 
| Charlie Donadio ’92 is the man responsible for introducing high-speed catamaran ferry service between Rhode Island and Martha’s Vineyard. | |
 Growing up in Narragansett as a surfer and later as a lifeguard, Charles A. “Charlie” Donadio Jr. ’92 always loved the ocean. But he never had the least bit of interest in boats until his junior year of college when his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, chartered the Southland Riverboat for a moonlight cruise. It was a night that changed his life. Today, Donadio is not only the owner of the Southland Riverboat, he is also the man responsible for introducing high-speed catamaran ferry service in Rhode Island—first from Point Judith to Block Island, and now from Quonset Point, North Kingstown, to Martha’s Vineyard. Not bad for a guy who for years went to work with nothing more than a whistle and a pair of swim trunks. “I was a lifeguard until I was 30,” laughs Donadio, whose demanding summer schedule this year is no day at the beach. First, there’s the challenge of running Vineyard Fast Ferry, the business he launched in 2003 with the 400-passenger high-speed catamaran Millennium carrying people from Quonset Point to Oak Bluffs. This summer the ferry service will continue with the Millennium making two to three daily round trips from May through October. During the week of July 14-21, the boat will also take guests on Tall Ships cruises to observe those storied vessels when they are in Narragansett Bay. Then there are the demands of the Southland Riverboat, a flat-bottom, 149-passenger riverboat based in Galilee. The boat has a full schedule of daylight and sunset cruises along the Rhode Island coastline as well as charters for private parties. In July, it will also add Tall Ships cruises to its regular schedule. This versatile lineup is in stark contrast to the boat’s status several years ago. When Donadio bought the Southland Riverboat in 1995, the boat was rusting and the business was nearly defunct. But Donadio knew the boat well—he had been doing marketing for the Southland Riverboat ever since that fateful moonlight cruise in college. A few weeks after the cruise, in the fall of 1990, Donadio paid the boat’s owners a visit with a proposition. “I always liked working for myself,” recalls the political science major, “and I knew I could help market private charters for the boat.” He did just that, increasing the private charter income to over $25,000 a year. Meanwhile, he finished college in 1992 and in the summers continued lifeguarding at Narragansett Beach—until a phone call in 1995 led to his purchasing the boat. “The owner had died and the family called to ask if I was interested,” says Donadio, who put together a business plan and went to work. He refurbished the boat bow to stern and sought out new avenues for building up the boat’s work schedule, including an arrangement with the bus tour industry, which today uses the Southland Riverboat as one of its featured attractions. So successful was his plan that in 1998 Donadio was named both Rhode Island and New England Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Bigger ventures lay ahead. While refurbishing the Southland, Donadio became curious about ferry service to Block Island. “From where we were working on the Southland I could see the Block Island ferries, and I was watching these long lines of people waiting,” recalls Donadio. “So I researched high-speed ferries, wrote up a business plan, and started the Island Hi-Speed Ferry in 2001.” The twin-hulled passenger ferry, with a top speed over 30 knots, cut the trip from Point Judith to Block Island from one hour to 30 minutes and was successful its first summer. Donadio was already looking ahead to the next route. “In the process of getting the Block Island ferry going, I looked into other markets and saw that while 350,000 people visit Block Island every year, more than 2 million go to Martha’s Vineyard,” he says. Donadio knew that existing options for getting to Martha’s Vineyard by water involved traditional propeller- operated ferries with speeds of 15-17 knots—much slower than a high-speed catamaran. And the existing ferries left from New Bedford and Woods Hole, two Massachusetts locations prone to traffic delays during the peak summer tourist season. He set to work finding a Rhode Island base for a Vineyard-bound ferry. Soon Donadio bought an aquaculture company located on Quonset Point in North Kingstown. He converted the company to marine transportation and established a ferry dock and parking lot. He also secured a dock on Martha’s Vineyard and leased (and recently bought) the high-speed ferry Millennium. Having sold the Block Island fast ferry in February 2003 to focus on the Vineyard fast ferry, Donadio launched the new service in June 2003. It was an immediate hit: The 130-foot-long, 400-passenger Millennium covers the 48-mile trip in just 90 minutes and enables travelers to forego the traffic delays involved in getting to the Massachusetts-based ferries. The new ferry service even earned Donadio another award. In October, Vineyard Fast Ferry was named “Innovation/Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Providence Business News as part of its business excellence awards. A successful riverboat and an innovative fast ferry might be enough for some businessmen, but Donadio is already researching more options. “I’ve got visions of a 300- or 400-passenger sightseeing charter boat between Providence and Warwick, as well as other ferry destinations,” he says. And what about that political science degree? “I did run for Town Council in Narragansett in 1997,” he laughs. Perhaps it’s the overall lesson of how things work together that took root most firmly in Donadio’s mind, for this is one idea man who knows how to make things happen. Either that, or it’s a lifelong surfer who knows the payoff in waiting for the perfect wave. “I’ve been on the ocean all my life,” says Donadio. Right place, right time. For more information on the Rhode Island Martha’s Vineyard Fast Ferry, visit http://www.vineyardfastferry.com. For information on the Southland Riverboat, go to http://www.southlandcruises.com. | Top | Next |
 |