Bayliner (Buccaneer/US Yachts)

Founded by J. Orin Edson who had been a dealer for small powerboats and motors since 1955. At some point he purchased the Bayliner name and began building sailing craft around 1970. It is said that Bayliner, which historically, had been a manufacturer of power boats, got in to the sailboat business in response the fuel crisis of the early 1970’s. Of course, the higher fuel prices didn’t make them less expensive to build. Whatever the reasoning, they were called Buccaneers and they built a lot of them before they sold off the entire devision in 1979? and went back to building powerboats only. Many models were based on ‘splashed’ copies of boats from other builders (most notably the COLUMBIA 23T and COLUMBIA 26T) with changes that emphasized interior amenities with sailing performance as a secondary consideration. And yet some might say, they have their own unique aesthetic. These boats ranged from the 17’ BUCCANEER 180 up to 27’. Others included the Doug Peterson designed BUCCANEER 335 at 33’. These were also built from tooling purchased from other companies. Many of the same models (with minor differences were built by US Yachts which was a division owned by Bayliner. US Yachts, (not the same company that was associated with Grampian Yachts) also built some larger boats (the largest was the US 42) that did not appear in the Bayliner line. rb 2009