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BAYLINER whats in the name? A key player in bringing boating to the masses!
Bayliner a boat manufacturer name who has taken a beating with boaters, these boaters who attack the Bayliner brand obviously have no idea of the history and relationship that this brand has played in the power boat industry since the late 1980's. Bayliner Boats of Arlington Washington was in the late eighties the cornerstone of the pleasure boat industry in North America and around the world. Bayliner had factories in Washington state, Minnesota, Georgia, and Florida. They developed the brands we know such as Bayliner, Maxum, Trophy, Robalo, and Meridian. They were behind advancements such as the Jazz and Reflex (jet boats), the first all curved deck small cruiser the 27 Cierra, and some classic yachts like the 3288, 3888, and 4288 these yachts were great designs and would take unbelievable punishment. Since all these yachts where developed and tested in the Pacific North West, and I do not mean just on the nice days.
They have been copied by companies like Campion Marine, Mainship Yachts, Sea ray and a whole host of smaller boat builders around the world. Bayliner had test areas in the Nevada Desert for upholstery deterioration and in the San Jaun Islands for hull design testing. They were responsible for technology that trickled over to Baja, Sea Ray Wahoo and many other boat builders who were under the Brunswick umbrella. The main office for what is now the Brunswick Boat Group, formerly US Marine was located at a Bayliner factory. Bayliner was the first boat builder to be purchased by Brunswick this lit a race between OMC and Brunswick to buy up boat manufacturers. This is because they were the largest pleasure boat builder in the world at the time and were close to a deal with OMC. Buying Bayliner would mean control over who provided the engine packages, which meant that lots of Mercury product would be placed in the market. Bayliner even built the Buccaneer sail boat, they made it all over their prime years of production. The Arlington factory had one of the first 3D milling machines to create molds, and they did, even for Sea Ray. The Arlington Bayliner factory also had full size test tanks (swimming pools) where they did sink tests for several Brunswick Companies. Bayliner could easily have been the Sea Ray we know today, so what happened to the one time largest builder with the one time largest dealers in the world.
Well first off in the late eighties they built so many boats that the completed inventory ended up stored with covered in shrink wrap, for those who use shrink wrap this will be a valuable lesson for you, under the plastic the wood structure began to rot, which is exactly what all boats do if you leave the plastic cover on for more time than absolutely necessary. When these boats made it to market they had a lot of issues, these were generally the small runabouts, and this was before inner liner boats. The floors were going bad almost immediately and this was the first bad reputation that Bayliner suffered.
Bayliner became the test company for Brunswick and because of this many models came and went, The problem with being the test ground is that the bugs are ironed out with Bayliner brand name. However their core models were great the Yachts, Cruisers and Runabouts. Even with the core group of boats Brunswick still managed to muck about and Bayliner's ended up with the Force Outboard Motors. This was when Brunswick bought the Chrysler Outboard motor company. these motors were junk and every one knew it but they took these out of date motors and stuck them on Bayliners, another hit to the reputation.
Bayliner Yachts had to experiment with different motor combinations like Hino Desiels, not good they were smokers and the non turbo engines were gutless. After these flubs Brunswick went on to use Bayliner as the main test ground for engine package combinations to improve fuel burn and costs, and guess what? Bayliner then got the wrap for horribly under powered boats, the next nail.
Bayliner started to get a reputation as a low entry level boat brand, and boaters started to pick on the brand. At this time Brunswick started to splinter the line and broke off Robalo and Trophy. Wound down the Maxum brand, Brunswick did not need to have a competing brand to Sea Ray. In the end Bayliner became a dumping ground for yesterdays technology motors from Mercury Marine. Bayliner started to slip even more. Now Brunswick after messing around with the brand decided to rename Bayliner Yachts as Meridians. Then Bayliner started to die. A Sad Day in the Marine Industry!
I get a charge out of the boaters who own a Maxum, and beat up Bayliner! They are the same boats built in the same factories using the same materials, Bayliner and Sea Ray also share the same DNA, Bayliner's are not bad boats at all, believe me there are really crappy boats out there, much worse by far. The difference between a Sea Ray and a Bayliner in some model years are the finishes and the hardware, If you look at a Baliner and Sea Ray side by side you will notice this immediately. So Bayliner owners stand up for your brand, every other boat in the market owes something to Bayliner. If your on the west coast you will not hear the kind of mudslinging we hear in Ontario, If the brand was so bad how come there are so many around? In a lot of ways they were the every mans boat and that is ok with me. I was excited to see a resurgence in the brand at this years Toronto Boat Show. I would love to see another new Bayliner Motor Yacht, but that may never happen Brunswick today builds to many models and now that they have converted the Hatteras brand into big Sea Rays, I do not think there will ever be a Bayliner Yacht Market again.
Bayliner built some great boats and still do, Please do not listen to the haters. I sure hope they find their way back to larger boats. Bayliner owners were the original BOAT NUTS!!!!!!!
Pictures from Bayliner
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