MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) - The Pearl Button’s owner says the boat will no longer churn along the Mississippi River in eastern Iowa because he can’t afford extensive repairs needed to fix the damage the sidewheeler suffered after breaking loose during a tornado last month.
The Muscatine Journal (https://bit.ly/2p4OCnK ) reports the Coast Guard and surveyors began inspecting the boat the week after the tornado hit March 6. The surveyors took the sidewheeler to Buffalo, Iowa, to be more thoroughly checked out.
“When we took it up to Buffalo and we left it, I never even pictured it was not coming back,” said Tom Meeker, the boat’s owner. “It was kind of all a surprise. I just figured we might have to do a little work to it and bring it back.”
They determined the damage to the boat’s main frame from the tornado would cost $200,000 to fix.
“It was more damage than what the boat was worth,” Meeker said.
Meeker said the damage wasn’t the only deciding factor. The sidewheeler couldn’t run when the water level was high, and there have been many days they couldn’t sail the boat in the past three years.
Meeker, who also develops downtown real estate bought the sidewheeler eight years ago to serve as a tourist attraction. He said he hasn’t decided if he’ll replace the boat.
“It’s a hard decision, because it was an expensive hobby. It cost us probably $10,000 to $15,000 a year just to keep it. So it’s a hard decision what to replace it with if we do,” he said. “Maybe we’ll go with something a lot smaller, just because we do have a nice dock out here.”
___
Information from: Muscatine Journal, https://www.muscatinejournal.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.