Water Taxi Service Is Set for Launching   Tom Fox’s ship has finally come in. And it looks a little like a Checker cab. Fox, known to many on the waterfront as the first president of the Hudson River Park Conservancy, has struggled for five years to finance his dream of a water taxi service for New York. In July, the dream will come true with three custom-made yellow-and-black-checkered boats that will carry commuters between ferry terminals in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and take tourists and locals to points of interest as far north as West 42nd Street. Back in 1997, Fox leased some boats and launched a ferry service from North Cove to New Jersey’s Liberty Landing. Undercapitalized, and stuck with boats that were too slow, his enterprise flopped after two months. Facing that failure, he recalls, was the worst experience he’d known since returning to Vietnam for a second tour. "The hardest thing was taking down my little water taxi flags," he recalls. At age 50 he set out to lure investors for his own $8-million fleet of water taxis custom-built for New York waters. Five years and 150 rejections later, he found real estate magnate Douglas Durst, a fellow board member on the Friends of Hudson River Park. "I could not have found a better partner in a person who has significant resources, yet he’s a kindred spirit in opening up the waterfront." Fox hopes to launch the water taxi with two vessels the week of July 4, and says it will complement and feed the rapidly expanding ferry services provided by companies such as NY Waterway. About 55,000 people a day now travel to and from Lower Manhattan by ferry. He expects to have a third 54-seat, low-wake, low-emission catamarans by September. Next year three more boats, now under construction in Westchester, will join the fleet on expanded routes. The service will kick off with rush-hour taxis traveling between Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn, Pier 11 at Wall Street, Pier A just north of Battery Park, and North Cove in Battery Park City, with a boat arriving at each stop every 10 minutes. This commuter service will operate on weekdays from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Midday service, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekends, will add stops at South Street Seaport, Chelsea Piers at West 23rd Street, and the Circle Line/World Yachts pier at West 42nd Street. In 2003, Fox hopes to extend the commuter service to West 79th, with stops that include Pier 25 in Tribeca. Fares will start at $2 per trip for a rush-hour 10-trip pass and range upward, depending on the time and destination.