NORTH KINGSTOWN — Sailing on a fast ferry from Quonset Point to Block Island is slowly becoming a reality and attendees will have the chance to see a preview of the new service Monday afternoon.
Rhode Island Fast Ferry, owned by president and founder Charles A. Donadio Jr., will hold an open house Monday which will unveil the company’s new 320-passenger vessel, the “Julia Leigh,” that it plans to regularly operate to the island in the near future.
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In an interview Friday, Donadio said the $8 million vessel, constructed by Somerset-based Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, is a sister ship of the company’s 150-passenger Ava Pearl, but has a third deck and offers more amenities for passengers.
“It has air conditioning; there’s satellite television throughout the boat. We have carpets inside that look like hardwood,” Donadio said. “The restrooms are all upgraded. Everything is touchless; it’s a next-step higher than the Ava Pearl.”
Rhode Island Fast Ferry took liberty of the Julia Leigh at the end of June and put it in full-time service to Martha’s Vineyard in July, Donadio said. The vessel is now part of Rhode Island Fast Ferry’s growing fleet, which includes the Ava Pearl, the 400-passenger Millennium and the Atlantic Pioneer, a 12-passenger vessel takes crew out to the Block Island Wind Farm for maintenance of the turbines.
The Julia Leigh will sail from Quonset Point at approximately 3:45 p.m. Monday and make the 50-minute trip to Paynes Dock in New Harbor, where the open house event will take place. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided and attendees will have the opportunity to win various prizes, such as hotel stays and dinners at area restaurants.
As far as full-time service to Block Island, Donadio said that is still “in limbo” given the ongoing legal fight his company has had with Interstate Navigation Co. – the operator of Block Island Ferry out of Narragansett, Newport and Fall River – and the town of New Shoreham over Donadio’s service to the island after the R.I. Division of Public Utilities and Carriers approved Donadio’s application for an operator’s certificate in 2016.
Since then, Interstate Navigation and New Shoreham has challenged the decision on multiple fronts, including having multiple remand hearings with the DPUC last year on the proposed docking plans put forth by Donadio and Bluewater LLC, the firm contracted to build the docking. Last July, the DPUC denied New Shoreham’s request for the division to revisit, citing “insufficient cause” to do so.
The delays have pushed back Donadio’s anticipated start of service to Block Island significantly, but Bluewater LLC Owner Paul Filippi said Friday that he plans to submit his latest proposal for the docking to the R.I. Coastal Resource Management Council in the “next week or two.” The plans, Filippi said, call for the docks at Ballard’s Wharf in Old Harbor to handle both the passenger vessels and wind farm maintenance vessels.
Filippi said he has met multiple times with the CRMC, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the docks and feels “pretty good” about the prospect of having the docks built before Donadio’s new target service date of May 2020.
The PUC’s 2016 decision to award Rhode Island Fast Ferry the certificate is being appealed by Interstate Navigation and New Shoreham in R.I. Superior Court. Donadio said he anticipates a decision on the matter will be made at the end of the summer.
Donadio also said he plans to file another extension with the DPUC in order to meet the division’s requirements in order to provide service to Block Island. Rhode Island Fast Ferry was awarded such an extension last year.
James Bessette is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Research@PBN.com.
