August 10, 2025 • 22 mins
The deep-rooted tradition of Carolina boat building comes alive in this special on-location episode from Manteo, North Carolina. Host Kristina Hebert sits down with John Bayliss, founder and chairman of the Carolina Boat Builder Foundation Tournament, now in its 22nd year, to uncover the remarkable story of how tragedy sparked a community legacy.
What began as an impromptu fundraiser for the children of boat builder Taylor Harrison, who lost his battle with cancer in his mid-40s, has flourished into a thriving charitable foundation. The tournament now provides educational opportunities across three local high schools, with an impressive 91-92% of all funds raised going directly to scholarships. Beyond financial support, the foundation fosters hands-on learning—evidenced by the stunning skiff built entirely by seventh graders that will be auctioned to support future programs.
Bayliss offers rare insights into the evolution of Carolina's legendary boat-building industry, tracing its origins from collaborative six-month charter boat projects to today's sophisticated custom sportfishing yachts requiring years of design and construction. The conversation reveals how the region became one of the world's premier boat-building hubs, where craftsmanship is passed down through generations and builders maintain a friendly competition that drives innovation while preserving tradition.
"We have the opportunity, if we work hard and we're diligent, to be the best in the world at what we do," Bayliss shares, encapsulating the philosophy that has guided his company through decades of creating custom vessels. His reflections on building relationships with clients that transcend business arrangements highlight the personal connections at the heart of this unique industry.
Whether you're fascinated by maritime craftsmanship, community philanthropy, or the inner workings of elite custom yacht building, this conversation captures the spirit of a region where fishing and boat building aren't just industries—they're a way of life.
Subscribe to hear more stories of craftsmanship and community as we celebrate 75 years of the Wards Way legacy.
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https://www.youtube.com/@WardsWay75
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristina Hebert (00:00):
Welcome to Season 4 of the Wardsway Podcast
.
We're here live in Manteo,north Carolina, at the 22nd
Annual Carolina Boat BuilderFoundation Tournament.
Join us as we celebrate 75years in business and we're just
(00:22):
getting started.
Celebrate 75 years in businessand we're just getting started.
Welcome to Season 4 of theWorthway Podcast.
We're here live in Manteo,north Carolina, at the 22nd
Annual Carolina Boat BuilderFoundation Tournament, and I'm
here with the chairman, thefounder and guru of that
(00:43):
tournament, part founder, partfounder of that tournament, john
Bayliss, thank you for beinghere.
Thanks for having me, okay, soyou're part founder, who helped
you found it?
John Bayliss (00:52):
Actually it was a bunch of fishing guys and boat
builder guys, all the boatbuilders.
We had a local boat builder.
He was building boats up inKill Devil Hills, taylor
Harrison, and he ran into acancer issue in his mid-40s.
Goodness.
So he's got two children and Ithink his wife was either there
(01:14):
or they may have been separatedat that time.
That doesn't matter.
But he winds up in a real fight.
Very fit guy, very good senseof humor.
He worked with Omi Tillett, heworked with Ricky Scarborough.
Wow I think he had a stint withWarren O'Neill, so he had been
with some of the greats and hestarted his own shop and he was
(01:36):
doing great and we had juststarted boat building right then
, like we were a year into it.
And anyway, long story short,he wound up losing the fight.
The community was pretty shookup about it, pretty surprised
that a guy that healthy and thatwell-known and that likable
(01:58):
could pass at that age.
We were down here and everybodysaid everybody said we got to
do something to help these kidsget through school.
There was no provisions forthat and uh, mallory and Alex
were his two uh children andthey were about ready to go to
college.
And we said let's throwtogether a tournament.
(02:18):
And it came up and it was likeright, this time of year wow and
it was just like a throw down.
Just everybody put some money in, we raised some money I don't
even think there was any prizemoney at all back then and uh,
it was just more, you know, tohelp them, and it was a success.
We had, uh, probably 20 someboats, wow.
And then we did it again thenext year.
And then we did it again thenext year and, lo and behold,
(02:41):
got them through school, wow.
And then said now what?
Kristina Hebert (02:45):
Let's keep doing it.
John Bayliss (02:46):
So we kept doing it.
Kristina Hebert (02:47):
And this is the 22nd year Yep, and the money
still goes to schools, so talkabout that.
John Bayliss (02:53):
In the beginning it was for his children, for his
children, and we got them takencare of.
And then after that we decidedto form 501c3 and made it legit
and got a foundation going, andthat's how we did it.
So now we raise all the money.
I think to be a AAA-ratedfoundation you have to donate
(03:16):
66% of what you raise and we'reat like 91% or 92%.
Kristina Hebert (03:22):
That's amazing.
John Bayliss (03:22):
So the community really helps a lot in putting
this thing on.
You know all the food's donated, all the help's donated, and so
really, and you have quite agroup here.
Kristina Hebert (03:32):
The volunteer staff has been amazing.
John Bayliss (03:33):
Great.
Kristina Hebert (03:34):
Nobody goes without food, without a drink,
without anything.
John Bayliss (03:38):
That's why we won.
There you go.
Kristina Hebert (03:40):
And so the money goes to the Manteo,
Darragh County.
John Bayliss (03:43):
There'll be three high schools here, so it'll be
Cape Hatteras High School, andthen you'd have First Flight of
the Beach and Manteo, okay, andI saw that inside the skiff was
built by.
Seventh graders, can you?
Kristina Hebert (03:58):
believe that.
John Bayliss (03:59):
I know I couldn't believe it Seventh graders, so
we have two boats being built bythe high One's, being built by
the high school a jig boat.
Okay, that's a 24.
It's in process, still.
Wow.
