A historic icon of Okanagan Lake transportation has been rescued from the scrap heap and given a new purpose. 

The Okanagan Luxury Boat Club has purchased the Fintry Queen from previous owner Andy Schwab.

Details on the purchase price were not revealed but the ferry was reported earlier this year on the market for $550,000. 

Originally providing a ferry service between West Kelowna and Kelowna before the floating bridge was opened in 1958, the new owners plan to move the Fintry Queen to a new Kelowna dock location and restore the exterior to its original state. 

While Max Standen, spokesperson for the ownership group, was unavailable for comment to the Capital News, he did speak to other local media last week about the purchase. 

He said the future plans for the 40-metre long ferry include a new restaurant being opened on board, but indicated the future use of the boat are still being worked out with the hope the Fintry Queen will be back in operation by next summer. 

Schwab had spent many years trying to find a permanent dock home for the Fintry Queen under his ownership, first in Kelowna and then in Penticton with little success. 

He had moved the ferry to the north end of Okanagan Lake after the City of Kelowna declined to renew its lease in Sutherland Bay in 2016. 

His most recent vision had been to dock it on Penticton's foreshore and operate it at the south end of the lake, connecting Penticton, Naramata and Summerland. 

In 2018 in an interview with the Capital News, Schwab outlined how he put together a group to fund the $250,000 need to re-certify the boat for service and planned to raise another $250,000 to pay for new docking infrastructure in the South Okanagan. 

But those plans never came to fruition, leaving the Fintry Queen idle, culminating in the announced sale last week. 

The Fintry Queen is more than 150-feet long and is the largest ship currently on Okanagan Lake. It can carry up to 325 passengers and has sheltered and outdoor decks, a full-service galley, a dining room and a dance floor. It has heating and air conditioning systems to enable operations during summer and winter in all weather conditions. 

Its history dates back more than 50 years. 

On Aug. 31, 1968, the M.V. Lequime, one of the three former car ferries that crossed Okanagan Lake from the Westside to Kelowna after completion of the first Okanagan Lake floating bridge in 1958, was re-christened the M.V. Fintry by prominent business leader "Cap" Capozzi.

At the renaming ceremony, Capozzi called the replica old stern-wheeler a great step in reviving the history of the paddlewheelers that plied the waters of the Okanagan from 1886 to 1936.

However, with the construction of the downtown pier in 2012, the ship was deemed outdated and was forced to move after sitting idle in the dock for several years. 

Margot Pridham, president of the Okanagan Historical Society, said while the society had no involvement in the Fintry Queen's purchase, she was happy to see a piece of the Okanagan's history preserved. 

Pridham said even today, "We are reminded of the importance of transporting goods and people up and down Okanagan Lake when there are closures on the highway between Penticton and West Kelowna."

"You see what an immediate impact that has on people travelling up and down along the lake, and you realize how important historically the ferries were in our history," Pridham said. 

"When Highway 97 around Penticton or Summerland is taken out by a landslide, it is a reminder of how good we have it now and how far we have come (with transportation access)," she said. 

She recalled her father talking to her about using the Fintry Queen ferry to usher his sheep heard across the lake from the Westside to Kelowna to graze on open grasslands. 

"He would take them across in the morning and bring them back at the end of the day," she said.

"When I came along the ferry was pretty much replaced by the new bridge, but for my parents and grandparents, it was an important transportation option to get back and forth across the lake," she said. 

"When we continue to lose all of our history and what makes us who we are...if we have no history left we won't know where we came from."