Efforts keep Belle from sinking in lake

Published 12:00 am Friday, June 2, 2000

The SPAMTOWN Belle did not sink in its second launching of its short career in Austin.

Friday, June 02, 2000

The SPAMTOWN Belle did not sink in its second launching of its short career in Austin.

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But the paddleboat was a victim of high waters at East Side Lake Park.

Dr. Richard Nordin, captain of the paddleboat, and Dennis Maschka, executive director of the Austin Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department came to its rescue early Thursday morning.

"I called Dennis and we went down to the lake to check on it around 1 or 2 a.m. Thursday," said Nordin, who lives nearby with his wife, Gloria, a Third Ward Austin City Council member. "We tied it up as best we could when we saw the waters rising so it wouldn’t float away."

The boat was secured to a tree to keep it from flood harm’s way.

When daylight came Thursday, Nordin and Maschka returned to check on the situation.

The Belle took out a portion of a dock when it came loose from its moorings, but a new problem was discovered.

As the East Side Lake waters receded by midday Thursday, the boat was threatened with being "beached" on shore.

A crew of city parks workers was called to the scene to monitor the situation and to push the boat from the shoreline at the concrete boat launching pad into deeper waters.

The situation kept the parks workers at the scene for hours Thursday.

"We had a smooth launching this week and it ran swell when we tried it out, but then the flood waters came and caused problems," he said.

Nordin was concerned about the boat’s draft or the depth of water a ship draws.

"East Side Lake isn’t very deep and this boat’s draft goes down deep. It could get lodged in a shallow area," he said.

Another danger that existed overnight was that the strong currents pushed by waters filling the lake from Dobbins Creek would pull the boat into the deepest parts of the lake and downstream to the dam.

Nordin had a sense of humor about the situation and recalled how the boat sank off a nearby fishing pier last summer when it was first launched.

"We don’t want that to happen again," he said.

By late afternoon Thursday, the boat had been moved to the fishing pier dock where it will be moored.

Cynics will remember that is the spot where it sank prior to its maiden voyage a year ago.

The paddleboat was donated to the city of Austin by Mr. and Mrs. Bill Regner. The city turned over the excursion boat to the Austin Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and made the Austin Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department responsible for its care and upkeep.

After an appearance on East Side Lake last summer for the 1999 SPAM Jam activities, it was trucked to downtown Austin and launched into the Cedar River in Horace Austin Park for the 1999 SPAMTOWN USA Festival.

Throughout the summer, the boat gave excursion rides on the Cedar River.

Next week, the visitors bureau is planning special events for the 2000 launching of the boat on Wednesday.

Then, its blue, yellow and white colors will fly for this summer’s SPAM Jam and again be trucked to Horace Austin Park for the rest of the season.

Nordin is one of four boat captains. Roger Boughton, an Austin City Council member, Malcolm McDonald and Chuck VanHouse are the others.

A fifth, Bill Downs, is a "captain in training," as Nordin described him.