And then this skiff was just ahand built, you know and they
did it in five months, somethinglike that three wow, wow so
glenn bradley.
He actually worked with us alittle bit, but most of his time
(04:20):
was spent with rickyscarborough and, uh, just a
great, very patient guy and he'sat a stage in his life where he
can build boats on his own andthen he wanted to donate some
time to that and he made thathappen well, when I was talking
to the dare county school peoplethey were they were talking
about middle school and to highschool and I was like, well,
what are you doing with theelementary kids?
Kristina Hebert (04:41):
I mean, are they slackers?
You know teasing, but uh, so wewere teasing but we were saying
, well, maybe we could get theminto, you know, the culinary,
because kids that age like to doit and so, yeah, so it was
interesting.
Still, try to keep all theschools.
John Bayliss (04:54):
They're going to this gift that's here now it'll
get you know, auctioned off andthen that money will go to
preserve the program and they'renot going to have any problem
getting materials from all thelocal boat builders there's
still a very healthy, viableboat building industry here, of
course you know, that, but allthe guys are going to chip in
(05:18):
Now.
Kristina Hebert (05:18):
I know that, but talk to me about that,
because I feel like it'sdefinitely one of those.
If you know, you know, you knowyou are in the boat building
country capital, here we are,but talk to me about how many
builders are here, and I saw thepicture yesterday that was
incredible, by the way, all thebuilders yeah it is everybody's
chumming together and when I'm.
John Bayliss (05:38):
When I first got here, I moved here right out of
high school, okay, and startedfishing, and one of the things I
learned is that you also as afisherman, as a mate or a
captain or whatever you maintainyour own boats.
If you're a mate, you'rehelping the captain in the yard.
Kristina Hebert (05:55):
Sure, I see it here too.
John Bayliss (05:57):
Yeah, you'll see that everywhere and that's just
ingrained here, whether you'refishing out of Hatteras or
Oregon Inland or whatever.
And then there was a group ofguys.
Every year There'd be OmiTiller would have a boat going,
buddy Kennedy would have a boator two going, sheldon Midgett,
(06:19):
billy Holden those guys, theywould be building a charter boat
.
A lot of the boats that are inhere on that side of the charter
fleet.
They were all built by men likethat and it would be literally
a group of five or six fishermenwith the head builder and they
would build that boat for one ofthe guys in there and out it
(06:40):
comes and these are like sixmonth projects.
They were turning, you know, 50footers out sure six months
very spartan, but very efficient, very efficient.
Got the job done Some of themnow are approaching 50 years old
and they're still going everyday.
So that's how it kind of gotstarted.
And then guys like Buddy Davis,of course, omi Tillett, warren
(07:04):
O'Neill, to some extent BillyHolton.
Then a new guy, sonny Briggs,was another good one.
They started attracting morelike private boat owners.
Okay, because the boats wererunning really good, they were
pretty, and the private boatguys wanted something a little
bit more refined, bigger, twoengines, all that stuff, and it
(07:25):
started to evolve.
And then you know everybodywhether you're talking about me
or Paul Spencer or Kurt Danielsor the Crossway guys we all
learned from those in front ofus and it was kind of passed
along.
So if you had a question youcould always call one of the
senior guys and say hey, how doI get out of this or what's the
(07:46):
best way to handle that?
And it's pretty remarkable.
You have these little hubs ofboat building all up and down
the East Coast, but this happensto be one of them.
Kristina Hebert (07:57):
It happens to be one of the very biggest and
one of the best and most denseas well.
So talk to me about Bayless.
What are some things that havehappened Now?
You have evolved a lot over theyears and I feel like every
time I come to visit yourfacility, you have a new shed or
you have new tooling or youhave new equipment.
John Bayliss (08:15):
We like tools and stuff.
Kristina Hebert (08:17):
Listen, you need them.
That's right, that's important.
That's how you get it built.
John Bayliss (08:21):
Yeah, the industry's changed a lot.
Sure, you know, I was thinkingback not too long ago.
We were thinking about thefirst boat we built.
Kristina Hebert (08:29):
And when was that?
John Bayliss (08:30):
That was 2002.
Okay, so basically right out offishing, right into that, and
we had the bow deck on, we hadthe forward sole in and we said,
hey, what do you want to do forthe layout?
There was no pre-planning.
We had a jig for the hullbridge and that was it, and then
(08:54):
the rest of it, like we wouldno more even consider anything
like that these days noweverything's designed in-house
sure it's all it's basicallybuilt before we even lay the
keel.
You know everything's agreedupon and that's been one of the
biggest evolutions is that youknow there's so much money at
stake and the boats, uh, havebecome, you know, complicated.
(09:17):
There's a lot of systems andeverything's got to be done
right and they're traveling allaround the world now of course
there's no problem.
There's a bunch of boats comingback from bermuda over the next
couple days, wow that's youknow used to be.
That was a big deal but nowit's a 600 mile run and they're
like okay, we got a half week.
Yeah, no big deal right, but uh,that's how much has changed and
(09:40):
uh, so I think for us, I thinkwe've tried to take everything
we could in-house, like when wefirst started.
It was we'd subcontract ourinteriors, subcontract the
electrical, and we were justgetting started.
It was six or seven people andas we've grown, I think we've
decided it was best for us, forthe style that we're trying to
(10:03):
do is maintain the quality,maintain the timeline and do it
all ourselves.
Kristina Hebert (10:10):
Is there something in the evolution you
wish didn't happen, so a pieceof technology that you wish
could go back to the way it was,or do you like to see all the
new technology?
John Bayliss (10:22):
I would say we're cautious about taking on new
stuff.
