JEANERETTE — Metal Shark Aluminum Boats, which has its high-speed aluminum passenger ferries operating in the Big Apple, soon will have similar ferries carrying passengers in the Big Easy.

The local shipbuilder announced that two 105-foot, 150-passenger catamaran ferries have been completed and are ready for service with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. Metal Shark completed and delivered the first ferry to New Orleans in July before putting the finishing touches recently on the second ferry for N.O.

The second vessel passed U.S. Coast Guard inspections in early October at the site where it was built in Franklin, one of three fully self-contained Metal Shark shipbuilding facilities in Louisiana and Alabama spanning more than 75 acres.

RTA 1 and RTA 2 will replace the decades-old ferries operating in New Orleans. They usher in new standards of comfort, safety, reliability and efficiency, according to Metal Shark CEO Chris Allard.

The two ferries were designed by Alexandria, Virginia-based BMT Designers and Planners and built to meet specs required by the RTA, Allard said in a prepared statement. The USCG Subchapter “T” compliant ferries are powered by twin 715-h.p. Cat C-18 Tier 3 diesel engines and feature a proven, low wake/low wash, high-efficiency hull design for reduced environmental impact, the company reported, he said.

“In the past 18 months, we have delivered over 14 150-passenger and 350-passenger ferries to New York, Washington, D.C., and now, New Orleans. As a local Louisiana company, it has been an honor to build these modern, comfortable new vessels for the people of New Orleans and visitors from around the world,” Allard said.

Metal Shark, which boasts a workforce of more than 500 employees and produces more than 200 vessels a year, has contracts with the U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and Army, as well as nationwide and international work orders.

Metal Shark, which evolved from Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC, has been busy in 2018.

Six new Metal Shark military patrol boats were handed over in a ceremony to the Vietnam Coast Guard’s Region 4 station on Phu Quoc Island on March 28. It delivered two of its custom-welded patrol aluminum boats to the Virgin Islands Port Authority in April, then a month later delivered four high-speed patrol boats to the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard.

In June, Metal Shark acquired a shipbuilding facility in Mobile, Alabama. After Horizon Shipbuilding filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in October 2017, Metal Shark got the green light to acquire that company’s assets on June 5.

The acquisition gave the local company a 35-acre shipbuilding facility in the Mobile Bay region a few minutes boat ride from the Intracoastal Waterway. The Alabama site’s refit and repair services were expected to appeal to customers throughout the Gulf, South Florida and Caribbean yachting communities, company officials said in June.

In 2014, Metal Shark opened its 25-acre shipyard in Franklin and this year completed a new 200 x 80 vessel assembly building and 8,000-acre building at the site in Franklin.

Metal Shark’s home remains a 15-acre production campus in Jeanerette.

Metal Shark got its start as Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC in Jeanerette, where Carol Gravois and his son, Jimmy Gravois, made popular saltwater fishing boat. Its business grew, put this area on the map and provided employment for hundreds.

Jimmy Gravois and Allard, a naval architect with a background in sales, shared a vision for the company in the mid-2000s, one that it being realized with each delivery, the latest being the two ferries for New Orleans.