Dick Purinton News

The Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment (MSD) Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and the Washington Island Ferry Line (WIFL) located in Washington Island, Wisconsin teamed up to create a Small Passenger Vessel (SPV) industry training program for Coast Guard Marine Inspectors. Early this summer WIFL’s President, Mr. Dick Purinton, and Lieutenant Jerry Butwid of MSD Sturgeon Bay, met to create the training program to provide marine inspectors with a better understanding of the industry they regulate.

Members of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) have elected Richard “Dick” Purinton as 2001 president. Also elected were Fredrick “Fred” Hall as vice president and Gary Frommelt as secretary-treasurer. Prior to becoming president, Purinton served as PVA vice president and secretary-treasurer. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he became president of the Great Lakes Ferry Boat Association. He has been with Washington Island Ferry Line since 1979, the year it joined PVA. Hall was vice president and general manager of Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, which operates three, automobile and passenger ferry across the Long Island Sound to Bridgeport, Conn.

Gary Frommelt, Hornblower Marine Services, Elizabeth, Ind., was elected 2003 PVA President on February 18 during the PVA Annual Convention at MariTrends 2003 held in Long Beach, CA. Other officers elected were PVA Vice President, David B. Clark, Golden Gate Ferry , Larkspur, CA, and PVA Secretary-Treasurer, Cornel Martin, Delta Queen Steamboat Company, New Orleans, LA. Frommelt serves as project manager for Hornblower Marine Services as director of marine operations for Caesars Indiana-home to the largest riverboat casino in the world. Frommelt was most recently PVA Vice President, has served on the PVA Board of Directors since 1996, and has been a long-term member of the Safety Committee.

For many years the fortunes of the Great Lakes-based shipbuilders and naval architects was based solidly on the building level of the owners who were also based on the 94,000 sq. mi. of water that makes up the five Great Lakes. That is no longer as true a statement as it once was. While there are many projects in this area designed and build by Great Lakes firms for owners in the area, an impressive number of significant commercial market projects as varied as Staten Island, New York ferries and Gulf of Mexico crew/supply boats were designed and or built on the Great Lakes. The Kennedy Class of double ended auto/passenger ferries is one of the most recognizable images of New York City. Every weeknight millions of people see one during the opening of the David Letterman Show.