Canal Boats

What We Do

We build commercial passenger boats for ferry, water taxi, dive, snorkel, and glass bottom operators. Capacities are up to 149 passengers plus crew. Most often, we build to U S Coast Guard passenger vessel standards for inspected vessels. We build mono hulls and low wake catamarans. We build in FRP of various composites, and with power packages designed for each individual application, built from our own designs, or we will work with you on boats based on other hull forms and designs. We have many molds and tools that allow us to keep costs down while still building to your specifications. Our vessels are in service all over the United States, the Bahamas, Mexico and the Caribbean. We will respond to your inquiries promptly.

Who We Are

The principal designer and builder, Bill Burpee, has designed and built hundreds of Subchapter T passenger boats ranging in size from 27' to 64' since 1979. The Owner and President, Bob Bekoff, has been an owner and operator of water taxis since 1988. Together, their boats have been in operation day in and day out, year after year for 100's of thousands of hours. They know what it takes to get the job done in this most challenging environment, and take great pride in building exactly what their customers need.

The Early Days

Canal Boats has been actively engaged in the design and construction of small passengers vessels since 1994.

Necessity was the mother of the venture. The water taxi operation in Miami was looking for a way to access the huge Miami Beach Convention Center that is situated on an old canal. The canal is very shallow with very low bridges over it. After failing to find a builder, we went to a Maine boat builder and had him build a mold for a 38’ shallow draft scow and had them lay up four hulls to USCG regulations. The boats were outboard powered with bowloaders and collapsible hand rails. They were very successful and the company was off and running.