09/07/2017
Whales-n-Sails is for sale.
Hello everyone! As you know we were unable to do our whale watching tours for the past 2 summers due to damage to our lovely sailing yacht, the Elsie Menota. She is finally undergoing repairs to bring her back to Coast Guard standards for tours again. Expected completion date for the repairs is late October/17
But we are thinking we will sell the boat and retire.
We are selling the boat and that includes being able to offer tours as we did or you can just sail away into the sunset...buyer's choice.
See the information below. Please share it if you know of someone who might be interested in the boat or the business.
Whale watching boat/business for sale/lease
Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada
The boat
Year : 1992
Style : Pilothouse ketch
Builder : Puddister Trading Co Ltd., St John's, NL
Professionally built as a Canadian Coast Guard Certified passenger vessel
Length : 56' (63' overall)
Beam : 16' 7"
Draft : 9'
Construction : steel
Passenger compliment : Canadian Coast Guard Certified for 46 passengers and 3 crew
Power : 215 HP, 6 cyl diesel Isuzu
Auxiliary power : 7.5 Kw 120/240V diesel
Fuel capacity : 500 gal
Fresh water capacity : 500 gal
Electronics and navigation
• Radar
• VHF radio
• 2 depth sounders
• 2 chart plotters
• 6" Ritchie compass
• Dual steering stations
Amenities
• Galley with 240V electric glass cook top
• 120V hot water heater
• Double SS sinks
• 2 heads, one forward and one aft
• Private stateroom forward port
• 3 V-births forward
• Aft stateroom is seating and storage/lifejackets
o Can easily be made into master stateroom for pleasure vessel
• 50 + adult key-hole life vests
• 10 child key-hole life vests
• 60 + various sized PFD life preservers
• 1 - 17' inflatable high speed rescue vessel/tender with 40 HP Yamaha outboard.
Recent work
In the spring of 2016 it was discovered that the hull had been seriously damaged by galvanic corrosion (commonly called electrolysis) and deemed unfit to sail. After a year of waiting to get into a boatyard capable of doing the necessary repairs, work began on July 17/17 at A. F. Theriault & Son Ltd in Meteghan River, Nova Scotia, a leader in steel boat building and repair in Atlantic Canada and beyond.
It was determined by an ultrasonic thickness test that nearly all of the below water plating had been damaged to some extent and work began to remove and replace all the steel plating on the hull from the keel up to the second chine (all of the below water hull area).
The vessel is being repaired to meet standards as required to meet Canadian Coast Guard / Transport Canada Marine Safety Certification as a passenger vessel.
This repair is essentially a new hull and will give this vessel many years of service either as a passenger vessel or as a pleasure vessel.
Business potential
Based on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, we were a premier whale watching tour in New Brunswick for 17 seasons and even though we have missed the past 2 seasons due to vessel damage, we remain so in the hearts and minds of our many customers. We have maintained our email list and Face Book page/followers for easy announcement that Whales-n-Sails is operating once again. Every day several people tell us that they are ready to sail on the Elsie Menota if/when she sails again.
We have also maintained our telephone numbers (local and toll free), web site addresses (;< www.whales.ca> and ) and email address ([email protected]).
We believe, should Whales-n-Sails resume operation, that the business would immediately pick up at least 2 of our long term group customers (to be confirmed) and would quickly re-establish connections with the several group and travel agencies for whom we were a service provider in the past.
Here are some basics from when the business last operated:
- Our ticket price was $70/adult and $50/age 12 and under, plus tax.
- Passenger capacity is 46 plus 3 crew as per our stability book (required), but we took 4 crew and up to 45 passengers by our own choice.
- The boat can easily do 2 trips per day, and we have done 3 trips on occasion. Generally, demand is such that 1 trip is the norm with 2 trips a couple of times per week. On average we did 78 trips per season (late June to mid Sept)
- We are open to selling the boat/business or leasing the boat/business on a seasonal basis.
• Purchase - $375,000 for the boat, zodiac, a spare engine, miscellaneous spare parts, equipment and such and will throw in what remains of the whale watching business - name recognition, toll free and local phone numbers, web addresses, mailing list, Face book page/followers, advice on where the whales generally hang out, etc..
• Lease - $45,000 per season May to October or any part thereof, subject to the terms and conditions as may be set out in a lease agreement. The vessel will be ready for the water and all maintenance and out-of-the-water Coast Guard inspections completed and passed.
The boat would also make a wonderful private sailing yacht for cruising the world's oceans.
For further information contact:
Allan McDonald.... [email protected]...... 506-662-5776 cell
