InTheBite

Viking—2019 July/August issue

Hatteras—2019 July/August issue

Bertram—2019 July/August issue

Bayliss—2019 July/August issue

Spencer Yachts—2020 March issue

Ritchie Howell—2020 March issue

Contender—2020 March issue

Merrit's Boats—2020 March issue 

Merritt’s Boat and Engine Works – Jane S

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An evolution of Merritt boats, in formation. The 42’ Caliban, built solely by Roy Merritt in 1967, the 72’ Brier Patch built in 2009. And the 86’ Destiny, splashed in 2011.

In all of the history of sport fishing, you’d be hard-pressed to find more influential boat builders than the Merritt family. In the late 40s, patriarchs Franklin (Roy) and Ennis Merritt bought a 10-acre tract on the Intracoastal Waterway in Pompano, Beach Florida. They planned to use the site to start a charter fleet of head boats. The boatyard began as a way for the brothers to maintain their charter boats.

In 1955, the brothers’ two sons, Buddy and Allen, began building boats on the property. Buddy designed and built the boats, while Allen ran the business. Allen’s son, Roy Merritt, eventually worked his way into the business. By the time Roy built his first Merritt boat, the yard had actually stopped building boats for a couple of years. Roy Merritt’s first build was hull number 20—and it would be quite influential.

“I was in my late 20s and we had actually stopped building boats in 1968 or 1969,” says Roy Merritt. “I’d always worked on the boat building side. My Uncle Buddy died in March of 1971 but a guy approached me and asked if we could build another 42-footer for him. And I said, ‘Man, I don’t know.’”

“So, I went to my father who wasn’t a builder, he was sort of the frontman, and my grandfather, who was still alive and he knew a lot of stuff. All the boat builders were gone. But I went to these guys and I said, ‘What do you think?’ They said, ‘Do you think you can do it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I guess. I’ve been around it enough. I think I can do it.’ They said, ‘Go ahead and built it. If you don’t like it then we will just burn it!’ So that boat became hull 20…and was called the Jane S.”

The Jennie Pie, built as the Jane S. Photo courtesy of the Matthew Kersting Collection

“It’s very significant because if it wasn’t for that boat, I’m not sure that we would have started building again. I really don’t know,” says Merritt. “At that time, we had a yard running with plenty of repair work. The thought was that we were done with the building. Once you start building though, it becomes an affliction. That’s what you want to do. You’d much rather build them, than repair them. We are on hull 109 now…it’s an 88-footer.”

“The guys who came to me to build the Jane S were Fred “Paunch” Stone and his brother Pat. George Schiegert ran the boat, they all grew up here in Pompano—they were Hillsborough Inlet boys,” says Merritt. “I already had the patterns for the frame and somehow it came off pretty good. I knew I could figure it out…it just might have taken a little while. I can’t remember that much, but let’s just say it was concerning when I started.”

Almost 90 boats later, there’s probably not a whole lot of similarities between the Jane S and the yachts produced at Merritt’s today—at least not in terms of construction. “Throughout your boat-building life there are a lot of things that influence you. It’s never any one thing. Every time you build one, you try to make a better one. You’re always looking for those little things that will make it just a bit better. I think all builders work that way,” says Merritt.

“We transitioned from frame to cold mold, to fiberglass to composite. It’s a lot more interesting now with a lot of new products,” says Merritt. “Everything is cored, we have Kevlar in the hull, the superstructure and top are all carbon fiber. So, you have Kevlar for the toughness, carbon fiber for the stiffness and you can build these boats real strong and real light. The boats we build now will still be around 100 years from now…if you want to keep putting engines in them. They are not going to wear out.”

“What do our customers want…I have a simple answer…they want it all!” says Merritt. “All the things you think you did right…you still learn a lot by doing things wrong. Our latest project that’s out on the water right now is a 77. We think this one is pretty good. Michael Peters did the bottom design and the boat is just an animal. A real mover and a goer.”

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Bayliss Boatworks, Endeavor 60

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The 60′ Edeavor: the first Bayliss.

