Tom O’ Connor: Welcome to Jarrett Bay Boatworks, happy to have you here with us. We’re expecting a very special visitor here in a short while. Mr. Jeff Burton, NASCAR legend, and future Jarrett Bay owner, is coming to check out his new boat!
Jeff, we followed you around Jarrett Bay here today and got an opportunity to look at your new baby – thanks for taking the moment to talk to me.
Jeff Burton: Yeah, it’s fun, I like talking about boats.
TO: Well what do you think, how’s it coming along?
JB : It’s coming along well, and I was really excited to see it, you know, I’ve always come here and I’ve seen all the boats, but of course none of them were ever mine, so to actually see where it is now – which actually started with a clean sheet of paper, you know, and the thought of process of the boat drew the design of the boat – and to be here where it is right now is really cool. This is the first time I’ve seen it since we’ve started it – so it’s been really exciting to follow it on the internet and to talk about it every day – but to actually see and touch it and feel it is a whole ‘nother deal.
TO: How did you pick Jarrett Bay out of all the boat manufacturers in the world and all the places that you could have picked?
JB : Well, the first thing is that I wanted to build a Carolina Boat, because when you talk about sport fishing and when you talk about custom boats, it is Carolina. That was the first thing – the second thing is what builder – I knew the hull design was right, I knew what they were doing was right because all you have to do is talk to captains, and captains will you, “Hey, listen, not a lot of people know about it right now, but Jarrett Bay has got the best ride.” So when I started to see in the last 4 or 5 years the quality of the interiors and the motor yacht look and that quality that coupled with the ride, then that made it a no-brainer. There’s a pedigree here and I want to use that pedigree and what I want to do, the reason I’m building a custom boat is that I don’t want to drive the hull.
TO: Now it’s got a couple of distinctive features, what’s your favorite?
JB : The first thing we said is it has got to have a lower steering station, and that steering station has always got have good visibility, but there’s also forward facing seating for passengers. If you think about CAT, the finest yachts in the world have Caterpillar engines in them, so this gave us a chance to use their engines, which is a must, and couple it with the pod drives, and we’re also putting CAT’s genset in the boat, and the reason I’m doing that, it honestly isn’t because it is my sponsor it’s because you look at their dealer network and look at the servicability of their parts and look at the reliability of their diesels, that’s the right thing to do.
TO: What’s the first trip that you’re going to take with this boat?
JB : The first trip that I plan on taking, is a good friend of mine, he was actually captain of my boat for about 4 years, he lives in New England, and we’re going to go to Miami. We’ll take the boat to the Miami Boat Show so I think that’s about when the sailfish bite is on down there, so we’ll try to get us some shrimp, hang out, go fishing for a couple of days, get the boat cleaned up, and take it ot the boat show – then I got to Daytona and race – so that’s my first trip!
TO: That sounds like a pretty good time! Thanks for building your boat here, everyone in North Carolina appreciates your being here.