There's a lot of new things,shiny objects that come into the
industry, as you know.
Kristina Hebert (10:32):
Yes.
John Bayliss (10:33):
The tendency is to jump forward every time.
But we're probably going to bea little bit more conservative.
Let's wait and see or reallyvet it out before we jump at
something.
But I think you know we want tokeep progressing, keep
improving.
Kristina Hebert (10:47):
I know we say the same thing.
John Bayliss (10:49):
That's an important big deal for us around
the shop.
If somebody's in there you knowone of the workers or you know
our people.
We've got great people but theyall have to have that feeling
of you know we want to getbetter every day.
Kristina Hebert (11:03):
Evolution or extinction, they say.
John Bayliss (11:04):
you know, yeah, and it's competitive, it's
friendly competition between thebuilders.
Competitive, it's friendlycompetition between the builders
.
But I think you knoweverybody's trying to build
their best version of what theythink is going to be the most
efficient weapon for what we doyeah, and I feel like the
difference is you're not really.
Kristina Hebert (11:24):
I could be wrong and I don't want to put
words in your mouth, but thesense I get is that you're
you're building a boat out ofpride, because it will be an
amazing experience and peoplewill enjoy it to go fishing, not
so much to please the customer.
You'll please them by buildingthem a quality boat, if that
makes any sense.
You're not going to change theintegrity of the boat or your
(11:46):
design just to please a customer.
John Bayliss (11:48):
Right.
There are certain things thatyou have to cling to that are
either design elements orstandards or what have you that?
You know?
I tell a lot of owners it's likewe're getting married, you know
, because there's somesubstantial lead time nowadays
and you could be havingconversations about a boat for
(12:09):
years in advance.
Sure, and the whole designbuild process.
The building takes anywherefrom 24 to 36 months.
Typical projects, you know, 64out to 80 feet.
But your design?
It could be designed and,depending on how quick people
are making decisions, you couldbe a year, maybe, maybe more, in
design.
Kristina Hebert (12:30):
Do you see a lot more.
Do you see a trend in design toinclude more families, or do
you see it more for tournaments,or is that the same boat?
John Bayliss (12:39):
Boy, they're all different.
Kristina Hebert (12:40):
Yeah, they are, and that's another thing I
learned Everything's custom.
John Bayliss (12:46):
Yeah, we've never built the same boat twice.
Which is hard I thought youknow, when you're dealing with
people of this caliber, thatthere'd be some kind of a common
thread, and I couldn't havebeen more wrong.
Everybody's, everybody's uh,gotten themselves in a in a
great position financially, alldifferent kinds of ways, sure
(13:07):
and uh, and all most, in mostcases, through taking risks and
hard work and we reallydeveloped some strong
friendships.
Kristina Hebert (13:16):
I can imagine.
John Bayliss (13:17):
There's a couple of those guys that I would value
as best friends now that Icould call about anything and
talk to them about stuffunrelated to boats or whatever,
and they're just really reallygood friends.
But that's the reallygratifying thing for us is to
work for people that you reallyrespect and admire and it's a
(13:39):
partnership through the build.
And you know, with the backloglike it is now, you can tend to
be a little bit more selectiveabout who's going to be in and
you know you're building for.
And we've got some great peoplewe've built for Wonderful and
we've got more good ones coming,so it's fun.
Kristina Hebert (13:59):
I was going to say I would imagine there's a
lot of reciprocity there, thatpeople also feel very lucky and
honored.
Yes, they do, to have one ofyour boats and to be one that
you're building, because theyknow the amount of quality and
time and effort you put into it.
You know we will.
John Bayliss (14:16):
I guarantee we will be super passionate, more
so than they will be about theend boat you know and I tell all
the guys.
You know there's a couple thingsI say.
We have a monday meeting, uh,every nine o'clock every monday
morning and we talk about theupcoming events for the week
who's's here, who's in town,what owner's coming in, who's
going in the water, all thatkind of stuff, and then we'll
(14:38):
have a couple prayers and thenwe'll go into the week.
But one thing we will sayfrequently is that remember that
we have the opportunity.
If we work hard and we'rediligent, we can be the best in
the world at what we do, andthere's not many jobs that you
can say no you're right forinstance you guys are, I would
(15:00):
view as the best in the world.
Thank, you, john, well, we wealways call because I think
that's the respected authorityfor marine electric and we want
to be the same for boat building.
Now will every customer likeour lines or our methods.
Maybe not.
Kristina Hebert (15:19):
You know, no, you can't be all things to all
people Spencer guys and Merrittguys and Ravovich guys and F&S
guys, and that should be thatway.
John Bayliss (15:32):
But we want to do our best, so what does?
Kristina Hebert (15:36):
the future look like.
I know that you have your sonand your daughter both work with
you, right?
Your son and your daughter, mydaughter, no, okay.
John Bayliss (15:43):
She was for a little bit, okay, and she's out
right now.
Kristina Hebert (15:46):
Okay.
Never know when she's comingback hey listen, I have two kids
too, so you got to hook themwhen you can.
John Bayliss (15:55):
Yeah, yeah, set the hook.
Uh, son John, uh, you know he'sin.
Uh, he's uh 38 now or 37 and uhdoing extremely well.
Kristina Hebert (16:04):
So I have to say he gave me a question to ask
you I was talking to.
It's a good one, it's?
I actually thought it was nice.
He said what was the bestadvice you ever received from a
mate?
John Bayliss (16:16):
The best advice I ever received Regarding.
Kristina Hebert (16:21):
That was all he said to me, the best advice you
ever received, maybe, as itrelates to fishing or Well, it's
that old.
John Bayliss (16:28):
What is it?
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
I think.
Okay, probably.
