READY TO SET SAIL
State canal system opens for the season
WATERFORD, N.Y. >> The New York State Canal System Friday opened its locks to business for the 193rd consecutive year with a long blast of a barge horn from a canal system vessel tied up at the Waterford dock.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul was joined by several classes of middle school students as she counted down the seconds before sounding the horn for the lock tender to open the gates for the season.
The Waterford harbor was active, as state officials and canal officials mixed with the students and the owners of a string of boats and yachts waiting to head west.
In prepared remarks given from the deck of the flag-draped canal lock tender, Hochul briefly recounted the history of the Erie Canal’s beginnings, when President Thomas Jefferson labeled the idea of a canal from Albany to Buffalo, “crazy.”
“For 200 years this canal has been a living symbol of New York state’s greatness, and today we honor that legacy and assume the responsibility and the
commitment to keep this going forward for generations to come,” Hochul said.
As she continued, Hochul referenced the original $7.5 million it cost to build the canal ($6 billion today), how it was completed in eight years, and the impact it made.
“You are part of a state that believes in the impossible,” she told the students.
Hochul was joined on the ship’s covered and shaded deck by the Executive Director of New York State Canals Brian Stratton and Gil Quiniones, the president and CEO of the New York State Power Authority, the agency under which the canal system operates.
Stratton and Quiniones both complimented the canal on its longevity and its ongoing impact on the state and the nation.
“When it opened in 1825 it sent economic shock waves across New York state and the nation,” Stratton said. “It made New York harbor the busiest and the most prosperous and made New York the Empire State.”
In his remarks, Quiniones noted today’s boats found on the state’s canals maybe be smaller than they once were, but the owners seem to enjoy the trips more.
“They like the slow and easy pace the canal offers,” he said. “Being in a lock as it fills with water never gets old.”
In an interview after his prepared remarks Quiniones referenced the three Power Authority plants along the Erie Canal and the canal’s impact not just on recreation and tourism but on agriculture, as a water supply, shipping, and economic development.
“It’s used for irrigation,” he said. “People tend to forget that but agriculture is very big. And it’s used by some communities as a water supply. We’re also seeing development going on in some canal towns around their inner harbors.”
Both men said they were excited by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inclusion of $200 million in the state budget to complete the 750-mile-long Empire State Trail. The bike and hike trail will go north from New York City to the Canadian border and west from Albany to Buffalo. The western section is 80 percent complete. Full completion is expected in 2020.
Stratton added that with the canal system celebrating its bicentennial this year, all privately owned recreational boats can navigate the canals for free in 2017.
Waiting patiently at dockside were George and Beth Shipp. They were bringing their 42-foot Hunter yacht, “Shippmates” back to Toronto from the Bahamas. They have been tied up at the dock since April 28 and have gotten to know Waterford well.
“It’s a great place for everything,” said Greg Shipp. “It’s walkable, the restaurants are great and the people are great.”
The couple gave high marks to the Broad Street Café for breakfast and the Angry Penguin Tavern for libations.
“The canal is clean and well run,’” Greg Shipp said. “It’s an amazing to be on it.”
Docked behind the Shipps was Bernard Lasporte’s 42-foot-long and 24-foot-wiede catamaran “Tia Matou.” A native of Lyon, France, Lasporte has spent nearly 30 years in Canada. He is a boat builder by trade and built the Tia Matou. When asked if someone could order one, he laughed.
“They are too late. This one was just for me. I’m done,” he said.
Lasporte said he too was in the Bahamas for the winter.
“I built it big, like a house so we would be above the water,” he said.
“When you buy a house, you don’t live in the basement. It’s very stable. The stability is given by the shape of the boat. When you live on it for three months, you want it stable. The wives like the stability.”