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NYC Ferry Takes Delivery of its Final New Vessel

time traveler
Image courtesy Metal Shark

Published Dec 3, 2020 7:03 PM by The Maritime Executive

The NYC Ferry system has taken delivery of its final new vessel, a 150-passenger aluminum catamaran dubbed "Time Traveler."

She is the twelfth 85-foot Subchapter T boat for NYC Ferry built by Metal Shark at its Franklin, Louisiana since April 2017. Over the course of that period, the yard also produced ten 100-foot, 350-passenger Subchapter K boats for the system, bringing its total to 22.

“We are thrilled with the operations and production that the Metal Shark team has been able to deliver for NYC Ferry throughout the past four years by working together through the design process, regulatory changes, hurricanes, pandemics, and more,” said Junior Volpe, director of special projects for Hornblower Group, which operates NYC Ferry on behalf of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

The delivery marks the conclusion of a long and prolific production run. In July 2016, Metal Shark was one of two builders originally selected to build passenger vessels for the new NYC Ferry Service (the other builder, Horizon Shipbuilding in Bayou la Batre, Alabama, was acquired by Metal Shark in 2018.) With less than ten months’ time from project start to the delivery of the first vessel, Metal Shark delivered all six of the ferries on or ahead of schedule between April and June 2017. 

NYC Ferry officially launched on May 1, 2017, and a Metal Shark-built boat carried the first load of customers on the new service’s first revenue trip. Hornblower returned for multiple follow-on orders, resulting in the continuous production of 150-passenger and 350-passenger at Metal Shark's Franklin facility for four years in a row.

“From our initial six on-time deliveries in 2017 to the multiple additional orders that followed, our relationship with this client is something we are very proud of,” said Metal Shark’s VP of Commercial Sales, Carl Wegener. “It is unfortunate that current conditions in the passenger vessel market caused this streak to end; however, we are confident that we will be teaming again in the future.”