EMERALD PRINCESS Restaurant Barge/Venue on the Eire Canal

EMERALD PRINCESS...
We are aquiring a 1950 New York State tugboat and want to create a barge/restaurant that we can tow, up and down the canal between Pittsford and Fairport in a circut.
It will be about 60' by 30' and have 18' of clearance beneath the bridges. We assume that about 120 or more people will inhabit it. Also, the Eire Canal empires each year and is usually a seasonal business opportunity. We will be able to make it a year round establishment because we can naturally dry dock it on a shallow bank/platform.
So, during the warm season it is towed and during the off season, it is stationary.

What we want to know is how to either build one using and old barge, converting a house boat, or building a pontoon barge platform, etc.

Below is out tugboat and a version of our barge venue.

 

An interesting project!
Carefully consider all applicable local laws before proceeding.
Don’t forget that all the systems associated with a restaurant will necessarily be self contained, power, water, sewage, air conditioning, heating, cold storage just for starters, making the initial investment very heavy as compared to a land based restaurant.

 

Thanks for your quick response! You have some excellent points. What makes our project just a
like bit easier is that we have an ex-senator on our team and others with experience doing big
projects. I've been researching used floating restaurant.
We have a unique opportunity. One of the vertues of this concept is that it is a venue
and not a restaurant. Caterers and other inhabitants will rent the space, set it up and tear it down.
It and the tug will be powered by a large solar project we will be associated with.
Both these project will, hopefully, be funded, in part by the state. Our solar project will, we hope,
utalize a landfill brown field which the state is very interested in benefiting from.
The Tugboat will be donated by the state. They were going to dump it in the Long Island Sound
to make the fish happy. My proposal is to find or create an enclosed barge or convert a houseboat
or floating restaurant to fit our needs. Because of the shallowness of an area adgecent to a pavilliont,
when the canal is drained the barge could be dry docked during the winter allowing it to function year
round.
By using caterers we will not need to have a full kitchen, just a small one for some prep and more
room for people. We just need a staging area and a way to keep food warm or cold. Being in the
second biggest wine district in North America, the Finger Lakes, we have and excellent opportunity
to be constantly attractive with wine tastings and the foods of New York, etc. The Finger Lakes
brings in about $5 billion a year and we want to take advantage of that.
Entertainment, such as music, jazz cruises, theater and even movies will take place on it.
On "The Big Lembowski" night bath robes and White Russians will be the gimick.
We are the city of Kodak and need to celebrate it better than we do. All this says is that
we are aiming at a large and veried audience and customer base.
Another aspect of attractiveness. In otherwards, it will not be predictable as a restaurant
is and funding may be an easier thing.
Thanks for you insights.. Hope to hear from you soon...
Neal Rudin
585-750-9328
ZagoZana@yahoo.com

 

Here in St Paul, MN, we have a tug that pushes a passenger barge almost daily. The two vessels have different sets of rules, but it is being done here.

The Anson and Betsy Northrup are the boats and Ugg the Tug provides the power to one or both, I forget.