On Saturday, close to 50 people packed the hall of the Knox United Church in Manitowaning to learn whether the retired ferry might fill a niche in the Great Lakes cruising picture. The answer to that question, according to Norisle rep John Coulter, is an emphatic "yes," although which ports the ship visits would depend on the facilities and attractions available in each.
"Build it, and they will come," said the restoration director for the S.S. Norisle Steamship Society. "Only in this case, it's backwards, because the ship's coming—so you better build something as an attraction."
Citing the findings of a yearlong market and feasibility study, Mr. Coulter said "the ship indeed has a future and can be self-supportive." And he urged those in attendance to recognize the asset they have in their midst and act upon this opportunity before they miss the, ah, ship.
"Mark my words, in 20 to 30 years, the Great Lakes will be the fourth largest cruising ground in the world," said Mr. Coulter, rivalling areas like Alaska and the Mediterranean. "Ships are coming independent of the Norisle, so why not gain from the direct asset and not just the spinoffs? You've got the ship."
While stately, domestic cruise ships once plied the Great Lakes, they essentially vanished by 1960, largely because it became too costly for them to upgrade to new safety standards, he said. Now, renewed interest in this form of tourism on our inland seas has grown to the point that "the Canadian government has identified the need for 15 ships," Mr. Coulter indicated.
The Norisle, if spruced up and redesigned to accommodate more (and more picky) passengers, would be "the biggest and best of the Canadian and American fleet," he said, while holding a competitive edge against foreign ships due to her heritage quality and navigational ability to duck into channels and harbours where the bigger vessels, flying under French, Greek, and German flags, can't venture.
Again referencing the feasibility study, carried out by a team of consultants who are steeped in the cruise and tourism sectors, Mr. Coulter outlined the routes and schedule that a revived Norisle would most profitably (and practically) follow.
In the spring, the ship would perform seven-day circuits of Lake Ontario, he said, to take advantage of both the more predictable weather at that time of year in the south, and the traffic afforded by bigger centres. But it would spend the bulk of the summer on Lake Huron, making 13 weeklong cruises through Georgian Bay and the North Channel.
During this phase of the Norisle's sailing season, the ship would launch from Midland, paying stops in Parry Sound, Little Current, Sault Ste. Marie and Tobermory, Mr. Coulter indicated. At the end of the season—which would last 25 weeks altogether—the vessel would likely lay up in Midland for the colder months.
A certain omission in that cruising itinerary and wintering scheme was not lost on the meeting attendees, most of whom were residents of Manitowaning, where the ship has been berthed since 1975.
"This schedule does not seem to include Manitowaning," remarked Peter Baumgarten. "It won't winter here, and never stops here. Is there a plan for a way that this community could benefit from the Norisle?"
Mr. Coulter said the community stands to reap significant benefits during the refit phase, as much of the work, performed by a veritable army of tradespeople, would be carried out in Manitowaning, but at present the port is not a realistic place for a passenger ship to tie up.
"Cruise ships can't come here because there are no docking facilities," he said. "You have a lot here, but you don't have the infrastructure to attract the ship."
While a few others in attendance worried that that the Norisle would essentially sail away and park its tourist dollars elsewhere, Mr. Coulter stressed that the community still has a major stake. "You haven't lost it—you still own it!" he said. "But you own a ship that can't come home."
"It can't now," qualified Rob Maguire, a member of the Norisle preservation group. "But it could."
Hugh Moggy, a former Assiginack councillor and Norisle supporter, suggested that the potential of the ship as a cruise enterprise should be a wakeup call for the township to improve its waterfront so that it can truly capitalize on the venture. "The community has to get behind this project and get the infrastructure in place," he said.
While such undertakings are costly, Mr. Coulter suggested that Assiginack Township could make a stronger case to funding agencies because of its obvious connection to the vessel in question. "The odds for you are much greater, because you own the ship," he said. "More important than owning it, though, is having faith in the asset, and if you can show that, you'd get the first shot."
Citing the old adage of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, Mr. Coulter said: "you've got the biggest squeak."
Council for Assiginack had been apprised of the study results in a private meeting held the previous day, he noted, and while he hesitated to speak for the township, he characterized the response as "respectful and positive."
He also emphasized that, while both he and fellow steam expert Wayne Fischer, of the Ontario Steam Heritage Museum, have put a lot of energy into the project, and would love to see the Norisle sail again, they have nothing to gain financially from the project, and don't presume to speak for the ship's home community. "It's your ship, not ours," he stressed. "We live seven hours away."