By Dave Ferrell

Although he’s spent his entire life on the water as either a mate, charter boat captain, private boat captain or even commercial fisherman, John Bayliss has only been a boat builder since 2002. On April 15th of that year, Bayliss and a small crew of boat builders started work on what would become the first Bayliss, a 60-footer to be aptly-named Endeavor.

Bayliss jumped into the boat-building business in a time of upheaval just after September 11th, 2001.

“Nobody knew what was going to happen. I’d been working on a private boat for a longtime friend and after the attacks with all the uncertainty, I came to the conclusion that I needed to get out and do my own thing. I’d already done the charter fishing, working for a boat factory, working for another factory…so I decided to put a couple of feelers out to see if anybody wanted to build a boat,” says Bayliss.

Mike Atkinson met up with Bayliss at Pirate’s Cove Marina and after a beer or two and some specifications scribbled out on a napkin, they came to an agreement and Bayliss Boatworks was born.

The Bayliss crew from the original build in 2003.

“When we first started talking about the boat it was going to be a 60-footer with a pair of six-cylinder engines. It was a simple, straightforward fishing boat…really nice but nothing crazy,” says Bayliss.

“Then along comes Charlie Barker (he owns a 92-foot Viking now) and he becomes a partner in the boat with Mike. Barker asks me if I think we can put V12s in the boat, so I ask Robert Ullberg if it would take them and he says sure. Soon the boat became a three-stateroom, three-head boat with a washer and dryer and a mezzanine, which were just coming out at the time.

It went from a boat that was being built to fish on the East Coast, to one that was meant to travel and fish in places like Costa Rica. In fact, that boat is now named the Uno Mas and is still doing an incredible job catching fish down in Los Sueños for Brooks Smith. We are still very proud that she’s the first one.

“That boat became a classic example of how the owner and crew can kind of drive, or push the boat builder in a different direction. I was just going to build a really durable fish catching boat, but it became a yacht on the very first one. And that really helped us a lot, since before we started on that first one we had three other guys under contract as well, and they wanted a nicer boat, too.

The Bayliss team from 2017.

Those first two guys somehow saw something and they wanted to push us a little further. Luckily, for us, our next guy was better, and the next guy after that was better still. They all pushed us to bigger and better things. We’ve built 25 boats now and we’ve never built the same one twice.”

Although Endeavor grew beyond all of Bayliss’ expectations, its unique look was intentional from the beginning.

“When I started the company, I wanted this boat to pull into a marina and have people say, is that boat a Carolina build or a Florida build? We wanted to combine the best aspects of those looks,” says Bayliss. “That was a very different boat for around here at the time. That boat has very little flare and we designed it that way on purpose. That look caused me a lot of sleepless nights. When we had the boat on the jig upside in the shop I had prominent boat builders telling me that I couldn’t build the boat the way it was…that is was a mistake and I was messing up. I went back to Ullberg again and told him what the guys were saying and he pointed out that the boat was exactly what we had on the computer in 3-D and that I should just shut the door and build it. And that’s what we did. I’m glad I had friends like him to keep me pressing on. Too much self-doubt can lead to a not-so-good boat…and then you become a one and done. Our first one turned out to be a really good one.”

For more information on Bayliss Boatworks, please e-mail info@inthebite.com or fill out the form below and our InTheBite concierge service will be happy to assist you.

Ritchie Howell Custom Carolina Yachts – TFB

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The Sea Fix, a Ritchie boat splashed in 2019, exemplifies Howell’s modern creations—the heritage of which can be traced to a conversation between two North Carolina charter captains. Photo courtesy Pepper Ailor

There seems to be no end to the boat building talent in Wanchese, North Carolina. Ritchie Howell stands as a fine example of a man that has mastered the fine art of crafting custom, sportfishing machines. Like many others in this area, he learned about boats by using them every day as a hook and line commercial tuna fisherman.

“I fished alongside Paul Spencer and we would always push each other to make the day. We would joke around about quitting all this one day and building boats,” says Howell. “One day, Paul said, ‘I’m going to do it. I’ve got a contract on my boat; I’m going to sell it and put up a boat shop and build a boat.’ So that’s what we did, we built him a boat.”

