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Capt. John Bayliss
By Jan Fogt
One of North Carolina's most successful charter-fishing captains, John Bayliss had already distinguished himself on the East Coast and Caribbean tournament circuit when he was asked to replace Anderson in 1997. Were it not for special circumstances, he might never have accepted.
"The whole thing with me going on the Hatterascal was such a fluke," Bayliss says. "In two weeks I went from thinking about how I was going to swing spending $130,000 on a new set of engines to selling my boat and going to work for Hatteras."
At the time, Bayliss was trying to sell his wife's recreational sailboat. "I called Ben Snead, who was working in sales at Hatteras, to ask where I should advertise it. During the conversation, I mentioned I was looking for a boat to lease to take to Mexico because I had just sold mine. The next thing I knew, Bryant Phillips, the senior vice president of sales and marketing, was calling to see if I'd be interested in running the Hatterascal."
Locke was an old friend, so Bayliss was familiar with the benefits and requirements of the job. "I knew how great a job it was, but I still had doubts," he says. "In 17 years I had never worked for a corporation." Bayliss was impressed by everything he saw at Hatteras and by the offer to run the world's highest-profile fishing boat, so he accepted the job and slid behind the wheel of Hatteras' all-new 60 Convertible. With fellow Carolinian and tournament specialist Dave Fields as first mate, he set out to make some history.
"Dave Fields and I are a couple of old Oregon Inlet captains, so we're fairly competitive when it comes to fishing in tournaments," Bayliss says. "I approached the job much as I'd done during my charter days aboard the Tar Heel."
Mind you, the Hatterascal had fished many tournaments by this time, but true to the founding philosophy, the focus had never been to win. Bayliss changed that by dominating the headlines in 1997. The Hatterascal earned a second-place finish in the team division of the Stuart Sailfish Club Light Tackle Tournament and took the most white marlin at the Pirate's Cove Billfish Tournament in Manteo, North Carolina. As a finale, Bayliss and Fields won first place in the release division at the Mid-Atlantic $500,000 in Cape May, New Jersey.
While Bayliss raked in the tournament wins, he also received an education in the boating industry. "Being captain of the Hatterascal teaches you people and business skills you'd never learn on your own. My two years aboard were some of the best I've had in this business."
Still, with his two children growing up without him during his 280 days on the water each year, the toll on his family led Bayliss to resign from his post. Life after the Hatterascal included a short stint as company captain and broker with a North Carolina Hatteras dealer, which served as even more grist for the latest chapter of his life -- building custom boats in Wanchese, North Carolina.
"None of this would have been possible without my having worked for Hatteras," Bayliss says. "It was a career maker in so many ways. The notoriety is amazing. It's such a high-profile boat; people know who runs it. But more important for me, now that I'm building boats, is what I learned about Hatteras quality and the way the company treats its customers and employees. Working on the Hatterascal taught me what customer appreciation and loyalty really means."
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