Pelee Island’s new ferry expected to boost tourism
Pelee Island’s long-awaited new ferry should arrive in the spring and be operating this summer.
“We’re actually extremely excited,” Mayor Rick Masse said Wednesday. “It took almost 12 years to get it to this point and it’s going to maintain our highway, keep our highway open to the island for hopefully another 50 years.”
That “highway” for Canada’s southernmost populated spot is a reliable ferry system. Another large ferry to go with the Jiimaan is expected to help residents and boost tourism.
Masse said the new Pelee Islander II ferry being built in Chile should be taking passengers to the Lake Erie island for the summer schedule, which starts at the end of June. That will allow the Jiimaan, which began its service in 1992, to undergo a retrofit. By 2019, running both large ferries, the Jiimaan and the new Pelee Islander II, will almost double the number of passengers that can go to the island.
Tourism has increased the last three years, Masse said. It’s difficult to gauge but Masse estimates the island gets about 85,000 visitors a year. “We’re anticipating another big year this year.”
The $40 million new ferry announced in 2015 is expected to carry a maximum of 399 passengers and 34 cars. With fewer cars, it can hold four transport trucks which should help farmers and the Pelee Island winery since that is more transports than the Jiimaan can hold. Because of the size of the ferries it takes about an hour and a half to cross Lake Erie from Leamington and Kingsville to the island. Passengers tend to value speed but a two-year study showed the island needed more ferry space for transporting crops.
Another advantage to the Pelee Islander II is it is about 67 metres long which is close to the Jiimaan’s size but not as tall so the new ferry shouldn’t be stuck in port as often as the Jiimaan because of high winds, he said.
Because the Pelee Islander has provided “tremendous service” for 56 years, its replacement will stick with marine tradition and be named the Pelee Islander II, Masse said. The current vessel, which holds about 185 people and nine cars, won’t be retired until 2019.
Rod Strickland, one of the organizers and artistic director of The Island Unplugged festival Aug. 4 and 5, which attracts up to 1,000 people, said the new ferry and more reliable service is expected to boost tourism and once more people are coming it could see more bed and breakfast spots open.
“The new ferry’s going to be absolutely great,” Strickland said. “It will allow us to bring more people to the island to enjoy it.”