island it sucked the life out of Alice town. Sad
 
I think the loss of Ossie marked the start of a turning point in Bimini that was solidified by the fire at the Angler and the development in Northern Bimini.
Initially, I felt the development there would be a great asset to the biminites and a shot in the arm for much needed work; however upon my last trip there a couple of years ago, I found the hotel and casino staffed mainly by off-island residents and few if any Biminites were even employed.
You might recall Don Smith, Dockmaster at the Big Game Club...he was also a barber and had actually cut my hair several times while I stayed there for a few months aboard my boat, back in the 90's. He said I was there for so long that I was not a Bimi-nite, but rather a bimi-white.
He really had a good sense of humor.
 
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Also, some might not be aware that Julian Brown, Ossie's brother and son of Harcourt, was an Olympic contender (for track, I believe) during the 1960 games In Rome.
 
Have not been to Bimini since the construction of the cruise ship pier off what used to be the DuPont mansion. I am curious to know how Alice Town is surviving. Does anyone have any reports? Are the Red Lion and the End of the World bar still open? Are there any new places?

Also, what is new on South Bimini?
 
Resort world Bimini bay has sucked energy out of Alice town... that's the best way to describe it. Big game and the other marinas are still there, End of the World bar too, plus Big John but it s all dusty, dirty, littered etc

Haven't been in south Bim in a long time as the marina entrance is shallow.

Honestly we avoid BIM altogether. On the way to the exumas, I clear at cat cay, much quicker. If we need to spend the night before crossing the bank eastbound or before corrsijg the stream westbound we anchor on the east side of gun cay

Two months ago we had some guests who really wanted to go to Bimini bay. I have to say the architecture of the new Hilton is beautiful, lots of stainless steel, a long pool running along the whole building etc... pretty. Besides being to modern and too big for Bimini, the crowds they are bringing are just plain awful. Cheap, low end mass tourism brought in by ferries and cheap airfare to spend money gambling. Best described as Hialeah meets trailer park.
 
To me, Alicetown Is Alicetown and won't change much tomorrow or next century; but, that's why I go there. As a kid, I used to watch my Dad's 8mm movies of downtown Alicetown and I still recall the stone façade of the bank. That was back in the mid 60's. Take out the Angler from the equation and you still pretty much have Alicetown. Oh, the graffiti and painted pictures on the buildings has subsided from back in the 80's and before, add a straw market but it is still Alicetown.

Wife and I went there on a fast ferry last Christmas (something like $150 R/T each including meals for 3 days) and the north half of North Bimini is sculptured and looks great; A-Town is a bit dirty and still has most of the hot spots, including the Lion and End of World. There is a great conch bar around Bailey Town ( I think) which has wonderful conch salad that goes down pretty well with Kalik.

Coral's place (C-J's Deli, I believe) has moved a while back into a makeshift wagon on the side of the road. Couple of bakeries but the coconut rolls just aren't the same as before.

Man, love the days when I sat on the flybridge in the mornings at Bluewater marina with coffee and coconut rolls, watching Chaulks landing 200 feet away.
 
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WA2DDL said:
Man, love the days when I sat on the flybridge in the mornings at Bluewater marina with coffee and coconut rolls, watching Chaulks landing 200 feet away.
Click to expand...

Those were the days.
 
Yeah, you never now when the good old days were the good old days until they are gone. Pascal was right, Hialeah meets the trailer park for the Hilton.
 
Nice to think fondly of the "good old days" but be careful of not being able to enjoy the present as in
short order, time fleets by and the present becomes the good old days. When I was a young man in the
US Navy back in the 50's, my dream was to get a large motor sail boat and relocate to Tahiti to run
charters. Back then Tahiti was breathtakingly beautiful as were most of the islands in Polynesia. I never
realized my dream of sailing and living in such a romantic place and today while still nice, it too has
evolved into a different place. Longing for the past is a very powerful emotion...

Walt
 
I would bet good money that Ernest Hemingway, while he was in Bimini back in the thirties, and then looked at Bimini in the 1980s would probably have thought well... There goes the neighborhood. Those were certainly his good days. And you know, when you stop to think about it, what rounds off an afternoon of fishing better than taking a machine gun and shooting at sharks? Sure can't do that stuff anymoreAll depends on your point of view and just when those good old days took place. Bimini right now are the good old days for someone who's out there today. Thanks for all your input
 
We re starting to see changes in the Exumas too. More boats, more homes on Staniel Cay. It s still the Exumas but right now we re docked at SCYC and there are 3 moorings charter cats. Moorings has just opened a base in NAS :(

I lived in St Barth’s from 1981 thru 1994. It was amazing. In the early 90s there used to be probably 50 to 70 boats in the harbor and anchored right outside for New Year’s Eve .. biggest was probably 130’ back then. Last new year eve i looked at AIS on Marine Trafgic and there must have been 500 boats anchored all the way to the end of the island... I don’t even want to go back to visit Every hull side has been covered with villas...