That said, it's been people like Mr. Coulter and Mr. Fischer, who reside in southern Ontario, along with a devoted but small crew of Island volunteers, who have seen the potential in the ship, while many who live next-door to the artifact have been indifferent, if not dubious.
As Norisle Society member Paul Rowe noted, "It was three years ago this past March that Assiginack wanted to sink it." To which Mr. Maguire added: "As I remember, there were three options: sink it, sell it, or scrap it."
Mr. Coulter said he can appreciate the community's reluctance to immediately embrace a new incarnation of the vessel, as it has been static for so long and it would seem an unlikely turnaround to many who know it only as an unmoving fixture on the waterfront.
The Friends of the Norisle, since redubbed the S.S. Norisle Steamship Society, sensed that there could be a prouder role for the craft, however, and "formed to preserve this operating piece of Canadian history," said Mr. Maguire.
Norisle Society chairman Dave Ham, a former reeve of Assiginack, was instrumental in bringing the ship to Manitowaning in the first place, although he credits Jean McLennan equally, if not more, for both that decision and the more recent one to form the Friends of the Norisle.
"We're very fortunate to have a great group to work with, and very fortunate to have become acquainted with Wayne Fischer, who has been instrumental in a meticulous overhaul of the Norisle engines, and the one and only John Coulter," said Mr. Ham. "We could always use more members, of course, and I'm sure Jean's got some applications there in her purse," he added.
While Manitowaning has had its share of Norisle naysayers, Rick McCutcheon of Little Current suggested "the community shouldn't beat itself up too much," as the current drive to not only rescue the ship but find a new and profitable purpose for it would never have occurred "were it not for a group of people, largely in Manitowaning," who believed in this cause. "I'd like to commend them for sticking to this vision, which has not always been popular."
He wondered if, as a nod to such enterprise and the community's long relationship with the vessel, Manitowaning could at least be certified as "the port of registry" for the Norisle. Mr. Coulter replied that "there's a technical issue" that currently prohibits that type of recognition, but, if nothing else, the vessel "can fly the flag" of its home port when visiting other communities.
When Manitowaning acquired the Norisle in 1975, the price tag was a mere dollar. Now, if the projections of the consulting team that carried out the feasibility study are accurate, the ship—presuming financing can be found for its refit—stands to make thousands annually.
According to the findings of the study, the Norisle would turn a profit of $428,000 a year, and that's over an operating season of just five months. This assessment, Mr. Coulter hastened to add, is based on a conservative projection of 85-percent ridership, whereas the likelihood, in his estimation, is that the vessel would actually run at full capacity even in its initial years, so the return would probably be much greater.
At present, cruise ships serving the Great Lakes scarcely lack for clients, he noted, as passenger bookings "tend to be 100-percent capacity."
While that projected surplus is encouraging, and would ensure that the ship could be adequately maintained from year to year, the broader rewards reaped by communities that the Norisle would visit are the bigger story, according to Mr. Coulter.
"Yes, it can be self-supportive," he said. "But the success of the ship in terms of the regions it serves, and the spinoff advantages, that's really the key factor to Norisle's future success."
The numbers here, as crunched by the consultants that carried out the feasibility study, are impressive. According to these cruise experts, a Norisle reincarnated as a mini-liner would pump $5 million annually into the places it pit-stops.
Over 10 years, that would be $50 million, noted Mr. Coulter. Meanwhile, over the same time frame, $15 million in taxes would be realized—a figure he drew special attention to, as it "exceeds the cost of refitting Norisle," meaning that if a government invested in that start-up expense, "they would get their money back in 10 years."
Those estimates will be helpful in attracting investors, both of the government and private variety, Mr. Coulter believes.
But there's no denying the fact that fitting out the ship for cruising purposes will be pricey. According to the study, it will cost $13.5 million for the refit alone, while another $4 million or so will be required for contingency, shore equipment, and other costs.
That's largely because the vision for the Norisle isn't just to get it moving again, but to turn it into a lavishly equipped retro liner, with spacious staterooms and fine dining options, in keeping with the grand cruisers of the 1930s and 1940s—an era it actually derives from, even if its original purpose was to ferry cars back and forth from Tobermory.
