Pleasure boaters left high and dry
North American inland loop is locked down because of coronavirus.
Loopers have been thrown a loop in their annual cruise along the TrentSevern Waterway.
And what’s a looper? They’re boat owners, usually wealthy, who like to sail a loop around the eastern half of North America.
Their near-10,000-kilometre route that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of St. Lawrence — all done via quiet, safe inland waterways — usually takes a year or more.
But not this year: Canadian boats can’t enter America waters and vice-versa, all because of the coronavirus. Closing the Canadian-American border applies to pleasure boats too.
More than 250 vessels completed the loop last year; many loopers say the most enjoyable portion of the entire trip was along the Trent-Severn Waterway that connects Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay.
The boaters, who come from around the world, are impressed by the technical features of the Peterborough Hydraulic Lift Lock, once the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. It was the largest concrete structure in the world without reinforcing rods when it opened in 1904.
It lifts boats 20 metres from the Lower Trent to the Upper Trent and was named a National Historic Site in 1979. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers declared it a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1987.
Another favourite along the waterway is the Big Chute Marine Railway, where boats up to 30.4 metres long are carried on a railway flat car that submerges under boats in one lake and carries them over an embankment and county road into another lake.
It’s the only marine railway in North America. The 386-kilometre-long Trent Severn opened in 1920 with 44 locks. It usually takes a week to go from Trenton on Lake Ontario to Honey Harbour on Georgian Bay, a climb of 51 metres.
After entering Georgian Bay, the loopers head into Lake Huron and then Lake Michigan to enter the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. They follow that river to the Illinois River, which joins the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. From there it’s 1,100 kilometres south to New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico.
The protected waters of an inland waterway run along the north shore of the Gulf to the Cross Florida Barge Canal near Yankeetown, Fla. That canal empties into the Atlantic at Jacksonville and they follow the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway all the way up America’s east coast to New York City.
From New York, the loopers go up the Hudson River to Albany, where they have the choice of following the Erie Canal west to Lake Ontario or heading north to Lake Champlain in Vermont, where they connect with Quebec’s Richelieu River that leads to Montreal and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Some loopers go up the Ottawa River to join the Rideau Canal and follow it to Kingston and then on to Lake Ontario.
At each Trent-Severn lock there are harbour hosts who are available to the loopers as local experts on anything and everything they need.
The America’s Great Loop
Cruisers’ Association says among their most popular harbour hosts are Pam Vaters and her husband Gary, who welcome loopers to Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls.
They’ve been harbour hosts for only three years, but have become close friends with loopers from around the world who tied up for a while in the area.
The Vaters moved to Fenelon Falls from downtown Toronto four years ago and opened a gift and clothing store — The Water Street Clothesline — near Lock 34 in the heart of Fenelon Falls. Their store was an obvious place for a looper to pop in and ask where a laundromat is located or how can they reach a diesel mechanic. So the Vaters soon became official harbour hosts. They’ve met hundreds of loopers and have stayed in touch with them after their boats pull out of Fenelon Falls. Their daughter Kimberly operates the Kicking Cowgirl in Bobcaygeon, a retail store specializing in western attire.
It’s close to Bobcaygeon’s Lock 32, so she sees lots of loopers needing information.
She calls her parents and they bring over the answers, plus a hug.
“Every looper we meet gets a hug,” Pam said.
It costs $50,000, on average, for a looper to complete the circuit and they are big spenders along the Trent-Severn. “The Trent-Severn communities are really feeling the effect of COVID-19 blocking the loopers from visiting,” she said.
A Florida looper had diesel trouble in Fenelon Falls last autumn and eventually his $250,000 yacht was towed to Orillia for repairs. It’s fixed now and ready to cruise, but the owner can’t get into Canada to take the helm.
More information is available at America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association at the group’s website, www.greatloop.org.