“We got about three-quarters of the way through the build and the boat sold. That was the Biopsy. Well, since I had put some money into the jig and the building with Paul, the next boat was mine…so we started my boat. I was still charter fishing at the time and my motor blew up. So, I sold that boat rather quickly. That was the Anticipation.”

“After that Paul was all-in and wanted to big,” says Howell. “But I wasn’t ready for that yet. To build one or two at a time was one thing, but I wasn’t ready for 15 at time. Paul offered to buy my piece of the jig and the building and I agreed. He bought me out and we went our separate ways.” But of course, that wasn’t the end of the story.

“I had a trip one day in the Fall, and as I backed into my slip, I saw Paul sitting there in his truck,” says Howell. “As soon as my people hopped off, Paul hopped on. He said ‘I’ve got about five people ready to build a boat right now. I know you have the money to put up a building because I just bought you out. You need to put up a building and do this. You know what you are going to get if you stay here charter fishing…you are going to starve to death.’ He was right. He really talked me into doing my own thing. That’s when I put up the building.”

With a building going up, but no boat on the horizon, Howell continued fishing and on one tournament trip up to New Jersey, he got lucky.

“On the ferry ride home, I met a guy who said he always wanted a Carolina boat, and we just started to talking,” says Howell. “I told him how I just started building a boat shop without a boat to build… and that’s how it all went down. Crazy, right?” “We started in 2000 and the boat was originally called the TFB, a 65-footer,” says Howell. “I’ve got a list of all the things those letters could possibly stand for…but I think I’ll just leave it up to everybody’s imagination. Most of them you probably couldn’t put into a magazine article anyway.”

“I remember on that first one I would lose sleep at night, worry about what was coming down the pike and what we had to do. I used to sweat it big time,” says Howell. “Not anymore…I sleep like a baby. I like to look at the plans and figure out how we are going to attack certain aspects of the build. I’m much more relaxed about it than I used to be.”

Ritchie Howell’s boats are a reflection of his life spent on the water.

With his 32nd boat, a 61-footer, about to come out of the shed, Howell says that there are pretty dramatic differences between hull number 1 and the boats he puts out today. “Our shape has actually changed drastically. It’s pretty much night and day from what we build now compared to back then…there’s nothing remotely similar between the two. Now, everything is computer generated and engineered to the nines. Our first one was a hand-drawn…we cut it by hand.

“That’s a great way to learn about boat building, but you can’t compete with a computer. We have lofted our own boats in the past, if we didn’t have time to get a jig cut or somebody was looking for a bargain basement deal, but you have to use a computer-generated jig now. What we do is a lot more exacting than it used to be. I used to think, ‘If someone would just give me a million dollars, oh man the boat I could build!’ Nowadays a million doesn’t even scratch the surface…it’s just way it’s gotten to be.”

“When I think, and look back at the first boat, I want to look at it with a critical eye…and see how I’d want to change it. If I had to do it over again today it would be a different animal! Those old boats are beautiful with their classic lines and all that stuff, but you have to be a bit more progressive nowadays.”

When asked about what makes Ritchie Howell boats stand out from the crowd, Howell says that,

“I know it sounds weird, but I’m more of a boutique boat builder. I’m not trying to build a bunch of boats at one time. I just want to build one or two boats. The biggest difference here is, if someone calls and wants to know if their oil change pump is installed, I know. I don’t have to call a foreman or whatever. There is a one-on-one relationship with the people I’m building the boat for.” “I also believe that for the quality of product we put out, we are very value-based. I’m not saying I’m cheap, because I’m not…Nothing in this business is cheap. But you do get a lot of bang for your buck here. We don’t have a real fancy facility but it’s really all you need for boatbuilding. I also don’t have a lot of the overhead that other guys have.”

For more information on Ritchie Howell Custom Carolina Yachts, please e-mail info@inthebite.com or fill out the form below and our InTheBite concierge service will be happy to assist you.

