Kingston dock comes in handy for U.S. tour boat after running aground on St. Lawrence River

An unexpected visitor from across the border has docked in Kingston.

A tour boat from Alexandria Bay, N.Y., is in town getting repair work done after running aground in the Thousand Islands back in mid-August. But why the Limestone City? Why is the vessel here?

Bob Clark is the contracts manager with MetalCraft Marine, a local boat manufacturer, near the historic Davis dry dock, where work is taking place.

“Uncle Sam’s been using the dry dock for as many years as I’ve been here; 30 years. And it’s very very far to the next available dry dock, it’s either Toronto or Montreal,” Clark explained.

“It’s a long way. In the case of this boat being damaged, they wouldn’t be able to make that trip.”

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The three-storey tour boat ran aground on the St. Lawrence River near Alexandria Bay on Aug. 20, tearing a hole in the hull. In all, 134 passengers were safely evacuated.

But with the border closed and plenty of COVID-19 protocols in place, some are wondering about the pandemic process of allowing a U.S. boat to dock on the Canadian side.

Clark says the owners of the boat did plenty of the legwork.

“I would say the company definitely went above and beyond. They cleared with American customs to be able to have Americans come over and come back and then they cleared with Canadian customs and specifically asked how would you like us to it,” he explained.

“It was decided that no Americans would get on shore, so the boat did not come right in the dry dock. They tied up alongside.”

As for the Kingston boat builder, Clark says that despite the pandemic, MetalCraft Marine has seen an increase in global orders.

“In the last couple of weeks we had two Israeli companies coming to us wanting to buy — one government, one commercial — and … just last week shipped eight boats to the Bangladesh army.”

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