Edmonton Queen's auction closes in just over a week

What would you do if you could call the Edmonton Queen yours?

The people who made their way to see the paddleboat for anopen house on Saturdayoffered many ideas of what you could do with the famous vessel.

You could make it Edmonton's first waterfront home suggested one.You could make it an event space, saidanother. One, referencing the comedic band the Arrogant Worms, suggested you could fork oversome change for the boat and become a glamorous pirate on the North Saskatchewan.

All those suggestionsmaybe minus the pirate oneare all possible as the Edmonton Queen is up for sale.

• Edmonton Queen riverboat up for auction
• Edmonton Queen lays off half of seasonal staff

The bidding opened up on April 8thand closes on May 2th. Itcurrently sits at $38,000.

Century Services hosted an open house of the vessel on Saturday allowing many who have never seen the boat a chance to board.

The Edmonton Queen was builtin Sherwood Park in 1992 andfirst set out on the river in 1995. Ithas been a popular attraction ever since.

The boat is a harken to the City of Edmonton, the first riverboat to paddle the water in, well, the City of Edmonton.

The 42-metrelong vessel first graced the waters of the North Saskatchewan in 1909 making many voyages until she was docked for good in 1918.

No matter who buys it, Mickey Spencer, with Century Services, the company handling the auction, said he can't see the boat leaving its famous spot on the river.

"Whether it is a restaurant and they keep the dinner cruises going and it's still a boat that goes up the North Sask, I think the new owner is going to have a life for it in the Edmonton river valley," Spencer said.

Wally Malinowski has been on many pleasure cruises with the Edmonton Queen and said that it was the history that drew people to the well known attraction.

"This was a tribute to the history of Edmonton," said Malinowski. "The old Edmonton Queen could one time take you to Winnipeg. That was a part of history and this is a tribute to history."

Spencersaid the bidding is getting significant attention and expects the final price to be in the six figures.

"I knew, with the significance to the area and the piece of history you would be buying, we would have interest from multiple parties," he explained.

"As big of interest, and as many parties, maybe not."

Donna Blum said she always wanted to go on a voyage down the North Saskatchewan but has never had the chance.

"There is a lot of beautiful historic pictures in here," said Blum." The scenery right from the dining room area is gorgeous. I really didn't really realize Edmonton was this beautiful from this level. The water is green, it's very glacial, there is no ice."

"It's just gorgeous down here, I can't believe I missed out on an opportunity to have a ride on this boat."