Lyle B. Butts of Wellfleet, the founder of Bay Sales Marine, died on May 28, 2025 after being in hospice care at home since mid-April. The cause was congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 78.
Lyle was born in Brockton on Jan. 2, 1947 to the late Lyle M. and Helen Butts. He graduated from Oliver Ames High School in North Easton and attended UMass Boston. He was a ski instructor at the Blue Hills Ski Area and taught sailing in Wellfleet in the summer.
Between school and establishing Bay Sails Marine in 1970, he was employed by Electronic Space Systems (ESSCO) building radar domes. In the 1990s, Lyle returned to work part-time for ESSCO, constructing domes in Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Mississippi, and in the Azores, Italy, Norway, and Japan. He won an award for designing a system allowing more of the dome to be built on the ground before being hoisted onto the platform, increasing the safety of the risky construction projects.
Lyle’s real love was Cape Cod and especially Wellfleet, where he had summered every year with his parents. He opened Bay Sails Marine across from the drive-in theater, bought the business’s current location in 1971, and spent long hours expanding the company and working on boats. He also served on the Wellfleet Planning Board for eight years.
When former Wellfleet Harbormaster Glenn Shields told Lyle he’d like to have a pumpout boat, Lyle designed and built one and started C.B. Boatworks in Peru, Maine. Working with the Clean Vessel Act, C.B. manufactured 75 pumpout boats for marinas up and down the East Coast. Two went to Bermuda for use during the America’s Cup race. Most recently, Lyle and Bay Sails Marine designed and built the town’s shellfish barge.
Lyle enjoyed talking with his customers and telling stories about Wellfleet’s past and present. His customers came to rely on him to answer boating questions others couldn’t and to swage a fitting or splice a line. Lyle always said Bay Sails succeeded because he had wonderful employees. He treated them like family members, and many worked at Bay Sails for decades.
Lyle was an animal lover and brought home a variety of wild creatures, from black racer snakes to four abandoned baby skunks. He raised four orphaned baby squirrels and put together an illustrated book about the experience. His favorite animal was his cat, Rocco, who sat in his lap and watched TV with him.
In an email to the family, Gene Foss, one of C.B.’s employees, wrote, “Let him know I appreciate everything he has done for me and taught me. Most of all, how to just be a good person. He is truly one of a kind, a genuinely good man.”
Lyle is survived by his wife of 54 years, Mimi; his daughters, Jennifer Selverian of Ft. Collins, Colo., Laurie Butts of Boulder, Colo., and Christy Braga de Lima of Wellfleet; and his grandchildren, Nadia and Alexa Selverian, Jacob Tibboel, and Maya Braga de Lima.
It was Lyle’s wish that his burial service be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may go to the VNA Hospice of Cape Cod, 25 Communication Way, Hyannis 02601 or to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 116 Huntington Ave., Boston 02116-9216.
