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3. Mar i n e News - cont'd. In the N o v ember issue, we m e n t i o n e d that Duratug, of Port Dover, had o b tained a contract from the Ontario M i n i s t r y of T r a n s p o r t a t i o n and C o m m u n i c a tions to l e n gth en by 40 feet the 19 54 -built Bay of Quin te c a r f e r r y THE QUINTE LOYALIST. It had been su ggested that the d r y d o c k i n g of the ferry for the wor k might be sublet to the Rogers i n t erests so that the ferry could be w o r k e d on inside the hull of MEN I E R CON SO L during the winter. It w ould seem, however, that R oge rs did not get the d r y d o c k i n g su bc ontract, and we beli ev e that the l e n g t h e n i n g of the fer ry is in stead being done at Whitby, Ontario. Incidentally, it sh ould be noted that M E N I E R CONSOL c u r r e n t l y is bei ng sp iffed up to make her look m uch more bu si ne ss-like. Her bla ck hull and bow gate are being rep a i n t e d a more a t tractive grey, and the r u s t - s t r e a k e d cabins aft are getting a fres h coat of white paint. Whe re the name MENIER CONSOL us ed to appea r across the front of the pi lo thouse, the words "TORONT O DRYDOCK" now are painted in large black letters. In a m oo d of o p t i m i s m over the future of the e x c ursion boat i n d ustry ( n o thing could be muc h worse than the 1992 season), one of T o ronto's par ty boats is rec e i v i n g an ex tensive rebu il d over the winter. The M . V. M Y S T I Q U E (yes, friends, the "M. V . " really is part of her r e g i s t e r e d n a m e ! ), own ed by M . V. M y s tique S h i p p i n g Ltd., of Port Dover, is a 62-foot, 54 Gross Ton, o p e n - d e c k e d charte r boat w h i c h was built in 1967 at Ne w Orle an s as the supply boat DAVID GRAYDON. P r e v i o u s l y lac ki ng the f a cilities that could be provi d e d by m any of To ronto's exc u r s i o n fleet, M . V. M Y S T I Q U E is back in Port Dover for the winter, and is bei ng c o m p l e t e l y re co ns tructed. We are told that whe n she r e appears on the Bay in the spring, she will look s o m ething like KL A N C Y II, a 60-foot but 124 Gross Ton boat ow ned by Kla nc y' s De signer Yachts Inc. and built in 1989 at St. Thomas, Ontario. While still on the subject of Toro nt o party boats, we shoul d m e n t i o n that, on the even ing of Sunday, N o v ember 15th, amidst the roar of u n m u f f l e r e d engines, the e x c u r s i o n boat W A Y W A R D PR INCESS re turned to Toron to after an absence of m any years. The 87-foot, 325 Gross Ton ve ssel was built in 1976 at Summerstown, Ontario, as (a) CAYUGA II, and her first service was runn in g across Lake Ontario from Toro nt o to Niagara. So mething less than a stell ar success in that trade, she later did par ty boat service at Toronto, and then went to Windsor, whe re she fe atured pink inte ri or s and table dancers. The 1992 C a n adian List of Ships sh owed her owner as Norman F r e d e r i c k Rogers, of Toronto, one of the pr ominent Tor on to e x c u r s i o n boat operators, but we u n d e r s t a n d that the boat has been the subject of cer ta in litigation. All we have been able to ver i f y at the present time is that W A Y W A R D PRIN CE SS will be ope r a t i n g at Toront o in 1993, and that plans are afoot to muffle her d e a f e n i n g engine exhaust. (We u n d e r s t a n d that she was not usi ng all of her p r o p u l s i o n equipment when she made the trip down to Tor on to from W i n d s o r . ) One of three companies w h i c h ha d p r o posed pa ss enger service across Lake Ontario dur ing 1992, but never got under wa y, sugge st s that it wil l be op e r a t i n g in 1993. TNR Corp., of Toronto, was to bring to the lake two c a t a m ar an s built by a N o r w e g i a n company. A report in "The Standard", of St. Catharines, on December 24th, quoted TNR op er ations manager, Do nald Pressey, as e x p r e s s i n g d i s a p p o i n t m e n t that the boats could not be brought up the S e a way before its closing that very day, but Pres s e y said that the boats were "90 percent complete" and that the comp a n y "is still doing some 'fine tuning' of an agreement with the city's (St. Cath ar in es ) legal department". He i n d i cated that whe n running, each of the 296-seat ca ta marans "would make a doz en trips ac ross the lake each day, but that could change, de p e n d i n g on demand". Only time will tell... In an earlier issue, we r e m arked that neit h e r of the two small hydr o f o i l s that C anad i a n Lake Express br ought to Tor on to last spr in g ever mad e a revenue trip across the lake, and that by late summer, one of them (SUNRISE II) was sitting in a ship pi ng cradle atop Pier 52. The other stayed in the water through the autumn, but had to be m oved away from Pier 27 whe n a storm created hea vy seas in the area. We u n d e r s t a n d that this boat, SU NRISE I, was