Theodore Too has begun the long journey back home.
The life-size tugboat replica, owned by Murphy’s Cable Wharf and made famous by the children’s television series Theodore Tugboat, left Savannah, Ga., Monday as part of the 2012 Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge.
The next port of call for the ships will be Greenport, N.Y., May 24-28, then on to Newport, R.I., July 6-9, Halifax from July 19-23 and then off to other ports in Nova Scotia.
An ambassador for the event, Theodore Too led the way to the starting line after the tall ships left the wharfs for the traditional parade of sail.
On Dec. 10, prior to the boat’s visit in Savannah, Theodore led the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.. The parade is the world’s largest boat parade and seventh largest spectator event in the United States.
Angela Malec, director of marketing and promotions at Murphy’s, said Theodore is an “invaluable” tool for tourism to the city.
“He is a big draw, there isn’t any boat like him. He’s the only boat I have ever seen that has a face, so he’s pretty popular. And it’s not even just the children that love Theodore, it’s people of all ages, they get quite a kick out of him,” she said in a telephone interview Monday.
“You get a lot of people that are off of cruise ships that remember seeing Theodore, and when they come into Halifax from their cruise ships, they just love seeing (him) again.”
The tugboat is participating in the tall ships race on behalf of the Waterfront Development Corp., the provincial Crown agency that will be hosting the event here in July.
This year’s event will be similar in size and scope to the 2009 tall ships event that, according to the Crown corporation, generated about $32.8 million in direct and indirect spending around the province.
“I mean, what Nova Scotia does is unique in the world in that when we attract ships it’s not just to the big, single port of Halifax; it’s spread around to the ports that are participating in (the province), so we end up holding the ships for about 10 days,” said Colin MacLean, president of the Waterfront Development Corp, who attended the event in Savannah over the weekend.
This year’s tall ships festival will commemorate the War of 1812.
“One of the things that we’re trying to do is attract as many people from outside the province as we can to the event, and given that this year’s theme is the commemoration of 1812, there’s a big American conection for us,” he said
“We’re pretty sure that people willl take that as an opportunity to come and explore some of the heritage and history and connections between this port and the histories of Canada and the United States.”
While an economic boon to the city, Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Commission, said that some businesses reported a drop in foot traffic during previous tall ships events.
“From a business perspective, one of the challenges that we’ve always had, which we’re working on this year, is how do we get our regular customers to come down?” MacKinnon said. “Because sometimes, the feedback that we’ve gotten is that people that normally come to enjoy downtown and shop in the stores sometimes are too scared that it’s going to be too busy.”
As a result. he said the commission will be working with the Waterfront Development Corp. on crafting a message to not only encourage those on the waterfront to wander through the downtown area, but get locals to visit the area as they normally would.
“Certainly you shouldn’t feel like you can’t come downtown because it’s going to be too crazy,” he said. “We want to encourage people not to change their regular routine; if they don’t want to see the tall ships, that they can still come downtown and enjoy themselves.”
On May 17, the Waterfront Development Corp. will unveil the listing of ships, outports and activities for the event.
About 40 vessels of varying sizes are expected to call on Nova Scotia.
In addition to Halifax, some tentatively listed ports of call include Lunenburg, Port Hawkesbury, Louisbourg, Sydney, Pictou and Pugwash.