Ambassatours Gray Line CEO Dennis Campbell told Global News on Tuesday there are four parties interested in purchasing the iconic Theodore (Tugboat) Too vessel.
All bidders are from Nova Scotia — two in Halifax and two outside of Halifax, Campbell says.
He says there are no offers yet, but he expects to get two offers after viewings later this week and next.
The current listed price of the vessel is $495,000.
Ambassatours announced July 16 it has decided to part ways with the vessel after 20 years of ownership.
“While we are deeply aware of Theodore’s significance as a Halifax icon, the reality is that we’ve been subsidizing Theodore’s operation for several years,” Campbell said in last week’s release.
The boat was built in 2000 as a life-sized replica of Theodore Tugboat, the title character of a CBC children’s TV show that aired from 1993 to 2001.
Since then, Theodore has spent summers hosting children’s tours of the Halifax harbour, as well as cruising the Great Lakes and seaboard in the U.S. and Canada, promoting Nova Scotian tourism.
Last week, 23-year-old Anastasia Cook started a GoFundMe page, looking to purchase the vessel and donate it to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, or the Halifax Regional Municipality.
“Halifax is definitely … (Theodore Too’s) home and it’s going to be unfortunate to go down to the harbour and to not be able to see his smiling face,” Cook told Global News last week.
Campbell has not identified the four new bidders, and whether the boat will remain in Halifax is still unclear.
However, Campbell says he believes the deal could be done in the next two weeks.
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