GIPEC has purchased Islander, a ferry that has shuttled between Woods Hole and Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts since it was built in 1950. She has logged more than a million miles back and forth across Vineyard Sound, a distance of seven miles. In her new life in the Big Apple she will sail 800 yards between the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan and the Soissons Dock on Governors Island.Capacity: 770 passengers (plus cars and trucks), almost double the capacity of the ferry that serves the Island now. GIPEC plans to have her in operation in 2009 after a thorough overhaul.
She was headed for the scrap yard unless the Woods Hole, Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority found a buyer at its $750,000 asking price. GIPEC offered $500,000. An invitation for bids to operate her will be issued soon.
This was not the first ferry swap between Governors Island and Martha's Vineyard. In the 1990's the government sold the Steamship Authority an old Coast Guard vessel, the Governor, which now serves as the backup ferry for overflow on the Martha's Vineyard run.