Bayliss Boatworks Refit

64′ Hull #5 Goas Back to the Future

Refits of sportfishers happen daily across the nation. However, it’s not every day that a builder gets one of his single-digit hulls back in the yard after 16 years. This is even rarer when the original owner, one who has traveled offshore extensively to set records flyfishing for billfish, is only selling her for an eight-foot longer model and the new owner desires a like-new metamorphosis on which to make his own family fishing memories. This was the task presented to John Bayliss, president of Bayliss Boatworks (BBW) in Wanchese, North Carolina, when his 64’ Hull #5, built in 2006 and named Old Reliable, came back to the yard last year.

“This boat was our fourth big boat and the largest at that time,” says Bayliss. “She’s a little unique for three reasons. First, is that she was owned by her original owner, Nick Smith, for over 16 years. Nick simply sold her and transferred his crew and tackle over to his new 72-foot Bayliss Hull #25 in 2021. The sale and the delivery all took place right here at our facility. Once the sale was finalized, we began work on the refit project, which will be re-christened as Mama Seata. Secondly, Hull #5 was purpose-built for flyfishing for billfish exclusively. For example, no transom door, no transom fish box and a tackle/prep center inside the salon. She has been extremely effective at her job, as this boat, owner and crew set new records in ‘catch-per-day’ and ‘releases-per-season.’ Third, the new owner, Robb Crumpton, is looking for a refit that looks like a new build for a traveling family fishing program.”

Record-Setting Pedigree

In 2006, Smith, from North Palm Beach, Florida, had sportfished for a half-century, caught over 6700 billfish on conventional tackle and was then firmly hooked on perfecting his offshore fly-fishing skills for bills. To that end, Smith and his Old Reliable team, with long-time Capt. Chip Shaffer at the helm, went to Bayliss for a new build to pursue this passion in global destinations with the goal of record-setting results. Interestingly, Bayliss had worked as a mate for Shaffer back in the late 70s on the Temptress out of Fort Pierce.

“We’re on the boat 100 to 150 nights a year, and a good night’s sleep is important for what we do, so we wanted three staterooms,” Smith explains. “When we’re fishing in remote places like the seamounts off Costa Rica, or off Guatemala or in Magdalena (Mag) Bay off Baja Mexico, we’ll stay out for a couple of days rather than heading in at night. This is so we can fish until dark and start fishing as soon as we wake up. Therefore, redundancy is important. Two generators. Two freshwater makers. Three zero-sub freezers and refrigerators. We made sure to have extra storage room too for our rods, and hundreds of teaser lures, flies and baits too. Plus, a long-range 2340-gal fuel capacity. Another thing I wanted on the 64’ was the aesthetic of a low profile. So we cut the shear line by six inches. The cockpit depth was down to 24 inches in the aft starboard corner rather than the normal 26-to-27 inches. What this did too was put the mates closer to the waterline, so they could reach down, grab the bills and take the hooks out of the fish.”

When Smith sold the Bayliss 64’ in 2021, her fish-catching pedigree as part of the Old Reliable team included nearly 5,800 billfish released on fly. Among the most noteworthy single-day feats were 18 blue marlin caught on fly at a seamount off Los Sueños, Costa Rica, on July 7, 2013, and the nearly 200 striped marlin Smith raised on October 10, 2019, in Mag Bay, releasing a total of 72 that day.

16 Years of Progress In One Refit

There has to be a firm foundation for an extensive refit and Bayliss Hull #5 certainly had 16 years’ worth of solid time-honed bones. 

“One thing we’ve tried to do on every build is to think forward 10 or even 20 years in the future and try to foresee some of the eventualities that could take place. For one, boats can get faster. There could be new horsepower in a smaller footprint. So you have to plan for the boat to go faster than what you built it for. That’s why we tend to overbuild. That’s what made this project, although it’s a huge project, a little easier because we didn’t have to do anything structurally or for air for the engines because we had already prepared for that 16 years ago. That was a big advantage to this refit,” says Bayliss.

Before they embarked on the refit, Bayliss and his BBW team sat down with Crumpton, of Birmingham, Alabama, to discuss his goals for the new Mama Seata. Crumpton was in the lineup for building a new boat in the next six-to-seven years but wanted this to be his interim boat for a family-oriented program that will see the 64’ back in her old Pacific Ocean fishing grounds in Cabo and Costa Rica, as well as the Atlantic fishing in the Bahamas and Virgin Islands.

