Hay River (Oct 30/06) - A 61-year-old tugboat has a new home and a new life in Hay River.

After a tumultuous 11-year retirement that included sinking (twice), freezing to the bottom of Hay River, and having all its windows smashed, the Radium Dew has been pulled ashore by its owner. Now, plans are underway to give it an extreme makeover and a new career.

The tugboat has had all its windows smashed, but clean-up is already under way. - Erika Sherk/NNSL photo

The boat is going to be used as a tourist attraction, said owner Rick Groenewegen.

"We hope to press it into service as a fish and chips shop or something like that," he said.

The original plan, Groenewegen said, was to make the boat into a floating restaurant.

"Those aspirations died quickly," he said, as the refurbishments required would have been too expensive.

He has owned the Radium Dew since 1987 and dreamed of its future for even longer.

In its younger days, it moved supplies and equipment to stations along the Distant Early Warning (D.E.W.) line along the Western Arctic coast. The tugboat has sat idle in Hay River since its retirement in 1976. Groenewegen has spent nearly 20 years trying to find the right sort of land to which the boat could relocate.

"We've made many attempts to find the property," he said.

Push came to shove earlier this year when spring run-off flooded the sunken boat, right up to its second level.

"I had to get it out," said Groenewegen. "It wouldn't have survived much longer."

It was also starting to become an environmental risk, he said, as there was still oil in the engine room.

He was able to lease land from the Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL), right on the shore of the Hay River.

The Radium Dew was hauled out of the water at the end of September.

He and about 20 others put long greased timbers under the boat and slid it onto the shore.

Now, it sits in all its weather-beaten majesty directly across the river from the Coast Guard site.

Groenewegen, a mechanical manager for NTCL, said the company gave him a deal on the boat, as it was going to be used to promote Hay River to tourists.

Groenewegen hopes to have it cleaned up and open for tourists by next year. He is still not sure what function the old tug will end up serving.

"It needs a lot of clean-up, inside and out," he said. "Once it's clean we'll take it from there."

"Right now we're just very happy to have a home for it," he added.