Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 22, 2012 13:33:24 GMT -5
Boston Harbor ferries were made right here in Massachusetts
By Jon Chesto/GateHouse News Service
GateHouse News Service
Posted Feb 22, 2012 @ 08:17 AM
With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks.
But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled in Littleton, by Italy’s AnsaldoBreda.)
Somerset-based Duclos Corp., which has done business as Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding since its launch on the Taunton River in 1955, has become the dominant manufacturer of catamaran ferries on the East Coast in recent years. The last of Massachusetts’ commercial shipbuilders, Gladding-Hearn has been owned and run by the same family since George Duclos bought out his two partners Preston Gladding and Richard Hearn in 1983.
President Peter Duclos says Gladding-Hearn started out in the 1950s building steel fishing boats. The product line expanded over the years to include an array of pilot boats, tugs, research vessels and patrol boats. But the ferries are the ones that are most familiar to people who live and work in Greater Boston. Duclos says his company first entered the “fast cat”' business in the 1980s after signing a licensing agreement with Australian manufacturer Incat Crowther.
Gladding-Hearn’s first two fast ferries went to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, the start of a profitable adventure. Duclos estimates that roughly half of his company’s orders in the past decade have been for ferries, which take about a year to manufacture.
The company, Duclos says, is working on two ferries right now. One will shuttle visitors to Dry Tortugas, a Florida island that’s even more remote than Key West. The other was ordered by Rhode Island Fast Ferry, which runs a seasonal ferry route between Quonset Point and Oak Bluffs. When those boats are complete, Gladding-Hearn will have made nearly 40 high-speed catamaran ferries.
Eight of those boats have landed in Boston Harbor. Duclos names them off like a proud parent. Quincy-based Boston’s Best Cruises operates the Flying Cloud and Lightning commuter boats, the Voyager for whale watches and some commutes, and the Nathaniel Bowditch for the seasonal trips between Salem and Boston. There are the three ferries run by Boston Harbor Cruises — the Aurora, Salacia and Nora Victoria — that travel to Winthrop, Hingham or Charlestown. And then there’s Bay State Cruise Co.’s Provincetown III, normally docked in South Boston but currently wintering in the Virgin Islands.
_____________________
Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding
www.gladding-hearn.com/
By Jon Chesto/GateHouse News Service
GateHouse News Service
Posted Feb 22, 2012 @ 08:17 AM
With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks.
But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled in Littleton, by Italy’s AnsaldoBreda.)
Somerset-based Duclos Corp., which has done business as Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding since its launch on the Taunton River in 1955, has become the dominant manufacturer of catamaran ferries on the East Coast in recent years. The last of Massachusetts’ commercial shipbuilders, Gladding-Hearn has been owned and run by the same family since George Duclos bought out his two partners Preston Gladding and Richard Hearn in 1983.
President Peter Duclos says Gladding-Hearn started out in the 1950s building steel fishing boats. The product line expanded over the years to include an array of pilot boats, tugs, research vessels and patrol boats. But the ferries are the ones that are most familiar to people who live and work in Greater Boston. Duclos says his company first entered the “fast cat”' business in the 1980s after signing a licensing agreement with Australian manufacturer Incat Crowther.
Gladding-Hearn’s first two fast ferries went to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, the start of a profitable adventure. Duclos estimates that roughly half of his company’s orders in the past decade have been for ferries, which take about a year to manufacture.
The company, Duclos says, is working on two ferries right now. One will shuttle visitors to Dry Tortugas, a Florida island that’s even more remote than Key West. The other was ordered by Rhode Island Fast Ferry, which runs a seasonal ferry route between Quonset Point and Oak Bluffs. When those boats are complete, Gladding-Hearn will have made nearly 40 high-speed catamaran ferries.
Eight of those boats have landed in Boston Harbor. Duclos names them off like a proud parent. Quincy-based Boston’s Best Cruises operates the Flying Cloud and Lightning commuter boats, the Voyager for whale watches and some commutes, and the Nathaniel Bowditch for the seasonal trips between Salem and Boston. There are the three ferries run by Boston Harbor Cruises — the Aurora, Salacia and Nora Victoria — that travel to Winthrop, Hingham or Charlestown. And then there’s Bay State Cruise Co.’s Provincetown III, normally docked in South Boston but currently wintering in the Virgin Islands.
_____________________
Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding
www.gladding-hearn.com/