A Florida-based company bought two of Bermuda’s fast ferries for almost $313,000 each in July, The Royal Gazette has learnt.

The Gazette requested copies of the bills of sale for the original Warbaby Fox and JL Cecil Smith after it emerged that the Department of Marine and Ports had sold the 37.8-metre vessels, which came into service in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Signed on July 24, the documents said that FastCats Ferry Charters LLC purchased each of the vessels for US $312,500 in their condition “as is”.

The sales came months after marine and ports replaced the catamarans, built by Director Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with 39-metre vessels that took the same names, and almost two years after FastCats bought two other Bermuda ferries, Venturilla and Tempest.

The company had bought the smaller ferries, both of which arrived on the island in 2004, for $212,500 each.

The bills of sale for those vessels were dated September 5, 2024, also in the condition “as is, where is”.

Mark Rosandich, the chief executive of FastCats, said in July that the company operates ferries throughout the Caribbean and he had intended to use Venturilla and Tempest in the Dominican Republic.

However, FastCats owned those vessels — designed by Teknicraft Design in New Zealand and built by Australian-based North West Bay Ships — for only about eight weeks before reselling them to a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Rosandich told the Gazette: “They were built in Australia and were old catamarans, so some parts were hard to come by.

“All the business was done in Bermuda and I worked on them for about eight weeks, but once we realised we could not get them to the Dominican Republic on their own bottoms, we decided to sell them.”

Mr Rosandich did not say to whom the ferries were sold, but claimed the buyers spent $270,000 to transport them from Bermuda to the BVI.

Vesselfinder.com last tracked Venturilla in Tortola, the BVI, on May 30, but has no tracking information for Tempest.

Mr Rosandich said in July that the old Warbaby Fox and JL Cecil Smith were “mostly operational” and destined for the BVI and US Virgin Islands.

The Gazette can confirm that the ferries were each resold for $1 each to Road Town Fast Ferry in the US Virgin Islands.

The ferries left Bermuda and arrived in their new location this month.

The Gazette tried to contact Road Town Fast Ferry for comment.