River Rouge tour boat free at last

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This article was published 05/08/2010 (5776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The River Rouge is once again rolling on the river.

The large tour boat was freed by a tugboat about 5:15 p.m. and began sailing north on the Red River.

The pleasure craft has been stuck on the Red in less than two feet of water for a week since it ran aground on its way to Lower Fort Garry on July 29, stranding dozens of passengers for hours.

Despite intervention by Selkirk-Interlake MP James Bezan Wednesday, government officials refused to close the St. Andrews lock and dam in order to raise water levels and free the craft, as boat owner Kyriakos Vogiatzakis had hoped.

Bezan had feared fuel would start spilling from the craft if it is left too long. The ship’s hull, which was stuck in the riverbed, houses the fuel tanks and Bezan worried that the strong current against the boat may cause a breach.

But late this afternoon, a tugboat with a rope about 25 metres long pulled the River Rouge free, to cheers from about 10 people who watched from a housing development on the bank of the Red.