Boat tours could return to Huntsville this summer

A missing piece in Huntsville’s tourism offerings may be in place this summer.

An area entrepreneur is hoping to bring boat tours back to the Muskoka River.

Stephen Wyllie, who runs the Lady Muskoka boat cruises out of Bracebridge and at one time owned the Kee to Bala, wants to operate two boats in the Huntsville area, one at Deerhurst Resort for dining and one at the Town Dock for touring. He explained his vision to councillors at the April 25 General Committee meeting.

He anticipates running five tours per day from the Town Dock to Fairy Lake, through the canal to Peninsula Lake and back again. The trip would take less than an hour.

Wyllie was before committee with Kelly Haywood, executive director of the Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce, to request space at the end of the Town Dock nearest the swing bridge. Two of the existing finger docks would have to be moved, as noted in the image below, to accommodate the 58-foot boat. It would only be there during the day when not on tours; at night the boat would be moored elsewhere.

The proposed docking location for the tour boat. The finger docks that would need to be removed near the swing bridge would be moved to the other end of the Town Dock in the area denoted by the yellow ‘T’. (Supplied image)

In a nod to Huntsville’s history, the boat launching from the Town Dock would be christened the Algonquin II. The steamer Algonquin carried passengers from Huntsville’s train station to South Portage at the east end of Peninsula Lake from 1905 until she was retired in 1952. Unlike the Algonquin, the newer river boat can pass beneath the now welded shut swing bridge.

The dining boat at Deerhurst is to be christened the Tom Thomson.

Wyllie hopes to repeat the success he’s experienced with the Lady Muskoka. He said he doubled the number of passengers taking tours in the first two years he owned the company, from 7,000 to 14,200. He’s projecting 18,000 to 20,000 passengers in Bracebridge this year. “It’s a huge draw for the town,” he said.

Haywood said that after where to eat, boat tours are the most-requested attraction from tourists visiting the chamber’s visitor information booths.

The boats come from Ottawa’s Rideau Canal and already have the necessary certifications, but getting them to Muskoka is a major undertaking. Wyllie said they’ll need to be sailed from Ottawa to Orillia via the Rideau Canal, the Bay of Quinte and the Trent Severn Waterway, and then lifted via crane from the water onto transport trucks to be brought further north.

Wyllie is hoping to have the boats operational by mid-June.

In response to questions from councillors, he said it would also be possible for some of the tours to head up river into Lake Vernon. He said he would also look at special tours connecting with the end of the Portage Flyer line at Muskoka Heritage Place, or originating in Port Sydney and travelling through the Brunel Locks.

Councillor Nancy Alcock seemed to express the sentiment of most of the councillors when she said, “I think this is something our town has missed. I am so delighted to hear about this.”

Staff were directed to investigate the operational impacts of a trial run of the boat in the summer of 2018, including possible fees for use of the dock, and to return with a report for committee’s consideration.

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