Feels Like the First Time – Contender 25

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The Contender 31 Classic. It was boats like this one that put Contender on the map.

If you were alive and, in any way, involved in boating during the mid-80s, then you were a witness to one of the biggest boating booms of all time. Contender Boats fueled that growth like no other. After graduating from the University of Florida, Miami native Joe Neber, took a summer job at Sea-Vee “that turned into a career.”

“I was planning on going to law school but ended up working for Don McGee for the summer,” he says.

An unexpected buyout ended his time at Sea-Vee, but Neber had already been bitten by the boat builder’s bug. He started buying fiberglass hulls from Whitewater and rigging them out for resale.

“We did a lot of custom rigging, five or six boats, until they stopped selling me fiberglass parts because we were hurting their business. That’s when I decided to start Contender Boats…I was 22 years old at the time,” says Neber.

A short time later, in June of 1984, the first Contender, a Classic 25, rolled out of the building.

“Although it’s been a progression, the boat that really took us to the dance was the Classic 25. As the first Contender, it’s really an iconic boat. At the time, it was very high tech. We were some of the first to use biaxial and tri-axial fiberglass and used a lot of foam coring. We were stepping up the game and people started seeing some of the advantages of these new materials,” says Neber. “The 25 was great for us. We sold over 1,100 of them over a real long production run. The next one that came along after that was the 35 express. I built that boat because I needed that boat. We built about 600 of those. It could go fast and get me to the Bahamas and back. But the big one that really made a difference was the 31 Classic, which was actually 32’6” with the bracket.”

“Back in the day when we were building the 25, we were bolting on transom brackets to a square transom. We were still building a lot of straight-shaft inboards at the time. Before Yamahas came out, the bar for outboard reliability was really low. People who were going to the Bahamas preferred straight shaft inboards for the reliability. But by the late 80s and mid-90s the Yamahas weren’t breaking. We transitioned to the transom brackets with the 35 Express and the 31 and we never looked back at the inboard market too much,” says Neber.

From a summer job at Sea Vee, Joe Neber has transformed his passion for center consoles into one of
the most iconic brands on the market.

With both the 25 and 31 selling really well, an oil crisis and a recession in the late 2000s tipped Neber’s hand and forced him to get creative once again.

“In 2007 and 2008, we had oil at $165 a barrel and people stopped buying boats. We were actually looking at going back to inboard diesels!” says Neber. “We needed a new product, so we began transitioning into the step hulls business to give our customers an option between the deep-v and the step. But you have to know, I was the anti-step guy when I was the deep-V hull guy! I had a product that was burning 20 percent more fuel than a stepped hull. I had to change something. We went through a lot of research and development, making three dimensional drawings until we got it to the point where we liked the designs and built them. I hardly ever build deep-V now.”

“We knew what we liked in our V-hull and what we wanted in the stepped hull,” says Neber. “Nobody was building a step hull that had a balance of performance…it didn’t exist. If it ran good in a head sea, it was scary in a following sea. Nobody had it right. Our goal was to build safe, balanced stepped hulls that ran in all sea conditions. Our first hull, the 35 Step, hit it right on the money. It worked perfectly. We worked with naval architect John Cosker on the step hulls. He’s a brilliant guy who has built super-fast racing boats. We told him what we liked and what we didn’t like and he came up with the 35…and it was amazing.”

Contender went on to make 32-foot, a 39-foot and a 30-foot stepped hull.

“Our stepped hulls are the finest performing offshore boats available today,” says Neber. “Their fuel economy, seakeeping ability, soft ride, and safety in a following sea are incredible. There’s nobody out there that can run with us…there’s nothing that goes to sea like a Contender. Good seakeeping is a driving force. It comes from the hardcore fishing stuff we are doing. Our goal wasn’t speed; even if we weren’t the fastest in the fleet, once it got rough, we’d still be out front. Our biggest competitor is our prior-built product.”

For more  information from our marketing partner Contender Boats please fill out the form below and our InTheBite concierge service will be happy to assist you.