Kristina Hebert (16:35):
There you go.
That's a good one, that's agood one.
That is a good one.
John Bayliss (16:38):
It's used a lot but it's effective Okay.
That's a good one.
You've got to stop and thinkabout it.
Kristina Hebert (16:44):
I know I did.
I had to process that one for asecond, but I like it.
John Bayliss (16:49):
Yeah, I think well related to mates.
That's how I started fishingwas a mate and back then the
tenure of an average mate wouldbe five, maybe ten years, and
now mates are going much longer.
Oh yeah, there's kind of ashortage of those guys that are
(17:09):
really good.
What makes a?
Kristina Hebert (17:11):
good mate, a shortage of those guys that are
really good.
John Bayliss (17:13):
What makes a good mate?
Well, personality.
Kristina Hebert (17:15):
Sure.
John Bayliss (17:17):
Drive attentiveness to the boat
Attention to detail.
Manners, yeah, respect, but itall comes from the drive of
wanting to be.
Kristina Hebert (17:30):
Yeah, I would agree.
John Bayliss (17:31):
I think that's another thing that surprised me
about fishing initially was howcompetitive it was oh, yeah,
really yeah, yeah I had.
No, I thought you just went outwhen I first started as a mate.
Kristina Hebert (17:43):
You just go out yeah, just go fish, just like
hanging out.
Yeah, it's gonna be fun rightgreat.
John Bayliss (17:47):
You guys caught a bunch of fish today.
We caught half that and that'swonderful.
No, it was not like that at all.
Kristina Hebert (17:53):
It's competitive even in my own
family, Like my father wouldhave a boat and my brother.
It was a lot more competitivethan that and you know, nobody's
even going to tell each otherwhich route and what did we
catch?
And I mean, I was like, oh,this is just family.
John Bayliss (18:13):
Like we're all eating at the same dinner table
tonight.
But it was like, oh, that's ourarea, you know.
Kristina Hebert (18:16):
So it is competitive, yeah, it is, and
then in the tournaments it'sfriendly competition, sure, but
uh, everybody wants to be taboowell, I was listening to you, um
, in your presentation to forthe for the rules for the
captains and opening, and youwere going through everything,
and then I did hear you kind ofsay in the end you're like,
remember what we're here for,like let's not kill each other.
This is for you know,scholarships and education for
(18:38):
the kids.
John Bayliss (18:38):
Let's remember what it is.
Yes, you're not going to retireoff your earnings in this
tournament, oh, but you can tellpeople were still like all
right, which one's the mulligan?
But it's a pride day.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kristina Hebert (18:47):
Yeah, it's good , but that matters, that matters
.
And I actually interviewed agrandfather and his grandson
yesterday and the grandsoncaught three fish today and he
had them in a wards bucket.
So he was, it was, but youcould just tell it made like
their whole day.
It made their whole family tobe able to enjoy that experience
(19:08):
.
John Bayliss (19:08):
I see a lot of that at this tournament.
Yeah, that is nice yeah.
Kristina Hebert (19:12):
I'm sure you know some of the cutthroat,
tough tournaments.
You wouldn't bring smallchildren out or it may not be
the right space.
Do you, can you?
John Bayliss (19:21):
Yeah, I think you know if you're careful, sure,
yeah, yeah, there's probablyafter hours, shenanigans and
stuff sometimes that, yeah,you're not going to be there
anyway.
Kristina Hebert (19:30):
Right, exactly.
John Bayliss (19:31):
But no, this one is really.
You know there's a lot liketomorrow night we'll be
introducing all those kids thatgot scholarships.
Kristina Hebert (19:38):
That so great.
Some of the seventh gradersthat built that skiff will be
here and they should be so proudof that and I hope they get a
standing ovation and, and I hope, people start writing their
names down to recruit them torecruit them.
You know, if you can build aboat, you might need to be
fishing on that boat that'sright yeah well, I have to say
that, um, I know from my familyand to your, we've always
(20:00):
enjoyed working with.
My dad wants to say hello, bythe way, so we'll put it on the
podcast, but I know that ourcompanies he's he's always
enjoyed working with you and Ibelieve that it's a lot of it is
that you you have.
We have the same integrity.
We want to do the very best.
We want to create somethingthat that is smart, that makes
sense and and and.
Sometimes that takes sense andand.
And.
Sometimes that takes thoughtsand engineering and some time,
(20:23):
but, but in the end the productwill always be better for it,
and I think that's what you'vecreated here with this
tournament as well well, this isa big community effort here,
you know, a couple of the galsfrom the shop and then we have a
lot of volunteers and you know,of course, the students are
volunteering, too.
Oh, absolutely.
John Bayliss (20:40):
So it's good, but tomorrow night's the big deal
where?
Kristina Hebert (20:44):
everybody gets recognized.
John Bayliss (20:45):
It's the end of the tournament and there's a
winner.
Kristina Hebert (20:49):
That's so nice.
John Bayliss (20:50):
But the kids are something to be really proud of
Is the Bayless boat at the top.
Kristina Hebert (20:55):
Who's winning?
John Bayliss (20:56):
Not at the moment.
Kristina Hebert (20:57):
Not at the moment.
Tomorrow's a whole new day.
John Bayliss (20:59):
We're knocking on the door.
Kristina Hebert (21:00):
Okay, all right , but you've caught fish every
day we have.
Okay, so that's good.
John Bayliss (21:05):
Not the right ones .
We need some blue marlin, okay.
Kristina Hebert (21:08):
Well hopefully.
I'm going to push that goodluck onto you.
John Bayliss (21:12):
I would sure appreciate it.