Remember the past and enjoy the present while you can
 
Pascal said:
We re starting to see changes in the Exumas too. More boats, more homes on Staniel Cay. It s still the Exumas but right now we re docked at SCYC and there are 3 moorings charter cats. Moorings has just opened a base in NAS :(I lived in St Barth’s from 1981 thru 1994. It was amazing. In the early 90s there used to be probably 50 to 70 boats in the harbor and anchored right outside for New Year’s Eve .. biggest was probably 130’ back then. Last new year eve i looked at AIS on Marine Trafgic and there must have been 500 boats anchored all the way to the end of the island... I don’t even want to go back to visit Every hull side has been covered with villas...Remember the past and enjoy the present while you can
Click to expand...
If that is not a lesson in life I don't know what is. I think probably we were in the Bahamas during the golden years because now there are so many boats there that you almost don't want to contend with all the hassles. I lived aboard my 51 foot in the Abacos for three years, back in the late 90s, and already you could see that it was starting to get crowded. People began really discovering the Bahamas during that decade. The changes I saw from the early 1990s to the late 1990s was astounding. Your story about Staniel and st. Barts just serves to underscore that whole thing.Great information Pascal, thanks
 
We re heading back to Miami this week end after a little over a month in the Exumas. There are still many anchorages where we were alone but every year the number of boats and the average size is going up. Excluding sailboats, I d say the average size of the motoyachts has to be about 100’ In the last two days we saw at least 6 or 7 boats over 200’...
 
I remember back in the 1960s over on Lake Erie, my dad had a 25 foot Chris Craft Cavalier and that was an average sized boat. There was one guy in the marina that had a 36-foot boat and it had on it... A genset! Man I'll tell you if you had something 35 feet or more you were styling. Nowadays 60 to 70 is a nice size but people aren't overly impressed anymore. The big size has shifted to 100ft.I think you said you were in route back to the States so have a great trip and thanks for your input. Things are certainly changing out there
 
Be careful what you wish for.... The larger they are the more maintenance they require, either by the
owner or his checkbook. Years ago the founder of Wendy's had a megayacht built and hired a captain
and crew for it. After a couple of years he got rid of it and bought a "small" yacht (about 50 something
feet) that he and his family could run themselves and have lots of privacy. Now that doesn't mean that
having a large mega yacht is bad, it's just a matter of preference. Dave Thomas was a good example.

Walt
 
While costs are higher on a larger boat because either you the paying dockage, diver, haul out by foot or because the parts are bigger and more expensive, the chores, times it takes to do them are pretty much the same whether you re on a 50 footer or a 90 footer.

If anything access is better on a larger boat making it easier to fix thing.

From my point of view, as the owner/operator of a 53 footer and as the full time captain of an 84 footer, work is pretty much the same. Whether I have to clear a air con strainer, change an impeller or change oil in a genset... it makes no difference. same with rinsing the boat after a run... the extra 30’ adds a few minutes

Both boats have the same number of thru hulls, chillers, engines, rudders, alternators, starters, battery chargers etc ...obviously 30’ LOA adds costs but not more work while cruising.

The big question is whether an owner wants a crew or not. Privacy vs service.i can see why someone who can afford a crew will enjoy not having to go change a watermaker filter after a run, rinse the boat or carry and set up the boarding stairs when stopping at a dock...
 
Sorry that your last post took me so long to reply to Pascal, but that's a great point... The boat may be larger and might require another gallon or two of bottom paint, but in the grand scheme of things you normally have the same number of engines, generators, through hull fittings... And I've seen 60 foot boats with 12v 71 and I've seen 90 ft boats that also have the same engine. Increased maintenance? Maybe but perhaps not as much as you might think.
 
Pascal said:
We re starting to see changes in the Exumas too. More boats, more homes on Staniel Cay. It s still the Exumas but right now we re docked at SCYC and there are 3 moorings charter cats. Moorings has just opened a base in NAS :(

I lived in St Barth’s from 1981 thru 1994. It was amazing. In the early 90s there used to be probably 50 to 70 boats in the harbor and anchored right outside for New Year’s Eve .. biggest was probably 130’ back then. Last new year eve i looked at AIS on Marine Trafgic and there must have been 500 boats anchored all the way to the end of the island... I don’t even want to go back to visit Every hull side has been covered with villas...

Remember the past and enjoy the present while you can
Click to expand...


130 ft was enormous back then...I recall being a kid in the 60's and visiting Francis Langford's "Outrigger" restaurant in Jensen Beach. This haven for Florida socialites (Jackie Gleason and others) often saw her 100' plus steel hulled vessel, "Chanticleer" docked there. My Dad and I were there during Easter around '65 or '66 and I heard him yelling, "Stevie, Stevie...come see this boat!"

Now we were boaters back on the Great Lakes with my Dad's 25 ft Woodie Chris, so I thought, heck...this must be reaching 40 ft or so. (an enormous length back in Buffalo during that time).

I turned the corner and there she was...dark hull and all. I thought "shazam!" what a boat! I inched up to the salon window (not tinted back then) and saw a Baby Grand Piano...wow.

After that experience, a true signature for a yacht was to be able to have a baby grand in the salon. Ironically, that boat was purchased and refit and, keeping the same name, now is a fixture at the Mariott Marina in Jensen Beach. It's still big, even by today's standards. Thankfully, the Outrigger restaurant is still there in all her glory, too, but renamed "Dolphin Bar"

Is the Baby Grand still in the boat...? don't know.
 
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Pascal said:
Remember the past and enjoy the present while you can
Click to expand...

If that isn't a solid life lesson, I don't know what is. +1
 
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