Page 32: of Marine News Magazine (March 2005)

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New York, New York Water Taxi was lucky to find docks for its fleet in Red

Hook - one of those very neighborhoods isolated from the subway, but a short hop to Pier 11. It makes the company an employer in a neighborhood said to need employment. Tom Paldino estimates New

York Water Taxi's employment rolls at "about 50-60 people, almost 40% being area residents."

All three of the existing fast-ferry oper- ators in New York - Waterway, Water

Taxi, and Seastreak - have real-estate development in their corporate back- grounds. (BillyBey's Mr. Wachtel also is described in connection with a proposal to transform Pier A into a ferry landing and mall). But even here, New York Water

Taxi comes-up like the one grown in organic soil. "I spent five years finding the perfect partner," said Tom Fox, "and it was Dou- glas Durst, a third-generation real-estate developer. His buildings are among the greenest in the city -" including 4 Times

Square, the Broadway & 42nd Street anchor of "the new Times Square." The new Gladding-Hearn boats, due in service beginning April, are called the Seymour

B. Durst class, according to Tom Paldino.

Mr. Paldino described modifications being made to the original fleet. Derektor, the original builder, is fitting the hulls with bulbous bows - as far as is known, the first cats thus equipped. As bulbous bows affect the bow wave of the QM2, so they may the Curt Berger. It's expected to be back in service by the time you read this, the rest of the original six going up for the modification as schedule allows. "It brings up the bow a little more," said

Mr. Paldino, "helps the ride, sometimes helps the speed. We've got a lot of good people working on this to bring the boats to the next level."

But New York Water Taxi as a whole seems to be aiming for a next level, as Mr.

Paldino refers to a forthcoming 250-pas- senger boat owned by himself and the

TWFM Ferry company. The company, whose roots trace back to an operation begun by Mr. Paldino's father in 1945, currently operates seven boats of various descriptions in assorted markets, without much of a single corporate identity unit- ing them in the public eye. "New York Water Taxi brought us aboard to run the operation because, with all the things they were doing right, we had the everyday salt experience. We formed an alliance - our plan is to grow together."

That's one way to call yourself a Taxi in

New York. 32 • MarineNews • March, 2005

Water Taxi

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One of each boat's two Detroit Diesel Series 60s, this one in the starboard hull. Under full service conditions, the low-emission engines are said to get by on about 20 gallons per hour. (Photo: Don Sutherland.)

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