Unfinished projects

We had one of those "mystery boats" show up here in Kingston a few weeks ago. Thought I'd share, for the benefit of the community.

She's about thirty metres on the waterline, maybe thirty-five. Construction appears to be of a pretty high quality steel- we actually thought she was aluminum at first glance, due to the nearly complete lack of rust. It appears that steps and partners are installed for three masts and a very large bowsprit. The twin screws look to be sized for around 400-500 hp each, and from pacing out her rough dimensions I would guess her displacement at 200-250 tonnes.

She showed up without fanfare, in a rather odd location- these photos are taken at the back retaining wall of the transient small-craft harbour, an area normally inaccessible to anything over fifty feet. The docks would almost certainly have had to be moved to get her in. With the rudder tack-welded in place and no helm station to speak of, I suspect it took most of the local tug fleet to bring her in.

About a week later, she mysteriously vanished. I have yet to encounter anyone who knows who owns her, or what this evidently rather expensive half-built tall ship was doing here.

 

mm, well what can one say, people have these dreams , incubating in their minds for years,, when they finally hatch, , this is the result, all I have to say is"nice bulwark stays"

 

Lot's n' lot's of money there. But look how much more there is to be spent on the rest of it.
It's maybe a Fishing Reef out there somewhere now.

 

marshmat there is a major movie being made here in toronto, guys i know have made a swing stage platform for a ship to sit on and the bloody thing is massive, wouldnt be surprise this is the boat thats going to sit on it

 

Sorry for the delay... finally found some info on her

She's a tourist trap. Intended to be an approximate replica of HMS Detroit, a British ship from the War of 1812, but made of modern high-quality steel and with a pair of nice diesels. It seems that around the turn of the millennium, the federal government was giving out a whole pile of grants to build tourist attractions. This was one of the successful bidders- worth $1.4M, split 50/50 between the feds and a municipal government in the Windsor area that was to receive the completed ship. (The deputy prime minister's riding, no less.)

After something like $515k were spent, the money stopped flowing and the shipyard shoved the project aside. The ship sat around for a while, and has now reportedly been sold to an American buyer on the East Coast.

Her presence in Kingston got a few people worked up.... there's a widespread feeling that had this ship not been built, that money would have gone towards long-planned upgrades to our marine museum and historic drydock.