“We are making a lot of exciting changes,” says Crumpton. “Our goal was to update every system as if we were building a 2022 Bayliss. With new interiors, bigger engines, all-new electronics, seakeepers and generators, a freshwater loop system, and a completely redesigned mezzanine with air-conditioning, nothing was overlooked. We’re counting down the days until we see that 64’ in reverse!”

Bayliss says the 64’s refit is a great project to show what can be done with a sound yet 16-year-old boat and make it like it just came out of the yard new.

“It seems like there is a never-ending cascade of innovations and changes in the industry. Sportfishermen, captains, owners, and builders particularly are all trying to get better and better and keep refining these machines to make them better. So this refit allowed us to add 16 years’ worth of changes, improvements and advancements into one build at one time,” he says.

The Details

Over the last eight months, Bayliss has made significant changes to the mechanical systems, interior and exterior. One of these was to repower the 64’ with new 2000HP MTU M96Xs. Since the original had two Cat C32 1650 HP, the engine room was already large enough, with plenty of air intake, for the add. They also designed and built new sea chests to accommodate the new engines.

New mechanical systems include newstyle BBW-built engine mounts and Genset mounts, plus new custom BBW shaft seal assemblies. There are also two new Northern Lights 25 kW generators, rudders, Thordon shaft bearings, VEEM propellers, Twin Disc controls, Optimus steering and bow thruster. Pump room mechanical equipment has been reconfigured, fuel transfer and oil change pump upgraded, AC compressors replaces, air handlers serviced and replaced, live well pumps added, and a new Dometic 1000-pound per day ice maker added.

One of the biggest changes in the last 16 years is refrigeration.

“We build our own boxes, and we have our compressors custom-built for us,” says Bayliss. “Back in 2006, it was all aftermarket suppliers and different people mostly from Florida that would build stuff, send it to you and you had to install it. But over time, we figured out that we could do a really good job building our own boxes. In the refit, the entire mezzanine was torn out and built it back like new with all the custom refrigeration boxes in it.”

The 2022 refit made the transition from raw water cooling for all its communications, for the gyro and for the ice maker, and now it’s all on a freshwater cooling system developed at BBW that’s part of the company’s new boat setup. Mechanical systems-wise, it’s a huge benefit.

Also installed for the first time was a Seakeeper 18.

“A big goal for us when we take on a project like this is to protect the resale value for the owner. You don’t want to do anything where you’re putting a seakeeper, for example, in an obscure place so that somebody later calls out ‘why the heck did they do that?’ You need to make sure it looks like it was originally designed for its space, and we take great pains to make sure this happens,” says Bayliss.

Exterior improvements include all-new IMRON paint; a new HD Buggy Top to accommodate a larger Sat Dome and added hardtop radar pod mods; faux teak drip molding, toe rail, salon door exterior, transom and chairs; exterior teak in the cockpit’s deck and cover boards; exterior cushions; flybridge enclosure; and outriggers. Bayliss also replaced all rod holders with new customs, installed a custom flush bow deck hatch, relocated the Lazarette hatch to accommodate the transom fish box, added a new transom fish box live well, put in new helm chairs and custom stainless steel bait trays, upgraded all exterior lighting to LED, and modified the flybridge console to accommodate new electronics.

On the interior, the ‘new’ list is impressive and includes granite countertops throughout, a salon table, barstools, plumbing fixtures, contemporary custom-built teak shower doors, padded wall panels, and ceilings, carpet, custom Tempur-Pedic mattresses, microwave oven and speakers throughout. Additionally, all interior hardware like doors and drawer latches are upgraded, the padded panel companionway ceiling was replaced with teak, the salon teak veneers were changed out to add contrast, all interiors were refinished, interior lighting was upgraded to LED, and a Miele commercial washer/dryer added to the upgrade. Lastly, an Insta-Cold water dispenser was added to the galley sink.

Other elements of the extensive refit include all new electronics like an Omni sonar, renewed main electrical distribution panel, replacement of underwater lights, installation of new flybridge speakers and spare VEEM wheels with custom prop storage boxes.

New Life As Mama Seata

The 2022-refit Mama Seata is due to splash in December.

“It’s going right back to the Pacific. Probably to the same spots, doing the same type of fishing but with conventional tackle rather than fly, where the old Old Reliable was,” he says. “When people see it, it will be a slightly different color and have a different name. They’ll probably have no idea that it’s the Old Reliable.”

Photos: Bayliss Boatworks

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