Going once, going twice ... Islander ferry sold to New York man
(Globe File Photo)
Passengers disembarking from the Islander in 1968.
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
The upstate New York man who bought the Islander ferry, the 200-foot-long vessel that carried people for decades between Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, says he intends to turn around and sell it at a profit, and he already has some buyers interested in it.
 The upper deck |
“I’m not into boats, to be honest with you. But when you see something go up for sale and it’s cheap, if you know you’re going to make money on it, why not buy it?” said Don Slovak, owner of Slovak Auto Transport in Valatie, N.Y. “I think just nobody was looking at it. I think it was a great deal that a lot of people passed up on.”
Slovak submitted the winning bid of $23,600 in an eBay auction held by the state of New York that concluded Monday after drawing 58 bids.
The venerable vessel with a rich history was sold in 2007 by the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority to the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, which paid $500,000 for it for backup and supplemental ferry service to the island in the heart of New York Harbor. But the preservation board put the boat up for sale early this month, warning bidders that it was in poor condition.
The Islander had traveled more than a million miles in its five-decade-plus career. A trip on the Islander marked the beginning and the end of many an idyllic, sun-splashed island vacation.
Brad Maione, a spokesman for the New York Office of General Services, which handled the sale of the ferry for the preservation board, said it was the physically largest item the office had ever sold. Previously, the largest thing had been cars or a tractor, he said.
Slovak said he was confident he would find a buyer. He pointed to the price that the board had paid in 2007 for the ferry as evidence that it was worth more than he had paid.
He said he had bought and sold items before on eBay, including heavy equipment like a bulldozer. “This is just a little bigger scale than I’ve ever dealt with,” he said.
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