In the Media

The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA)
St. Thomas St.Croix Ferry
RINA’s “Significant Small Ships 2016” section which includes QE IV. An annual publication with about 30 unique vessels 5-100m long. [See article]

Virgin Islands Daily News
St. Thomas – St.Croix Ferry
June 26, 2016 – The QE IV 50-passenger St. Thomas/St.Croix Ferry made its first trial run. [See article]

Virgin Islands Daily News
St. Thomas  – St.Croix Ferry
May, 2016 – Five years after ferry service between St. Thomas and St. Croix came to an abrupt end with the grounding of the Royal Miss Belmar, a new 103-foot, 50-passenger ferry has taken its first dip in the water. […read more]

Professional Boatbuilder Magazine online
Custom Carbon Cat Cloth
June/July, 2015 – Gold Coast Yachts (St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands), builder of sailing catamarans, started out in 1985 building wood/epoxy boats. Over the years the company’s construction processes have evolved, sequencing through E-glass/foam core/epoxy composite employing wet-vacuum-bagging and resin-infusion processes. […read more]

Latitude 38
Taking a Step Into the Dark Side
August 18, 2014 – Seattle / St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Greg Slyngstad, owner of the Seattle-based J/125 Hamachi that won her division in last month’s Pacific Cup, and was on the cover of this month’s Latitude 38, confirms that he’s having an all-carbon, Paul Bieker-designed 53-ft catamaran built at Gold Coast Yachts in St. Croix. […read more]

All At Sea
Trends in Power Catamaran Boat Design
Charter operators, sports fishermen and ferry owners prioritize function and bottom line when choosing a power catamaran boat. When finding out what’s new in this arena, there’s no one better to ask than the team at Gold Coast Yachts in St. Croix, USVI. […read more]

Daily News
V.I. looking for businesses to use second STEP grant
Published: January 28, 2013 ST. THOMAS – The Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority has $322,498 in federal funds available to help local businesses develop export capacity. […read more]

All At Sea
“25 Years & 100 Boats: St. Croix’s Gold Coast Yachts”
If you’ve taken a Caribbean day sail or seen a charter catamaran with a gaggle of partying snorkelers, chances are good it was built by Gold Coast Yachts alongside the mangroves of Salt River Bay on St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands. […read more]

Professional Boatbuilder Magazine
“Their Phone Is Ringing”
A durable, nimble business partnership has enabled Gold Coast Yachts (St. Croix, Virgin Islands) to succeed in several markets segments; build in multiple media; experiment in both sail and power; and above all, survive a few strategic mistakes, one devastating hurricane, and the current killer recession. […read more]

The Avis
“St. John To Get New Ambulance Boat”
Gov. John de Jongh Jr. announced Wednesday that a proposal by a local boat building company has been accepted to construct a new ambulance boat to serve St. John and, in maritime emergencies, the territory. […read more]

The Avis
“International Magazine Features St. Croix Boatbuilders”
Gold Coast Yachts is featured in the spring edition of Professional Boatbuilder, an international publication that recognized the St. Croix-based boatbuilders for their high-quality engineering and craftsmanship, sleek recognizable silhouette and successful business operation. […read more]

ProBoat Online
“More Thoughts from Gold Coast Yachts”
Gold Coast Yachts partners Rich Difede and Roger Hatfield are veteran boatbuilders who’ve seen almost all the changes in techniques, materials, styles, budgets, and buyers in the modern multihull market. Their observations about boats, boat design, and the business of boatbuilding are consistently imaginative, optimistic, and pragmatic, even in the current economy. […read more]

All At Sea
“St. Croix Day Charter Operator and Ferry Builder Go Green with New Boats”
Big Beard Adventure Tours’ owner, Captain John ‘Big Beard’ Macy, an Oregon native who transplanted to the island nearly thirty years ago, says, “We’ve always been a sailboat company. However, we wanted to offer our customers the option of a catamaran that moved more quickly.” […read more]

Sailing World
“Redefining Cruising Speed”
The growing acceptance of multihulls as a new sailing solution seems to divide itself into two basic groups: 1. Those catamarans and trimarans which use the multihull configuration to achieve greater speed with minimal cruising space and comfort, and […read more]

U.S. Business Review
“Smooth Sailing”
Yacht manufacturer Gold Coast Yachts maintains the lead in the market by tapping a niche in the tourism industry. Not long after establishing Gold Coast Yachts in 1985 in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), partners Rich Difede and Roger Hatfield became the leading yacht builder in the Caribbean and beyond. […read more]