Kristina Hebert (21:13):
Well, I appreciate you taking the time
and thank you from everythingthat you've had to get going and
I've really enjoyed sittingdown and talking with you and I
appreciate it.
Yeah, this has been great and,honestly, it was our first
chance.
Thank you for allowing us to dothe wards way.
Podcast on site it's our um.
John Bayliss (21:29):
You know what you're starting.
Kristina Hebert (21:31):
Oh, absolutely, this is the first one.
Okay, we got more years to come, for sure shocking how
professional this is it's the wWard's Way.
It's the Ward's Way.
Next year we'll have a wholebus and a van and it'll be air
conditioned.
No, I'm just.
John Bayliss (21:44):
I'm going to dress a little bit better.
Kristina Hebert (21:46):
No, not at all Thank you so much, John.
John Bayliss (21:49):
I appreciate it.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
Kristina Hebert (21:53):
Thank you for joining us this season of the
Ward's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
Welcome to Season 4 of the Wardsway Podcast
.
We're here live in Manteo,north Carolina, at the 22nd
Annual Carolina Boat BuilderFoundation Tournament.
Join us as we celebrate 75years in business and we're just
(00:22):
getting started.
Celebrate 75 years in businessand we're just getting started.
Welcome to Season 4 of theWorthway Podcast.
We're here live in Manteo,north Carolina, at the 22nd
Annual Carolina Boat BuilderFoundation Tournament, and I'm
here with the chairman, thefounder and guru of that
(00:43):
tournament, part founder, partfounder of that tournament, john
Bayliss, thank you for beinghere.
Thanks for having me, okay, soyou're part founder, who helped
you found it?
John Bayliss (00:52):
Actually it was a bunch of fishing guys and boat
builder guys, all the boatbuilders.
We had a local boat builder.
He was building boats up inKill Devil Hills, taylor
Harrison, and he ran into acancer issue in his mid-40s.
Goodness.
So he's got two children and Ithink his wife was either there
(01:14):
or they may have been separatedat that time.
That doesn't matter.
But he winds up in a real fight.
Very fit guy, very good senseof humor.
He worked with Omi Tillett, heworked with Ricky Scarborough.
Wow I think he had a stint withWarren O'Neill, so he had been
with some of the greats and hestarted his own shop and he was
(01:36):
doing great and we had juststarted boat building right then
, like we were a year into it.
And anyway, long story short,he wound up losing the fight.
The community was pretty shookup about it, pretty surprised
that a guy that healthy and thatwell-known and that likable
(01:58):
could pass at that age.
We were down here and everybodysaid everybody said we got to
do something to help these kidsget through school.
There was no provisions forthat and uh, mallory and Alex
were his two uh children andthey were about ready to go to
college.
And we said let's throwtogether a tournament.
(02:18):
And it came up and it was likeright, this time of year wow and
it was just like a throw down.
Just everybody put some money in, we raised some money I don't
even think there was any prizemoney at all back then and uh,
it was just more, you know, tohelp them, and it was a success.
We had, uh, probably 20 someboats, wow.
And then we did it again thenext year.
And then we did it again thenext year and, lo and behold,
(02:41):
got them through school, wow.
And then said now what?
Kristina Hebert (02:45):
Let's keep doing it.
John Bayliss (02:46):
So we kept doing it.
Kristina Hebert (02:47):
And this is the 22nd year Yep, and the money
still goes to schools, so talkabout that.
John Bayliss (02:53):
In the beginning it was for his children, for his
children, and we got them takencare of.
And then after that we decidedto form 501c3 and made it legit
and got a foundation going, andthat's how we did it.
So now we raise all the money.
I think to be a AAA-ratedfoundation you have to donate
(03:16):
66% of what you raise and we'reat like 91% or 92%.
Kristina Hebert (03:22):
That's amazing.
John Bayliss (03:22):
So the community really helps a lot in putting
this thing on.
You know all the food's donated, all the help's donated, and so
really, and you have quite agroup here.
Kristina Hebert (03:32):
The volunteer staff has been amazing.
John Bayliss (03:33):
Great.
Kristina Hebert (03:34):
Nobody goes without food, without a drink,
without anything.
John Bayliss (03:38):
That's why we won.
There you go.
Kristina Hebert (03:40):
And so the money goes to the Manteo,
Darragh County.
John Bayliss (03:43):
There'll be three high schools here, so it'll be
Cape Hatteras High School, andthen you'd have First Flight of
the Beach and Manteo, okay, andI saw that inside the skiff was
built by.
Seventh graders, can you?
Kristina Hebert (03:58):
believe that.
John Bayliss (03:59):
I know I couldn't believe it Seventh graders, so
we have two boats being built bythe high One's, being built by
the high school a jig boat.
Okay, that's a 24.
It's in process, still.
Wow.
And then this skiff was just ahand built, you know and they
did it in five months, somethinglike that three wow, wow so
glenn bradley.
He actually worked with us alittle bit, but most of his time
(04:20):
was spent with rickyscarborough and, uh, just a
great, very patient guy and he'sat a stage in his life where he
can build boats on his own andthen he wanted to donate some
time to that and he made thathappen well, when I was talking
to the dare county school peoplethey were they were talking
about middle school and to highschool and I was like, well,
what are you doing with theelementary kids?
Kristina Hebert (04:41):
I mean, are they slackers?
You know teasing, but uh, so wewere teasing but we were saying
, well, maybe we could get theminto, you know, the culinary,
because kids that age like to doit and so, yeah, so it was
interesting.
Still, try to keep all theschools.
John Bayliss (04:54):
They're going to this gift that's here now it'll
get you know, auctioned off andthen that money will go to
preserve the program and they'renot going to have any problem
getting materials from all thelocal boat builders there's
still a very healthy, viableboat building industry here, of
course you know, that, but allthe guys are going to chip in
(05:18):
Now.
