William “Bill” J. Healey of Cape May and Mays Landing, boating icon and founder of the Viking Yacht Company, passed away on Aug. 14, at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point from long-term complications of a stroke. He was 97.
Healey was the former president of the Viking Yacht Company in New Gretna that he founded in 1964 with his brother Robert. Healey built a boat manufacturing empire that became the world’s largest builder of luxury fiberglass sportfishing and cruising yachts. He became an advocate for shipwrights who designed and manufactured luxury yachts.
Healey, characterized as intense and feisty, valued his team and their commitment, often reminding them that they did not work for Bill Healey but that they worked with Bill Healey.
He was one of four brothers who was born in Atlantic City. Healey served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the final years of World War II. After his honorable discharge from the armed forces, he earned a B.S. degree in political science from St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia in 1951.
Healey worked for his father at P.J. Healey Structural Steel in Atco before making a career change. When Peterson-Viking, a local wooden boatbuilder failed, it marked the beginning of Viking Yachts — and a career that would make it the world’s largest builder of luxury fiberglass sportfishing and cruising yachts.
Healey shifted to fiberglass from wood and launched a Viking 40 Convertible in 1972. Healey’s Viking Yacht Company grew into an 880,000-square-foot facility with multiple production lines capable of producing 100 yachts each year. Nearly 90% of what goes into a Viking yacht is designed and manufactured in-house, Viking has manufacturing locations in New Gretna and Egg Harbor City, and multiple service and sales facilities in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Like many yacht makers, Viking was nearly scuttled in 1991 by a federal 10% luxury tax on boats priced above $100,000. Production came to a standstill, and Viking lost 1,500 workers. The tax was repealed two years later and the company rebounded.
Healey was instrumental in modernizing the yacht-building business, designing a tri-generation facility in the plant to provide power for its electrical, air-conditioning and heating needs. He built and installed a wastewater treatment plant, invested in a $1 million computer numerical control router to design and shape parts and components for the factory and the boats, and added solar panels on the roofs of buildings for additional clean power.
Healey retired in October 2013, turning over the company to his son Patrick.
Healey received the Ernst & Young N.J. Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998. He was inducted into the National Marine Manufacturers Association Hall of Fame in 2003 and in 2024, he was inducted into the Marine Trades Association of N.J. Hall of Fame.
