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 yachtTasmania 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.
Business 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. The catamarans have proved to be one of Australia's best industrial success stories of recent years, and during the dark days of the 1990s when Tasmania's economy was suffering badly, the product provided a ray of hope to the ailing state. Over twenty of the catamarans have been sold to European operators, and a higher number has been sold to the US military. At the height of their success, Incat held more than 40%of the world's high speed ferry manufacturing market. 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. Clifford's catamarans have also broken the record for the Atlantic Ocean crossing and won many design awards. Clifford famously does not pursue intellectual rights to his designs or products, preferring instead to try staying ahead of his competitors through savvy technological advances.
Politics
Robert Clifford has never had any political associations. His Incat business operated for many years on marginal profits. Shipbuilding is a cyclic business with at times rapid increases in workforce numbers, and at times reductions in the workforce. The company was in receivership for 11 months in 2002–2003, but successfully traded out with the sale of vessels.