All At Sea
“New Day Catamaran Starts Service in Curaçao”
Almost all Caribbean islands have their catamaran day charters for tourists. Curaçao, however, had none, until now! Last August, a brand new 54 ft catamaran was launched from the well-known Gold Coast Yachts wharf in St. Croix. […read more]

St. Croix This Week
“Big Beard’s Adventure Tours Goes ‘Green’ With New Boat”
The surrounding seas are one of the main attractions for visitors to St. Croix. Now, sightseers can enjoy this wondrous water world in an eco-friendly way aboard Big Beard’s Adventure Tours new ‘green’ power catamaran. […read more]

Solomon Technologies, Inc.
“Gold Coast Yachts Launches Biggest Boat Yet with STI Power”
STI CEO Dave Tether flew to St. Croix in May to oversee the launch of the largest STI-powered boat to date: Nostromo — a 51 foot catamaran built by Gold Coast Yachts. “This is the reason I started this company,” Dave joked as he boarded his flight at BWI airport. “So I could go to the Caribbean and watch someone else work.” […read more]

Workboat Word
“Multihull Craft Survey – Riding on ‘The Edge'”
It is easy to think of the Caribbean as calm seas and sunny waters. The reality is a regular trade wind which blows consistently and at times quite strongly. […read more]

All At Sea
“From Backyard to Big Time – Gold Coast Yachts”
In the 1970’s, Roger Hatfield built a 31-foot trimaran in his Tacoma Park, Maryland back yard, his wife learned celestial navigation, and they sailed off to the Caribbean for a few years. “I had a passion and chased after it,” says Hatfield. […read more]

Multihulls Magazine
“How Shearwater Came To Be”
The Shearwater project began as a concept in the mind of Bill Mathers. Bill spent part of his youth as a U.S. Navy salvage officer, refloating vessels which had fallen victim to V.C. mischief along the coast of South Vietnam. […read more]

Work Boat World
“‘Fastcat II’ A diamond in the rough “
After over a year of solid service, owner Sonny Eymann only has good things to say about the 25.3 metre ‘Fastcat II’. In fact, he’s happy enough that, come the first month of 2001, he will take delivery of another commercial catamaran from Gold Coast Yachts. […read more]

Wooden Boat Magazine
“Gold Cast Yachts and the Siamese Gemini”
To watch the Caribbean day begin from the heights of an island like St. Croix is to be convinced that the world is always turning toward the morning. And down by the river, there’s something happening, something to suggest that the long night for production wooden boat building has ended. […read more]

Sail Magazine
“St. Croix Company Builds Profitable, Fast Multihulls”
Top speeds of 20 to 30 knots and single day runs of 360 miles are two of the fleet statistics of Gold Coast Yachts, a multihull manufacturing company based in St. Croix, which designs and builds progressive, inexpensive catamarans for the Caribbean day-charter trade. […read more]

Boating Industry International Magazine
“Caribbean Boatbuilders Taking Unique Designs Worldwide”
It used to take a year and a half to construct traditional wooden trading schooners on the island of Carraicou, a practice dating back nearly two centuries, but modern boatbuilding companies have taken over in the Caribbean and are producing unique boats that can compete worldwide. […read more]

St. Croix Source
“@ Work: Gold Coast Yachts”
Twenty-one years and about 73 catamarans ago, Richard Difede and Roger Hatfield were tinkering with their own boats. They had thought about building a boat to do inter-island travel, but then Heinz Punzenberger approached them. […read more]

St. Croix This Week
“Local Sloops of Former Days are Being Replaced by Island-Made Catamarans”
Alongside the mangroves at the Salt River Marina on St. Croix’s north shore, a huge shed houses a dynamic young enterprise which has gained fame as far away as Hawaii for its boat building skills. […read more]

All At Sea
“Mathers 57: Performance Cruising Catamaran Built By Gold Coast Yachts”
This design combines very slender, easily driven hulls, with wide overall beam and a generous sail plan, to deliver exceptional performance in the full spectrum of sailing conditions. The subtle curves of the hulls with their large radius sheer and the smoothed contours of the deckhouse cannot be appreciated by examination of the plans alone. […read more]

Nation’s Business
“Yachts at the Cutting Edge – Gold Coast Yachts Inc – Company Profile”
Who hasn’t dreamed it at least once? You pull up stakes and head for the Caribbean. Surrounded by blue skies, white sand, and a turquoise sea, you spend the rest of your life in shorts, doing work that you love and making a decent living at it. […read more]