Kristina Hebert (05:18):
I know that, but talk to me about that,
because I feel like it'sdefinitely one of those.
If you know, you know, you knowyou are in the boat building
country capital, here we are,but talk to me about how many
builders are here, and I saw thepicture yesterday that was
incredible, by the way, all thebuilders yeah it is everybody's
chumming together and when I'm.
John Bayliss (05:38):
When I first got here, I moved here right out of
high school, okay, and startedfishing, and one of the things I
learned is that you also as afisherman, as a mate or a
captain or whatever you maintainyour own boats.
If you're a mate, you'rehelping the captain in the yard.
Kristina Hebert (05:55):
Sure, I see it here too.
John Bayliss (05:57):
Yeah, you'll see that everywhere and that's just
ingrained here, whether you'refishing out of Hatteras or
Oregon Inland or whatever.
And then there was a group ofguys.
Every year There'd be OmiTiller would have a boat going,
buddy Kennedy would have a boator two going, sheldon Midgett,
(06:19):
billy Holden those guys, theywould be building a charter boat
.
A lot of the boats that are inhere on that side of the charter
fleet.
They were all built by men likethat and it would be literally
a group of five or six fishermenwith the head builder and they
would build that boat for one ofthe guys in there and out it
(06:40):
comes and these are like sixmonth projects.
They were turning, you know, 50footers out sure six months
very spartan, but very efficient, very efficient.
Got the job done Some of themnow are approaching 50 years old
and they're still going everyday.
So that's how it kind of gotstarted.
And then guys like Buddy Davis,of course, omi Tillett, warren
(07:04):
O'Neill, to some extent BillyHolton.
Then a new guy, sonny Briggs,was another good one.
They started attracting morelike private boat owners.
Okay, because the boats wererunning really good, they were
pretty, and the private boatguys wanted something a little
bit more refined, bigger, twoengines, all that stuff, and it
(07:25):
started to evolve.
And then you know everybodywhether you're talking about me
or Paul Spencer or Kurt Danielsor the Crossway guys we all
learned from those in front ofus and it was kind of passed
along.
So if you had a question youcould always call one of the
senior guys and say hey, how doI get out of this or what's the
(07:46):
best way to handle that?
And it's pretty remarkable.
You have these little hubs ofboat building all up and down
the East Coast, but this happensto be one of them.
Kristina Hebert (07:57):
It happens to be one of the very biggest and
one of the best and most denseas well.
So talk to me about Bayless.
What are some things that havehappened Now?
You have evolved a lot over theyears and I feel like every
time I come to visit yourfacility, you have a new shed or
you have new tooling or youhave new equipment.
John Bayliss (08:15):
We like tools and stuff.
Kristina Hebert (08:17):
Listen, you need them.
That's right, that's important.
That's how you get it built.
John Bayliss (08:21):
Yeah, the industry's changed a lot.
Sure, you know, I was thinkingback not too long ago.
We were thinking about thefirst boat we built.
Kristina Hebert (08:29):
And when was that?
John Bayliss (08:30):
That was 2002.
Okay, so basically right out offishing, right into that, and
we had the bow deck on, we hadthe forward sole in and we said,
hey, what do you want to do forthe layout?
There was no pre-planning.
We had a jig for the hullbridge and that was it, and then
(08:54):
the rest of it, like we wouldno more even consider anything
like that these days noweverything's designed in-house
sure it's all it's basicallybuilt before we even lay the
keel.
You know everything's agreedupon and that's been one of the
biggest evolutions is that youknow there's so much money at
stake and the boats, uh, havebecome, you know, complicated.
(09:17):
There's a lot of systems andeverything's got to be done
right and they're traveling allaround the world now of course
there's no problem.
There's a bunch of boats comingback from bermuda over the next
couple days, wow that's youknow used to be.
That was a big deal but nowit's a 600 mile run and they're
like okay, we got a half week.
Yeah, no big deal right, but uh,that's how much has changed and
(09:40):
uh, so I think for us, I thinkwe've tried to take everything
we could in-house, like when wefirst started.
It was we'd subcontract ourinteriors, subcontract the
electrical, and we were justgetting started.
It was six or seven people andas we've grown, I think we've
decided it was best for us, forthe style that we're trying to
(10:03):
do is maintain the quality,maintain the timeline and do it
all ourselves.
Kristina Hebert (10:10):
Is there something in the evolution you
wish didn't happen, so a pieceof technology that you wish
could go back to the way it was,or do you like to see all the
new technology?
John Bayliss (10:22):
I would say we're cautious about taking on new
stuff.
There's a lot of new things,shiny objects that come into the
industry, as you know.
Kristina Hebert (10:32):
Yes.
John Bayliss (10:33):
The tendency is to jump forward every time.
But we're probably going to bea little bit more conservative.
Let's wait and see or reallyvet it out before we jump at
something.
But I think you know we want tokeep progressing, keep
improving.
Kristina Hebert (10:47):
I know we say the same thing.
John Bayliss (10:49):
That's an important big deal for us around
the shop.
If somebody's in there you knowone of the workers or you know
our people.
We've got great people but theyall have to have that feeling
of you know we want to getbetter every day.
Kristina Hebert (11:03):
Evolution or extinction, they say.
John Bayliss (11:04):
you know, yeah, and it's competitive, it's
friendly competition between thebuilders.
Competitive, it's friendlycompetition between the builders
.
But I think you knoweverybody's trying to build
their best version of what theythink is going to be the most
efficient weapon for what we doyeah, and I feel like the
difference is you're not really.