Spencer Yachts – Biopsy, Anticipation

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Spencer hull number one during the build.

By Dave Ferrell

I’ve been lucky enough to poke my head into some pretty famous boat sheds over the years. Every time I do, I come away with a greater respect for the art of boat building and the men who create these incredible fishing machines. You’ve got to have more than just a little bit of confidence to take a man’s money and build him an ocean-going condominium that can withstand all the challenges and forces that come with going to sea. These vessels have to perform at the highest levels and still look good doing it; ugly boats don’t sell no matter how well they ride!

With one of the biggest and most revered names in sportfishing, it’s hard to believe that Spencer Yachts has only been building boats for 21 years. In a place known for building some of the best custom sportfishing yachts in the world, Paul Spencer built not only an incredible legacy in a very short period of time…but some truly remarkable sportfishing boats along the way. Like a lot of the custom builders in North Carolina, Spencer’s trip to the boat shed started with a life at sea, running a charter boat.

“The reason I set out to build a boat was that I was a charter boat captain that needed a new boat…and I couldn’t afford one,” says Spencer. “There was a guy in our area, Capt. Buddy Cannady, who would build a boat, use it for a year or two, and then sell it. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s the way to do it!’ That was my plan. So, I sold my old charter boat that I’d had for ten years that my father-in-law built and got started. I had a few ideas, and I hired Mike Lohr, a guy that could draft, and we sat down and drew the boat together. I built that boat as if it was going to be mine…with intention of selling it somewhere down the road.”

That first Spencer boat, the Biopsy, has remained an active charter boat for the last 21 years.

“We changed some things…it didn’t have the traditional look. We mingled some styles and didn’t give the boat as much flare as a Buddy Davis,” says Spencer. “I only ran it for a summer before someone wanted to buy it. It performed really well, so I sold it.”

Spencer’s plan seemed to be working perfectly. After seeing the Biopsy, the Springs family from South Carolina asked Spencer to build another one. That boat, Spencer hull number 2, turned out to be the Anticipation.

An aerial view of the Spencer Yachts facility today. Through this yard pass some of the finest sportfishers in the world.

“I actually ran that boat for a couple of summers and we just had phenomenal luck on it. We took it to Ocean City, Maryland and won the White Marlin Open, we won the Pirate’s Cove tournament, we just had some phenomenal success on that boat,” says Spencer. “In the middle of the success with that boat, someone asked me to build another one. By the third year I had too many people wanting me to build them a boat…so I couldn’t charter fish anymore. I had slid into the boat building business.”

“Those first two boats were extremely influential in everything we did,” says Spencer. “We changed things, even on the first one, that made it look different and ride different. We just thought it performed really well. Biopsy wasn’t super appointed…it was kind of just plain and simple. The second one was more involved and by the third and fourth they were really sportfish yachts…they weren’t just boats.”

Those first two boats were jig boats built out of Okume plywood and cold molded, which at that time was a relatively new way to go about building a sportfisher. “A lot of people were still doing frame and plank then, and we used some composite materials that other people weren’t using in some places in the boat. In each boat, we used more and more (composites) to be more efficient in terms of weight. By the third boat we knew we could use cored material instead of plywood for decks, bulkheads and stuff like that.”

“We did change some things in the bottoms on those two boats,” says Spencer. “We added some different things that changed the shape of the bottom and we thought they made the boat ride well. We always keep our boats sharp up forward. I grew up where we had to go 40 to 50 miles each way every day, so we incorporated that into our boats. It’s a sacrifice; you lose a little room…but you gave up some of that room in the bow to make a great ride. If you need more room, make the boat longer not fatter…I’ve always leaned this way.”

A quick look at any of Spencer’s builds, including the first two, reveals a true passion for the art of boat building. “It was extremely rewarding to see that finished product when they were done…and it’s still that way today. I love boats. It ain’t all about going out and making money. You’ve got to have that passion. If you don’t, you’re probably not going to be as creative as you should be,” says Spencer. “There’s always a way to make them a little better. I’m always looking for a way to tweak it little bit…how can we make it just a tiny bit better.”