Robert "Bob" Frederick Clifford AO is an Australian shipbuilder 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 1994, Clifford experienced one of his blackest moments when he accidentally ran aground his $40 million catamaran Condor II upon Blackjack Rock in the mouth of the Derwent River.
[1] Developing much of the technology locally, Incat researched and designed high-tech, high-speed wave piercing catamarans.
The catamarans have proved to be one of Australia's best industrial success stories of recent years, and during the 1990s when Tasmania's economy was suffering badly, the product provided a ray of hope to the ailing state.
Although the market has slowed, Incat has moved into production of catamaran freight vessels, and they are developing the design for even longer, 150-metre ferries.