The Island Princess is set to sail away from Orillia on Friday.
Georgian Shores Boat Tours co-owner Wade Plewes says construction on Centennial Drive, vandalism, and the COVID-19 pandemic have combined to torpedo the future of the once iconic vessel in Orillia.
The boat offered tours and cruises in Orillia beginning in 1984. It was sold to Georgian Shores Boat Tours in 2020; the company turned it into a waterfront restaurant and bar called the Island Princess Tiki Barge.
"We were told last year that construction would be completed by June 21," he said. "If we knew that wasn't going to happen, we wouldn't have opened."
The Island Princess Tiki Barge "didn't make anything" last year. Instead, Plewes says it cost Georgian Shores Boat Tours $100,000.
"It was just brutal," he said, noting the boat's electricity and WiFi were out of service for much of the season.
Last summer, the boat was also vandalized, which cost $30,000 to repair, Plewes told OrilliaMatters. He says the boat was vandalized again earlier this week.
Because of the poor performance of the Island Princess Tiki Barge, Georgian Shores Boat Tours missed an increased rent payment this year, which is why Plewes says they were given a Bailiff's Warrant Notice of Seizure and are being fined $150 a day until it sails away.
Plewes says the boat will head to the Barrie waterfront on Friday, weather permitting.
"There is really no other place to put it," he said. "They've forced our hand with desperate measures."
Plewes believes the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce (ODCC) should have cut the company some slack given the circumstances of the pandemic, vandalism, and construction.
"It's the No. 1 landmark in Orillia," he said of the waterfront mainstay. "We had so many great ideas, but they are forcing it out. It's a sad situation."
Plewes believes the ODCC always wanted the Island Princess gone from the waterfront unless it was going to serve as a tour boat. He says it would have cost $300,000 to make that happen.
"We wanted to do that," he said. "The boat had more issues than we thought, and it needed a ton of work to go back out."
If the Island Princess Tiki Barge avoided pandemic restrictions and Centennial Drive construction, Plewes believes he would have had the boat sailing by now.
"There is a lot of hardship," he said. "It's been bad luck, but at the same time it's just horrible how no one has worked with us."
ODCC executive director Allan Lafontaine declined to comment for this article.
