Collaborations give tour uniqueness

ALL ABOARD: Jeffrey O’Brien’s Gansett Cruises, a tour-boat company he founded in 2005, has grown steadily since its inception. Above O’Brien, center, helps passengers board the boat. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
ALL ABOARD: Jeffrey O’Brien’s Gansett Cruises, a tour-boat company he founded in 2005, has grown steadily since its inception. Above O’Brien, center, helps passengers board the boat. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Jeffrey O’Brien’s Main Street is made up of the waterways around Newport. His address is on a wharf. When he envisions the expansion of his increasingly busy tour-boat business, Gansett Cruise, he considers a second boat to respond to the demand he’s already serving in Westerly’s Watch Hill area. He thinks about adding a fishing boat to take out people who buy a ticket at a time, so they won’t have to charter a whole boat.
“Not everyone has $400 or $500 or $600 in their pocket to charter a fishing boat,” said O’Brien.
The central focus of his work is obvious: “Anything to keep me on the water,” he said.
Born in Providence and raised in Warwick, O’Brien moved to Newport in 1978. He’s taught sailing in East Greenwich and raced sailboats, piloted service boats for the America’s Cup and spent 20 years on the waters from Maine to Florida as a captain on private yachts.
Finally, all the traveling, even on the water, just got to be too much.
“One of the problems with being a captain on a yacht is you’re a gypsy,” said O’Brien. “You’re married to the boat and the owner. You go where they want to go and when they want to go.
Being away for months at a time just didn’t work after two decades.
“I developed a keen interest in staying in Newport and staying home,” he said. He started with schooner excursions, but when other touring sailboats came into the market, he set his sights on finding a wooden motorboat he could renovate.
“I wanted the right look, with a lot of dock appeal,” said O’Brien.
It took a lot of searching, but he finally found a 50-foot, Maine-built, former fishing boat with a hull that has an appealing shape that attracts complimentary comments even from people who know nothing about boats, he said.
O’Brien aimed to create a yacht look with “lots of varnish and lots of brass hardware” that would offer the feeling of a yacht experience on a motorboat. His boat, the M/V Gansett, holds 49 passengers, has cushioned seats and what he describes as “a softer ride” as a benefit of being a wooden boat.
“I’ve even had people comment on how lovely the engine sounds,” he said.
His tour guides don’t use scripts and they email daily updates to each other about the latest arrivals of yachts in Newport Harbor to include as interesting tidbits on the 90-minute cruises. O’Brien is looking at increasing his 20 employees by a few to handle the busy ticket booth and continue into the fall, when he’s got increasing business from bus tours, as well as cruise ships, which often book one, two or three Gansett Cruises a day for their passengers.
O’Brien does much of the work of his business himself.
“I change the oil. I fix stuff between trips. I’m the engineer. I make sure the ticket booth is running smoothly. I answer phone calls. I take the calls about private charters,” said O’Brien, who is the skipper for five Gansett Cruises a day.
Business had been up and down for a few years, because he had to change locations. But now that he’s in Newport’s busy waterfront tourist area and has established a reputation for quality service and interesting cruises, the momentum is steadily upward for his business.
Collaborating with several signature Rhode Island businesses makes his boat tours a very local, unique experience, he said.
“Every trip you get something for free, all from something that’s Rhode Island-based, a lot of things I grew up eating and drinking,” said O’Brien. Gansett Cruises is docked right near Aquidneck Lobster, offering a natural opportunity for gift certificates, he said.
There’s Narragansett Beer, as well as beer from the Newport Storm microbrewery and Thomas Tew Rum from the brewery’s related Newport Distilling Company.
“We serve Autocrat coffee and we get coffee syrup from Autocrat for coffee cabinets, which Rhode Islanders know, it’s like a frappe,” he said. “We serve Del’s lemonade and Yacht Club Soda.”
Gansett Cruises also collaborates on experiences, offering discounts on tours of Newport Vineyards. O’Brien has teamed up on package deals with Bird’s Eye View Helicopters of Middletown, which offers aerial tours of Newport.
“It’s good to tie into other local companies,” said O’Brien. “We’re all part of the hospitality industry.”
The collaborations are an effort to get an edge in a competitive business, said O’Brien.
“It’s not all the same product, but we’re all going for the same customers,” he said. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Gansett Cruises
OWNER: Jeffrey O’Brien
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Tour boat
LOCATION: 31 Bowen’s Wharf, Newport
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 2005
EMPLOYEES: One full time, 20 seasonal employees
ANNUAL SALES: NA

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