
Soundings TradeOnlyToday Magazine
Bayliner Boats will offer PCM engines, as well as Mercury V-Drives, on Heyday Inboard boats, recently acquired from the father-son team of John and Ben Dorton.
Heyday has been running with a Challenger engine from PCM, which Correct Craft owns. Mercury, which is owned by Brunswick, also offers a V-drive. It’s the first Brunswick-owned boat brand to come with the option of an engine from a company other than Mercury.
“As we go forward we will have some Mercury V-drive product in there,” Bayliner president Keith Yunger says. “John Dorton and I just came back from meeting with Correct Craft CEO Bill Yeargin and his crew over at PCM. We want to continue that relationship, as well, because we’ve got some dealers out in the marketplace already set up with PCM. They enjoy the product, their techs are set up to work on it and have parts. In the end, we’re in the boat business on our side.”
Heyday’s value approach to the wakesurf and wakeboard industry was attractive for Bayliner, which also has positioned itself in the value segment, Yunger said.
It will be marketed as its own brand, not under the Bayliner name, he said, because the brand carries “authenticity” with the younger millennial wake crowd, even though it’s less than a year old.
Heyday introduced its WT-1 — which starts at $39,999 with a boat, motor and trailer — last year at Surf Expo. Bayliner will bring the WT-2 to this year’s Sept. 8-10 event in Orlando, Fla.
Originally published here.