Arnolds Park, Iowa — An excursion boat that’s been sailing in West Okoboji Lake since 1986 is being restored.
Jon Pausley is CEO of Arnolds Park Amusement Park, where people buy the tickets for an hour-long, narrated cruise around the lake on the Queen Two. Pausley says the boat has been showing her age.
The boat was recently inspected.
The diesel-powered boat was lifted out of the water this past week. Pausley says the Queen should be back on the water by Memorial Day.
That phase of the project might have to wait until after the 2024 sailing season. Pausley says they did consider replacing the boat. An anonymous donor — who was married on the Queen Two — is financing the restoration — at an estimated cost of up to a million dollars.
The Queen Two has an open air upper deck and an enclosed lower deck. The original Queen sailed the Iowa Great Lakes for 89 years until it was retired in 1973.
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