{"id":316853,"date":"2026-06-23T13:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316853\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:58:18","slug":"first-look-new-tampa-bay-ferry-ships-unveiled-ahead-of-daily-service-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316853\/","title":{"rendered":"First look: New Tampa Bay Ferry ships unveiled ahead of daily service launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two major pieces of the long-awaited Tampa Bay Ferry service have now, very literally, been secured. Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) announced that it had completed the purchase of the two vessels that will service St. Pete and Tampa as part of the upcoming year-round ferry service crossing the waters of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Following extensive inspections and sea tests, Bay Breeze and Clipper have been selected as the new ships for the service, which will be operated by Hubbard\u2019s Marina. The Bay Breeze is a 97-foot, 250-passenger catamaran, while the 103-foot Clipper carries around 150 passengers.<\/p>\n

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\nPhotos of Bay Breeze, courtesy PSTA<\/p>\n

Once launched, the new service has promised lower fares than the previous Cross-Bay Ferry, as well as daily transport and more frequent service thanks to the two-vessel approach. If you\u2019ve taken the ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney World and see its sister pass by halfway across the lake, you know the experience.<\/p>\n

While this is a huge step forward, there is still a long way to go. Again, we mean that literally. Now that they\u2019ve been purchased, the two Pacific Northwest-based ships will have to be loaded onto even larger ships to be transported to Florida, via the Panama Canal. After arriving in a Fort Lauderdale shipyard, they will go through refurbishment, painting, and other upgrades before sailing under their own power to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

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\nPhotos of Clipper, Courtesy PSTA<\/p>\n

The dock by the Tampa Convention Center will continue as the Tampa home for the ferry service, while officials are still finalizing where the St. Pete dock will be located. No launch date has yet been decided, with officials waiting to assess the boats upon their arrival in Florida.<\/p>\n

A $4.8 million federal grant funded the \u201cpurchase and shipping of the vessels, the nationwide vessel search, mechanical inspections and sea trials, and the refurbishment needed to prepare the boats for passenger service.\u201d Once operational, PSTA and Hubbard\u2019s Marina will jointly oversee operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis milestone reflects the Board\u2019s commitment to expanding transportation choices throughout Tampa Bay,\u201d said Tom Reid, Vice-Chairperson of the PSTA Board of Directors and Vice Mayor of South Pasadena. \u201cBy investing in a permanent, two-vessel fleet, we\u2019re building a more reliable service that will better connect our communities for years to come. It\u2019s rewarding to see this project moving from concept to reality.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two major pieces of the long-awaited Tampa Bay Ferry service have now, very literally, been secured. Pinellas Suncoast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-316853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}