Edmonton Riverboat out of water for repairs over the next few weeks
EDMONTON The Edmonton Riverboat will be staying ashore for the next few weeks.
General manager Matt Beaubien said Monday the riverboat was moved on Saturday to Whitemud Park to start on repairs to the hull. The boat was damaged in April after the North Saskatchewan River rose to as high as eight metres, which caused the vessel to float on top of the white posts it was tied to.
Beaubien said whenever the boat is damaged, it has to be taken out of the water.
He said they had to wait until water conditions were right before being able to move it.
“There was flooding inside ( but) there’s no damage to the floor,” he said. “(There were) things that got wet that shouldn’t have gotten wet. (There are some) broken dishes and cosmetic stuff.”
Beaubien said he’s not sure if the riverboat will be operational for the summer.
“We’re crossing our fingers,” he said. “There’s a lot of other repairs that have to happen to the gangway, to the mooring piles, to other cosmetic aspects of the vessel that don’t have to be done out of the water. We’re trying to minimize the time out of water. There’s just a lot of unknowns at this point.”
The riverboat has faced challenges before.
In December last year, the riverboat sustained some damage after water levels jumped by nearly two metres over a short period of time.
At the time, owner Jay Esterer estimated the damages to be in the range of $70,000.
The 52-metre boat, formerly known as the Edmonton Queen, made a triumphant return to the water in 2018 after three years of sitting stagnant due to low water levels. In its first five months back on the river, more than 30,000 visitors took a spin on the vessel.
Esterer took over ownership in 2016.
High water levels haven’t only been an issue for the riverboat.
Near the end of May, the city warned Edmontonians to stay off the river and away from banks because of swift-moving water.
In a news release on Friday, the city said the North Saskatchewan River is nearly one metre higher and almost twice the normal flow rate than usual.
According to the Alberta River Basins weekly graph of the river, the river rose to a high of six metres on May 26 before slowly dropping back to roughly 4.25 metres on Monday.