Vallejo Baylink News

Art Anderson Associates, a Bremerton-based multidisciplinary engineering services firm, has named Ralph E. Duncan, PE as Vice-President of Marine and Sean M. Hoynes, PE as Vice-President of Facilities. Each will be responsible for customer relationship management, program management, resource planning and allocation, contract compliance, quality assurance, personnel supervision, marketing, sales and strategy. The promotions reflect a crystallization of the firm’s Marine and Facilities market sectors and position the company for sustained growth in the new economy. Mr.

Water Emergency Transportation Authority Awards Ferry Operating Contract to Blue & Gold Fleet. At its October 6 Board of Directors meeting, the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) awarded Blue & Gold Fleet ("B&GF") a five-year contract for the operation of WETA's San Francisco Bay Ferry services. San Francisco Bay Ferry, which recently assumed operation of the Alameda/Oakland and Harbor Bay Ferries, provides daily commute and excursion service between Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco, and Harbor Bay. In early 2012, San Francisco Bay Ferry plans to launch new ferry service between South San Francisco and the East Bay and to assume operation of the City of Vallejo's Baylink ferry operating between Vallejo and San Francisco.

At the 2010 Passenger Vessel Association Convention at MariTrends in Tampa, Fla., the members of the PVA elected their new officers and board members. Captain Kevin Stier, River Cruises, Scales Mound, Ill. Captain Jay Spence, Massachusetts Bay Lines, Boston, Mass. Paul Belforti, Entertainment Cruises, Chicago, Ill. Captain Kevin Stier is the owner and operator of River Cruises. River Cruises offers two day overnight cruises on the Upper Mississippi River aboard the vessel Twilight. Captain Stier’s career started with him working on the Julia Belle Swain for the late Captain Dennis Trone, one of the original members of the PVA, throughout the span of his career Captain Stier has piloted the Julia Belle Swain, the Talisman and Twilight, of which he was instrumental in the construction.

PVA members, during the PVA Annual Convention at MariTrends 2010 in Tampa, Fla., elected Kevin Stier as President. Captain Stier is owner of River Cruises, Scales Mound, Ill.. River Cruises operates the 149 passenger Riverboat Twilight that offers two-day overnight cruises on the Upper Mississippi River. A longtime member of the PVA Regulatory Committee, Captain Stier has been a member of the PVA Board of Directors since 2003 and has served as PVA Vice-President and PVA Secretary-Treasurer. Captain Jay Spence was elected PVA Vice President. Captain Spence is General Manager of Massachusetts Bay Lines in Boston, Mass. This second-generation, family-owned business has operated since 1963 and is the oldest operating year-round commuter service in Boston.

Vallejo Baylink, the San Francisco Bay community’s municipal commuter operation that was initiated five years ago, is now carrying some 800, passengers a year. With thousands of miles on the operation’s first catamaran ferry, originally known as the “Jet Cat Express,” an InCat vessel built by Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding, Vallejo Baylink management decided to send the well-used boat to Nichols Brothers Boat Builders’ Washington yard for a complete rebuild. In December, after nine months in Nichols Brothers’ Whidbey Island yard, the thoroughly renovated and enlarged vessel headed back home with a new name: M/V Vallejo. Marty Robbins, general manager of Vallejo Baylink…