Fox released the full trailer for its Baywatch reboot on October 13, 2026. Between the plane crash, the wildfire in the hills and the slow-motion running, there is a boat. The new Baywatch rescue boat is a hardtop Boston Whaler in yellow and red livery, pushed by a pair of white Mercury outboards.
The 12-episode series is co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Fremantle and premieres on Fox in January 2027, with no exact date yet announced. Sky holds the rights for the UK and Ireland and will show it on Sky and NOW.
The Whaler
The boat in the trailer carries the Baywatch name and badge along its hull, next to Boston Whaler’s own “Whaler” logo. It has a hardtop with a roof-mounted light bar, red life rings on the frame and two white Mercury outboards on the transom.
Neither Fox, Fremantle nor Boston Whaler has said publicly which model it is, how many the production used or who supplied them, and Powerboat News has not been able to confirm the model from the trailer alone.
The engines are no surprise. Boston Whaler and Mercury Marine both belong to Brunswick Corporation, which bought Whaler in 1996, and new Whalers leave the factory with Mercury power.
Whaler built its name on Unibond construction, with foam injected between the outer hull and the inner liner, and on the claim that its boats are unsinkable. The company has sawn boats in half over the years to prove the point, which is not a bad pedigree for a lifeguard show.
The Boats Behind the Name
The series is named after a boat. Baywatch is what Los Angeles County calls the rescue boats of its Fire Department Lifeguard Division, each named for its station: Baywatch Cabrillo at Los Angeles Harbor, Baywatch Redondo at King Harbor, Baywatch Del Rey and Baywatch Santa Monica at Marina del Rey, Baywatch Malibu at Malibu Pier, and Baywatch Avalon and Baywatch Isthmus on Catalina Island.
The division runs eight full-time rescue boats, according to the Los Angeles Almanac. In September 2026 the county opened an $18 million Maritime Public Safety dock at Marina del Rey, replacing a structure from the 1960s, as the coastal base for the Lifeguard Division and the Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol.
The real boats do the work the show dramatises. On November 3, 2024, Baywatch rescue boats answered a call to an overturned 26-foot sailboat off the Redondo breakwater. Crews took five people off the hull while Rescue Boat Captain Stephan Sleeis dived to recover a sixth trapped underneath, a rescue that earned him the department’s 2025 Medal of Valor.
From Scarabs to Whalers
The county’s boats never had the screen to themselves. In its early seasons the original series swapped the small white and red county lifeguard boats for bright yellow Scarab speedboats, the same brand Sonny Crockett drove in Miami Vice, a boat PBN has covered in its review of the Wellcraft Scarab 38KV Miami Vice edition.
The Scarab became the show’s workhorse, the boat lifeguards dived off to reach a swimmer and the platform the Coast Guard helicopter winched patients from. It stayed in service on screen through Season 9, when a larger and thirstier speedboat joined it and ran Cody Madison out of fuel, and in Season 10 the storyline shipped a Scarab out to Hawaii for the new lifeguard training centre.
The original Baywatch ran for 11 seasons from 1989 to 2001, the last two as Baywatch: Hawaii, and became the most-watched television series in the world. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz and Gregory J. Bonann, and Bonann was a real Los Angeles County lifeguard before he was a producer.
Filming at Venice, Marina del Rey and Redondo Beach
Cameras rolled in March 2026. Stephen Amell, who plays Hobie Buchannon, was photographed preparing to film on a lifeguard boat in Los Angeles on March 23, red trunks under a red windbreaker. Reports at the time did not identify the boat.
The production nearly left Los Angeles altogether. The showrunners looked at Australia before California awarded the series a $21 million tax credit, and in April Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stepped in to clear city filming problems at Venice Beach. Filming went ahead outside the lifeguard headquarters at Venice, at Marina del Rey and Redondo Beach, and on the Fox lot in Century City.
Who Is on the Beach
Hobie, the son of David Hasselhoff’s Mitch Buchannon, is now a Baywatch captain whose life is upended when Charlie Vale (Jessica Belkin), the daughter he never knew he had, turns up wanting a job as a lifeguard. His squad includes Hassie Harrison as Nat, Shay Mitchell as Trina, Thaddeus LaGrone as Brad, Noah Beck as Luke and Brooks Nader as Selene, with Livvy Dunne recurring as Grace.
David Chokachi returns in a recurring role as Cody Madison, now running The Shoreline, a bar-and-grill the lifeguards treat as their own. Erika Eleniak as Shauni McClain, Michael Bergin as J.D. Darius and Kelly Packard as April Giminski make guest appearances, and Mary McDonnell plays Hobie’s mother, Gayle Buchannon.
Matt Nix, creator of Burn Notice, is showrunner, and McG directs the first episode. Berk, Bonann and Schwartz are executive producers alongside Dante Di Loreto and Mike Horowitz.
Do you know which Whaler model Baywatch is using, or who supplied the production’s boats? Powerboat News would like to hear from you at [email protected].
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