Kristina Hebert (11:24):
I could be wrong and I don't want to put
words in your mouth, but thesense I get is that you're
you're building a boat out ofpride, because it will be an
amazing experience and peoplewill enjoy it to go fishing, not
so much to please the customer.
You'll please them by buildingthem a quality boat, if that
makes any sense.
You're not going to change theintegrity of the boat or your
(11:46):
design just to please a customer.
John Bayliss (11:48):
Right.
There are certain things thatyou have to cling to that are
either design elements orstandards or what have you that?
You know?
I tell a lot of owners it's likewe're getting married, you know
, because there's somesubstantial lead time nowadays
and you could be havingconversations about a boat for
(12:09):
years in advance.
Sure, and the whole designbuild process.
The building takes anywherefrom 24 to 36 months.
Typical projects, you know, 64out to 80 feet.
But your design?
It could be designed and,depending on how quick people
are making decisions, you couldbe a year, maybe, maybe more, in
design.
Kristina Hebert (12:30):
Do you see a lot more.
Do you see a trend in design toinclude more families, or do
you see it more for tournaments,or is that the same boat?
John Bayliss (12:39):
Boy, they're all different.
Kristina Hebert (12:40):
Yeah, they are, and that's another thing I
learned Everything's custom.
John Bayliss (12:46):
Yeah, we've never built the same boat twice.
Which is hard I thought youknow, when you're dealing with
people of this caliber, thatthere'd be some kind of a common
thread, and I couldn't havebeen more wrong.
Everybody's, everybody's uh,gotten themselves in a in a
great position financially, alldifferent kinds of ways, sure
(13:07):
and uh, and all most, in mostcases, through taking risks and
hard work and we reallydeveloped some strong
friendships.
Kristina Hebert (13:16):
I can imagine.
John Bayliss (13:17):
There's a couple of those guys that I would value
as best friends now that Icould call about anything and
talk to them about stuffunrelated to boats or whatever,
and they're just really reallygood friends.
But that's the reallygratifying thing for us is to
work for people that you reallyrespect and admire and it's a
(13:39):
partnership through the build.
And you know, with the backloglike it is now, you can tend to
be a little bit more selectiveabout who's going to be in and
you know you're building for.
And we've got some great peoplewe've built for Wonderful and
we've got more good ones coming,so it's fun.
Kristina Hebert (13:59):
I was going to say I would imagine there's a
lot of reciprocity there, thatpeople also feel very lucky and
honored.
Yes, they do, to have one ofyour boats and to be one that
you're building, because theyknow the amount of quality and
time and effort you put into it.
You know we will.
John Bayliss (14:16):
I guarantee we will be super passionate, more
so than they will be about theend boat you know and I tell all
the guys.
You know there's a couple thingsI say.
We have a monday meeting, uh,every nine o'clock every monday
morning and we talk about theupcoming events for the week
who's's here, who's in town,what owner's coming in, who's
going in the water, all thatkind of stuff, and then we'll
(14:38):
have a couple prayers and thenwe'll go into the week.
But one thing we will sayfrequently is that remember that
we have the opportunity.
If we work hard and we'rediligent, we can be the best in
the world at what we do, andthere's not many jobs that you
can say no you're right forinstance you guys are, I would
(15:00):
view as the best in the world.
Thank, you, john, well, we wealways call because I think
that's the respected authorityfor marine electric and we want
to be the same for boat building.
Now will every customer likeour lines or our methods.
Maybe not.
Kristina Hebert (15:19):
You know, no, you can't be all things to all
people Spencer guys and Merrittguys and Ravovich guys and F&S
guys, and that should be thatway.
John Bayliss (15:32):
But we want to do our best, so what does?
Kristina Hebert (15:36):
the future look like.
I know that you have your sonand your daughter both work with
you, right?
Your son and your daughter, mydaughter, no, okay.
John Bayliss (15:43):
She was for a little bit, okay, and she's out
right now.
Kristina Hebert (15:46):
Okay.
Never know when she's comingback hey listen, I have two kids
too, so you got to hook themwhen you can.
John Bayliss (15:55):
Yeah, yeah, set the hook.
Uh, son John, uh, you know he'sin.
Uh, he's uh 38 now or 37 and uhdoing extremely well.
Kristina Hebert (16:04):
So I have to say he gave me a question to ask
you I was talking to.
It's a good one, it's?
I actually thought it was nice.
He said what was the bestadvice you ever received from a
mate?
John Bayliss (16:16):
The best advice I ever received Regarding.
Kristina Hebert (16:21):
That was all he said to me, the best advice you
ever received, maybe, as itrelates to fishing or Well, it's
that old.
John Bayliss (16:28):
What is it?
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
I think.
Okay, probably.
Kristina Hebert (16:35):
There you go.
That's a good one, that's agood one.
That is a good one.
John Bayliss (16:38):
It's used a lot but it's effective Okay.
That's a good one.
You've got to stop and thinkabout it.
Kristina Hebert (16:44):
I know I did.
I had to process that one for asecond, but I like it.
John Bayliss (16:49):
Yeah, I think well related to mates.
That's how I started fishingwas a mate and back then the
tenure of an average mate wouldbe five, maybe ten years, and
now mates are going much longer.
Oh yeah, there's kind of ashortage of those guys that are
(17:09):
really good.
What makes a?
Kristina Hebert (17:11):
good mate, a shortage of those guys that are
really good.
John Bayliss (17:13):
What makes a good mate?
Well, personality.
Kristina Hebert (17:15):
Sure.
John Bayliss (17:17):
Drive attentiveness to the boat
Attention to detail.
Manners, yeah, respect, but itall comes from the drive of
wanting to be.
