We’re excited to announce that construction has begun on the first Release Boatworks 55’ Walkaround Flybridge, contracted by Certified Professional Yacht Broker Matthew Stone of International Yacht Company (IYC).
“Passion, creativity, and vision,” Stone emphasized. “That’s what Release Boatworks brought to every single call, meeting, and yard visit during this 18-month design period.”
Release Boatworks has the intention of building the most versatile fishing platform to grace the water, while still withholding an elegance worthy of complimenting a superyacht as its gameboat. The 55’ Walkaround Flybridge is being designed as a chase boat for a larger mothership looking to fish, dive, spearfish, and cruise remote corners of the world.
When Matthew Stone was asked why he and his clients chose Release Boatworks, his answer was simple, “Customer service and response time is why we became such an advocate of Release Boatworks. When we were going through the builder vetting process, we knew we wanted a fiberglass-built boat, we knew we wanted a walkaround, which Release Boatworks specializes in, and then it came down to who got us what we needed when we needed it. We met with multiple builders, but you have to be ultra-responsive to be successful, and these guys were spot on.”
Having direct access when needed to the founder of the company, Jim Turner, as well as partner and production manager, Scott Jastrzembski, is a huge appeal to anyone building a boat because you’re not dealing with 20 different middlemen.
“I thoroughly enjoy remaining part of the design and build process with our boat owners,” Says Jim Turner, founder of Release Boatworks. “I don’t see a Release Boatworks as just a boat, but a means to experience the ocean and make memories. We try to understand exactly what each owner wants to do – whether it’s fun fish, dive, run charters, win tournaments, take overnight trips, cruise, or all of the above – and we help them build the best boat for the best experience possible.”
Along with Jim Turner, Matthew Stone, and of course Naval Architect Erwin Gerards, Production Manager Scott Jastrzembski had the design for the walkaround flybridge in mind years ago.
“I met [Matthew Stone] two years ago at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, and him and his clients had a vision of a versatile boat that I knew we wanted to build,” Jastrzembski says. “I take pride in creating a quality custom boat that owners dream about, and leading the team through the entire production process to ensure that upon delivery, those dreams come true.”
As with any Release Boatworks, this boat is specifically designed to cater to the owner’s needs and wants. This 55’ Walkaround Flybridge will be the gameboat for an expedition yacht in the 160’ range for a multi-family operation planning to travel to Mag Bay, Costa Rica, Panama, Isla Mujeres, and of course – The Bahamas. The superyacht will serve its purpose as a floating hotel, while on any given day there won’t be less than 10 people on the 55’ for 10-hour adventures of marlin fishing, spearfishing, deep dropping, and diving.
The boat owners, who have sons and daughters that love to fish and dive, originally used a center console as their chase boat, but the range, lack of comfort, and maintenance intervals became a limiting factor to their family travels.
The 55’ Walkaround Flybridge will provide three staterooms, a tackle room, a custom dive locker, two Seakeeper 6 stabilizers for maximum comfort, an expanded fuel capacity for long range, redundancy of systems and pumps in case anything goes wrong in a remote destination, and a quick connect fuel manifold system for fuel bladders, among many other custom features. She will be powered with twin 10V2000 MTU diesel inboards for a total of 3,244 horsepower, and is projected to produce cruising speeds in the mid 30 kts and a top end upwards of 40 kts.
The boat’s home port will be Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but we will be shocked if it spends more than twenty days a year at the dock!
Written By: Lacey Hagler
