Moraine Preservation Fund winterizes tour vessel
MUDDY CREEK TWP — The 10-ton pontoon boat that gives tours of Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park got pulled ashore Friday, Oct. 30, ending a summer season that consisted of at least 150 rides.
Preston’s Pearl is put away for the season at the end of each October, with its volunteer crew preparing it to be hauled onto the shore and cleaned before putting a tarp over it in its resting place at McDanels Boat Launch. It’s last cruise was Oct. 25, which the captains with Moraine Preservation Fund said is to give people one last look at the color-changing fall foliage.
John Davis, head captain of Preston’s Pearl, said Moraine Preservation Fund services the boat regularly throughout the summer, but the major cleaning of the boat takes place at the end of each season, once it is out of the water.
And getting the pearl out of the water is a true balancing act.
“The pontoons have a 48-inch diameter, so we put it on this trailer and it distributes the weight, but it’s pushing down on the wheels,” Davis said. “We built a limestone pad that can hold the weight and its sits on that over the winter.”
Several captains helped with the boat’s winterization Friday. They started a little after 8 a.m., preparing for it to be pulled onto the shore. To start pulling the boat ashore, the captains first steered it toward the curved launch at McDanels, so they could wheel the trailer under the boat and place it between the pontoons. The tow truck, which had a 50-ton lift, hooked itself to the boat, and pulled it at an angle onto the shore.
The tow truck arm shifted to multiple angles to ensure the boat didn’t scrape the ground as it slowly inched toward dry land.
John Uskuraitis, heavy duty operator with McGann & Chester, the towing company that did the boat pull, said the Friday assignment was part of the company’s usual repertoire. The company also hauls Pittsburgh’s rescue boats out of the water, he said.
“We don’t need a 50-ton rig to do this, but it’s the one I have,” Uskuraitis said. “We just hook it on and we pull it out.”
Uskuraitis pulled the boat past the pavilion so the rest of the crew could start cleaning it. Davis said the crew sprays a cleaner on the pontoons that dissolves algae without affecting other plants or wildlife.
After spraying the pontoons and the other water-logged parts of the boat with the cleaner, the crew pressure-washes the whole thing.
The final step is covering the boat with a tarp, which Davis said is placed over ropes that are tied onto the top of the boat by the captains. It helps the two-piece tarp stay securely on the boat over the winter.
The captains of the Preston’s Pearl change the boat’s oil every 100 hours of usage. Davis said he changes the boat’s spark plugs every year, and changes the water pump every other year. The sheer amount of time the boat is used each summer requires constant upkeep to make sure it lasts a long time.
“We put about 250 to 260 hours on the engines this year,” Davis said. “There are fishing boats that don’t put on 100 hours in a year.”
David Knapp, a captain of Preston’s Pearl, said Honda North works on the boat’s engines. He compared them to an engine found in a Honda Pilot, just a little more souped up.
Next week, a mechanic will come to McDanels Boat Launch to finish winterizing the boat’s engine. Davis said the captains will finish putting the tarp over the boat after that.
Davis said a boat like Preston’s Pearl can last up to around 4,000 hours on the water before it reaches the end of its lifetime.
This summer was the 30th season Moraine Preservation Fund has offered boat tours of Lake Arthur. Davis said the winterization process — from the careful extraction of the boat from the lake to the pressure washing — helps maximize a vessel’s life expectancy.
“It’ll maintain them, give them a longer life span,” he said of pressure washing the pontoons. “They can last 4,000 hours if you take care of them.”
The captains of the Pearl and officials with Moraine Preservation Fund will resume operations in May, with the tour schedule expected to be released on the nonprofit’s website, Morainepreservationfund.org, in April.
