Bob Clifford

Dr. Robert Clifford AO
Born	Tasmania, Australia
Occupation	Chairman and founder of Incat
Children	Craig Clifford. Kim Clifford, Rohan Clifford
Website	http://www.incat.com.au

Dr. Robert "Bob" Frederick Clifford AO, (born in Tasmania, Australia), and now living in Surrey, England, is an Australian shipbuilder, entrepreneur, and businessman, best known for his success in building his Incat catamaran building company into an international brand that sells wave piercing catamaran ferries all over the world including to the US military and many European ferry operators.

In 1963, Bob Clifford was awarded the apprentice of the year award for printing. He began his boat building business in his backyard before expanding it to a commercial operation. Eventually he went into partnership with Philip Hercus, who helped him expand Incat into a serious shipbuilding operation.

In 1994, Clifford skippered his maxi yacht Tasmania to line honours victory in the 50th anniversary Sydney to Hobart yacht race. In 1994, Clifford experienced one of his blackest moments when he accidentally ran aground his 40 million dollar catamaran Condor II upon Blackjack Rock in the mouth of the Derwent River. He has won numerous design and manufacturing awards for his shipbuilding exploits.

He spent much of his early years as a fisherman and turned his passion for the sea into a backyard boat building operation. He was immediately successful, and promoted the idea of fast commuter ferries and turned his company into one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-speed catamaran ferries. The Tasman Bridge disaster result in high demand Clifford's ferry business. Developing much of the technology locally, Incat researched and designed high-tech, high-speed wave piercing catamarans.

By September, 1977, Incat launched their first high-speed catamaran at Prince of Wales Bay, Tasmania. Since then they have expanded their operation into 98- and 112-metre wavepiercer production.

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