Paddlewheel replica to set sail in Tavares
Dora Queen steamboat will be available for daily cruises, private events
TAVARES — The latest tourist attraction coming to the Tavares waterfront is a hallmark of a bygone era that soon will be chugging along Lake Dora.
The City Council has signed off on a lease agreement, allowing the 80-foot Dora Queen steamboat, a 1920s paddlewheel replica, to dock at the waterfront, and later, move to the city’s rebuilt docks when its seaplane base is rebuilt next year.
The boat is still under construction and is likely a few months away from the launch of daily cruises as well as private events for companies, weddings, parties and other occasions.
“It’s a little different, so a lot of people have already approached us about doing different things,” said Bryan Herron, who owns the boat.
The paddlewheeler will bring another amenity to Tavares, where visitors can take seaplane rides in the city that calls itself America’s Seaplane City.
The Lake County community of 17,300 also is home to the Royal Palm Railway Experience tourist train featuring retrofitted 1950s Amtrak coaches.
When it launches, the Dora Queen will be a far larger boat than it was when Herron purchased it more than two years ago. He’s added a second deck, new pontoons and other features. It also will have a galley with heaters and warmers — cooking won’t be permitted — and a bar serving drinks.
It has an indoor seating area with a bar on the first deck with a wraparound porch-like deck. The second deck will have another bar where live music can play covered by a canvas shade.
For now, construction continues at Trident Pontoons in Tavares. In about a month Herron plans to
have it transported to Lake Dora, where it will be reassembled on the water. The vessel would then need approval from the U.S. Coast Guard before it could set sail.
Herron and his wife, Brandy, had their rehearsal dinner aboard the boat 19 years ago — in a much smaller form. At that time it ran along the Dead River in Tavares from Lake Harris to Lake Eustis.
In the revamped vessel, seating will be lounge style and comfortable, he said. The Dora Queen is painted white with red rails. The paddlewheel, which will rotate as water runs through it but won’t power the vessel, is also red.
Prices for Dora Queen cruises haven’t been finalized, Herron said.
Elsewhere in Central Florida, the 105-foot Barbara-Lee, an authentic sternwheeler, runs along the St. Johns River out of Sanford. The five-deck craft holds 194 guests and sails lunch and dinner cruises on Lake Monroe.
The vessel offers full dinner and lunch menus, with beer, wine and champagne.
Steamboats have sailed Central Florida’s waterways since at least the 1830s and by the late 19th century about 150 sailed the St. Johns River, more than any south of the Hudson River in New York, according to St. Johns Rivership Company, which owns the Barbara-Lee.
When the Dora Queen launches, it will join a waterfront entertainment district that already boasts boat docks, a wedding venue, hotels and soon a rebuilt a rebuilt seaplane base.
In Tavares, the seaplane base and docks were destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The replacement base is mostly designed and city officials hope it will be ready to open in fall of 2020.
Bob Tweedie, the city’s economic director, said the Dora Queen is a natural fit downtown, where the city operates a wedding venue, the Pavilion on the Lake.
He said guests guests could stay at a hotel downtown, attend the rehearsal dinner on the Dora Queen, walk to the wedding and then fly off to their honeymoon on a seaplane.
“I think it complements everything that’s down here,” Tweedie said. “It adds another option for folks, and another reason to come here.”
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