To see the ship puffing into port would be no different from before, and no doubt quite nostalgic for those who remember the ferry's period of service (from 1946 to 1974), but inwardly the car decks and other sections would be vastly reconfigured and refined.
"On the outside it will still be Norisle, but inside she will be designed to the standards of the liners of the past, offering a lot more luxury," said Mr. Coulter, a naval architect who spent the past year working on a new interior layout. He held up examples of veneers—these would be a facing on fireproof material, as wood itself is no longer acceptable due to new safety standards—that would sheath the interiors of the library (a rosewood veneer being the choice for this room), the restaurant, and two lounges, which are named, according to his sketch, the Huron and Georgian.
The ship, according to the recommendations of the consultants, would be best suited to carry 64 passengers. "We could have 300 staterooms, but if we did they would be the size of a closet," noted Mr. Coulter. "Or we could have a private yacht with 20 passengers and butlers for every stateroom. In the end, we decided on 32 staterooms for 64 passengers, who can expect a three- to four-star standard. And the bottom-line economies support that."
Travelling a rebuilt Norisle won't be cheap. A walk-on passenger would be expected to shell out a per-day fare of $500-$550, meaning many, if not most, Islanders would never have the chance to sail aboard the vessel that has been docked here for more than three decades.
But that, said Mr. Coulter, is not an unrealistic rate to charge in today's cruising market, and many will pay it for the opportunity to have a unique, and very comfortable, cruising experience. "It's like going to the Holiday Inn or the Royal York," he analogized. "We're providing the style of the Royal York. And when we asked the experts in the cruise industry if they could sell that, they all said, 'absolutely.'"
The Norisle spokesman believes the study, which was conducted by reputable parties who understand the industry, is a great tool for moving forward and gaining the resources required for a refit of the vessel. He noted that faith has already been shown in the enterprise simply because the study was deemed worthy of pursuing, with FedNor contributing the lion's share, at $97,500, while Mr. Fischer and Assiginack Township chipped in $20,000 and $10,000, respectively.
As for the ship's seaworthiness, Mr. Coulter said the Norisle was "excellently engineered" when it first left the shipyard, "even overbuilt," and has remained much more spry and serviceable than its calendar age might suggest.
While the ship ran between Tobermory and Manitoulin for almost three decades, and has been mothballed for as many years, "it's really just 13 years old" in terms of the wear and tear on its hull and parts, he said. "Because it ran for such a short season, on a dedicated short run, and was laid up overnight, it's in great shape, and we've taken off parts that have never been used," he noted.
And while not a huge ship compared to, say, the MS Columbus, Mr. Coulter believes the Norisle is more than capable of withstanding a few swells, as it did in the past. "I'm not an expert on that, but I'm told by those who sailed on the Norisle that she was a better sea ship than the Chi-Cheemaun," he said. "In terms of engineering design, she was way over the top."
While some concerns were raised that Assiginack Township, as owner of the vessel, could be on the hook if the repurposed Norisle had a bad year as a cruise ship—or if the whole endeavour somehow went south, due to a mishap at sea or shift in the economy—both Mr. Coulter and Mr. Fischer reassured those in attendance that operation of the vessel would be the responsibility of an arm's-length company, which would assume the risks and liabilities.
"You're always protected, because there's a firewall there," said Mr. Coulter. "If the ship gets into trouble, the owner just pulls it back, and it sits for a while."
Presuming everything goes according to plan, though, as many as 60 jobs could be generated, and many of those would be available to Islanders, presuming they had the required training to be a purser, cook, officer, or whatever the role requires.
And once refitted, and regularly cared for through the money reaped in excess revenue, the ship could last well into the future. In fact, it could last "indefinitely," said Mr. Coulter, noting that there's a ship in service now that dates to 1850, and longevity is simply a matter of the resources applied to a ship's upkeep.
He urged those in attendance to not only get personally excited about the ship's potential but to "spread the gospel" among others on Manitoulin, as the venture stands to benefit the area as a whole.
Mr. Fischer, meanwhile, pointed to other areas where the cruise industry has taken off in recent years, and counselled Islanders to jump at the chance that has been presented to them while the time is ripe—particularly since, with a seaworthy craft already at their disposal, they're not starting from scratch.
"The cruise industry is going to happen here, with or without us," he said. "If you look at Maine, five years ago there were zero cruise ships; now, they have 385 cruise ship dockings. It's going to happen, and this is the last area that is open. This community can choose to be a follower, or a leader."
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