Sure sign of spring: Swan Boats glide again in Public Garden
Like the spirited celebrations along Boylston Street on Marathon Monday, the launch of the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden is a symbol of the start of spring in the city.
As has been the case for almost 150 years, the fleet was ready for service on Saturday morning. The first boat carried Mayor Michelle Wu and her family through the famed lagoon.
Six-year-old Andile Gay, of Dorchester, participated in a Swan Boat art program for Boston Public School students, so her family was invited to ride with the mayor.
“It’s been fun,” Mbali Gay, 38, said of her family’s first-ever ride on the boats. “It’s been something that’s welcoming to all families.”
As a child growing up in Boston, Maria DeSisto regularly went to the Swan Boats with her mother and sisters. She still tries to make it to every opening day.
“It just remains a wonderful, affordable constant in the city,” said DeSisto, 59, who now lives in Taunton. “For that 15 minutes on the ride? It’s just total peace and immersion in the experience.”
Preparations for each new magical season begin long before opening day. One of the city’s top tourist attractions, the Swan Boats operate on varying schedules through Sept. 2.
Crews spent months sanding down benches and varnishing oak slats on each boat. Last week, they lugged custom-made parts to the Public Garden, where each vessel was meticulously assembled by hand.
“There’s a lot of little stuff that takes place over the winter,” Lyn Paget, a fourth-generation owner of the company, said in an interview ahead of this year’s opening. “And then there’s the regular painting and prep to get everything all spruced up so that they look great for opening.”
The Swan Boats, first introduced by Irish immigrant Robert Paget in 1877, are propelled by a driver who sits atop a paddle wheel to pedal the vessel forward, according to the company’s website. All six boats are built of oak, ornamental copper, iron, and brass, which Paget said makes them the only boats of their type left in the world.
“There’s something that’s really important about maintaining the tradition and integrity of these boats,” said Paget, who manages the company alongside her cousin, Phil Paget. “These boats are what create the memories and the stories that we hear over and over.”
While replacing the copper belly of each 3-ton boat with fiberglass might make for easier maintenance, Paget said maintaining the fleet’s original construction is essential to the longterm viability of the business.
“With a business like this, you can’t just be thinking about the next week or month or quarter or season,” said Paget, who spent her teenage years selling ride tickets. “You really have to be thinking about how we maintain this for as long as we possibly can.”
Like the Marathon, the return of the Swan Boats is a sure sign that Boston is waking up from winter.
“When people see those boats coming in, there’s this relief that we’re getting back outside,” said Paget. “We are a symbol that even if the weather’s not great on the day that we open, it’s going to get better.”
Many people made their way to the boats after participating in the Boston 5K, a run through Back Bay held as part of the Marathon festivities.
Assyifa Ilman, 27, a Harvard graduate student from Indonesia, hopped aboard with friends after finishing the race.
“I think it’s a very good thing to open in spring because all the trees are blossoming at the moment, so it’s a really great experience overall,” Ilman said.
Olivia O’Dwyer, of Cambridge, said she expected the boats, which seat 20 people, to be smaller. “I didn’t expect [there] would be so many people on the boat,” she said.
But O’Dwyer, 25, said she loved sharing a ride on one of the iconic boats.
“It was honestly kind of nice to be with that whole group,” she said.
Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers @globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers. Abigail Lee can be reached at abigail.lee@globe.com.