Kristina Hebert (17:30):
Yeah, I would agree.
John Bayliss (17:31):
I think that's another thing that surprised me
about fishing initially was howcompetitive it was oh, yeah,
really yeah, yeah I had.
No, I thought you just went outwhen I first started as a mate.
Kristina Hebert (17:43):
You just go out yeah, just go fish, just like
hanging out.
Yeah, it's gonna be fun rightgreat.
John Bayliss (17:47):
You guys caught a bunch of fish today.
We caught half that and that'swonderful.
No, it was not like that at all.
Kristina Hebert (17:53):
It's competitive even in my own
family, Like my father wouldhave a boat and my brother.
It was a lot more competitivethan that and you know, nobody's
even going to tell each otherwhich route and what did we
catch?
And I mean, I was like, oh,this is just family.
John Bayliss (18:13):
Like we're all eating at the same dinner table
tonight.
But it was like, oh, that's ourarea, you know.
Kristina Hebert (18:16):
So it is competitive, yeah, it is, and
then in the tournaments it'sfriendly competition, sure, but
uh, everybody wants to be taboowell, I was listening to you, um
, in your presentation to forthe for the rules for the
captains and opening, and youwere going through everything,
and then I did hear you kind ofsay in the end you're like,
remember what we're here for,like let's not kill each other.
This is for you know,scholarships and education for
(18:38):
the kids.
John Bayliss (18:38):
Let's remember what it is.
Yes, you're not going to retireoff your earnings in this
tournament, oh, but you can tellpeople were still like all
right, which one's the mulligan?
But it's a pride day.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Kristina Hebert (18:47):
Yeah, it's good , but that matters, that matters
.
And I actually interviewed agrandfather and his grandson
yesterday and the grandsoncaught three fish today and he
had them in a wards bucket.
So he was, it was, but youcould just tell it made like
their whole day.
It made their whole family tobe able to enjoy that experience
(19:08):
.
John Bayliss (19:08):
I see a lot of that at this tournament.
Yeah, that is nice yeah.
Kristina Hebert (19:12):
I'm sure you know some of the cutthroat,
tough tournaments.
You wouldn't bring smallchildren out or it may not be
the right space.
Do you, can you?
John Bayliss (19:21):
Yeah, I think you know if you're careful, sure,
yeah, yeah, there's probablyafter hours, shenanigans and
stuff sometimes that, yeah,you're not going to be there
anyway.
Kristina Hebert (19:30):
Right, exactly.
John Bayliss (19:31):
But no, this one is really.
You know there's a lot liketomorrow night we'll be
introducing all those kids thatgot scholarships.
Kristina Hebert (19:38):
That so great.
Some of the seventh gradersthat built that skiff will be
here and they should be so proudof that and I hope they get a
standing ovation and, and I hope, people start writing their
names down to recruit them torecruit them.
You know, if you can build aboat, you might need to be
fishing on that boat that'sright yeah well, I have to say
that, um, I know from my familyand to your, we've always
(20:00):
enjoyed working with.
My dad wants to say hello, bythe way, so we'll put it on the
podcast, but I know that ourcompanies he's he's always
enjoyed working with you and Ibelieve that it's a lot of it is
that you you have.
We have the same integrity.
We want to do the very best.
We want to create somethingthat that is smart, that makes
sense and and and.
Sometimes that takes sense andand.
And.
Sometimes that takes thoughtsand engineering and some time,
(20:23):
but, but in the end the productwill always be better for it,
and I think that's what you'vecreated here with this
tournament as well well, this isa big community effort here,
you know, a couple of the galsfrom the shop and then we have a
lot of volunteers and you know,of course, the students are
volunteering, too.
Oh, absolutely.
John Bayliss (20:40):
So it's good, but tomorrow night's the big deal
where?
Kristina Hebert (20:44):
everybody gets recognized.
John Bayliss (20:45):
It's the end of the tournament and there's a
winner.
Kristina Hebert (20:49):
That's so nice.
John Bayliss (20:50):
But the kids are something to be really proud of
Is the Bayless boat at the top.
Kristina Hebert (20:55):
Who's winning?
John Bayliss (20:56):
Not at the moment.
Kristina Hebert (20:57):
Not at the moment.
Tomorrow's a whole new day.
John Bayliss (20:59):
We're knocking on the door.
Kristina Hebert (21:00):
Okay, all right , but you've caught fish every
day we have.
Okay, so that's good.
John Bayliss (21:05):
Not the right ones .
We need some blue marlin, okay.
Kristina Hebert (21:08):
Well hopefully.
I'm going to push that goodluck onto you.
John Bayliss (21:12):
I would sure appreciate it.
Kristina Hebert (21:13):
Well, I appreciate you taking the time
and thank you from everythingthat you've had to get going and
I've really enjoyed sittingdown and talking with you and I
appreciate it.
Yeah, this has been great and,honestly, it was our first
chance.
Thank you for allowing us to dothe wards way.
Podcast on site it's our um.
John Bayliss (21:29):
You know what you're starting.
Kristina Hebert (21:31):
Oh, absolutely, this is the first one.
Okay, we got more years to come, for sure shocking how
professional this is it's the wWard's Way.
It's the Ward's Way.
Next year we'll have a wholebus and a van and it'll be air
conditioned.
No, I'm just.
John Bayliss (21:44):
I'm going to dress a little bit better.
Kristina Hebert (21:46):
No, not at all Thank you so much, John.
John Bayliss (21:49):
I appreciate it.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
Kristina Hebert (21:53):
Thank you for joining us this season of the
Ward's Way podcast.
Be sure you subscribe becausethere's much more to come.
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