Dispatches from the Samuel Center

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Recreational boats on NYS Canals

A year ago we featured some photos of rafting on the canals. Here’s a followup. Note the trees here without trees. Fall or spring? If any one of these cruisers at the marina across from the canal entrance at Waterford still existed, it’d be a classic! One of the boats here appears to be an…

will van dorp
1–2 minutes
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A year ago we featured some photos of rafting on the canals. Here’s a followup. Note the trees here without trees. Fall or spring?

If any one of these cruisers at the marina across from the canal entrance at Waterford still existed, it’d be a classic!

One of the boats here appears to be an Inspector vessel, the others, I don’t know.

This might be the same vessel as the one in front of the Inspector.

Same flotilla heading away?

If you’re on the water this time of year, be safe because cold water can be debilitating.

Please forward any early boat season photos? Also, I’d love more volunteers to step forward for the “faces and voices” series.

These are more Al Gayer photos from the late 1950s in the CSNY. collections.

2 responses to “Recreational boats on NYS Canals”

  1. Lee Rust Avatar
    Lee Rust

    That ‘Inspector vessel’ is surely a sister ship to the ‘Inspector II’ that served as the VIP inspection boat for the NYS Canal system from 1930 to about 1960. Variations in the shape of the pilot house distinguish the two.

    This class of 75-80’ luxury craft was built by the NY Yacht, Launch and Engine Company in the mid to late 1920’s. A few of them still survive to this day as charters and liveaboards.

    During the gubernatorial years of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ‘Inspector II’ was known as the “Governor’s Yacht”. FDR enjoyed many voyages and a special hatchway was added to allow his wheelchair to be lowered into his stateroom.

    After several ownership and name changes, the former ‘Inspector II’ was scuttled in the Florida Straits by the USCG after an attempted voyage to Cuba during the “Mariel Boatlift” of 1980.

    Reply
    1. will van dorp Avatar
      will van dorp

      Lee, Thanks for those backstory details. Dispatches has run several posts already of “collection highlights” with photos of those classic boats, such as here: https://dispatchesfromsamuelcenter.org/?s=inspector+II. More about the Bronx shipyard that built them can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Yacht,_Launch_&_Engine_Company

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