Steve Gibbs, right, is pictured Thursday morning next to the Summer Wind, currently at the docks at Long Point State Park. The 130-passenger scenic cruiser was recently sold at auction and will be moved to the Rochester area where it will find new life. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

The Summer Wind may soon find its second wind elsewhere in New York state.

The 130-passenger scenic cruiser, which had been a mainstay on Chautauqua Lake for two decades helmed by an iconic and lovable captain, has been sold and will soon be shipped to the Rochester area. The sale came following an auction held by Mike Peterson Auction & Realty Service toward the end of November and after the passing of its previous owner, Richard “Captain Rick” Willman, in February.

The Summer Wind was purchased by Steve Gibbs of Gibbs Marine Group. He is in the process of having the boat partially taken apart before the main body is shipped via a special truck to Rochester.

A crane is expected to be utilized as soon as next week to get the Summer Wind out of Chautauqua Lake and onto the truck. The boat was recently brought to Long Point State Park where it currently sits.

“I feel really bad that I’m taking her away,” Gibbs told The Post-Journal. As the new owner, he said his plan is to complete renovations started on the boat over the last couple of years before returning it to service as a dinner cruise operation near his marina on the Genesee River, off Lake Ontario, north of Rochester.

“We’re very excited and happy to have it,” he said.

Amid below-freezing conditions Thursday morning, portions of the Summer Wind’s awning frame were taken apart. Those pieces will be moved separately.

Gibbs said the boat will bring a unique business currently lacking in the Rochester area.

“We have a couple of on-site restaurants that are not open so we’ve been looking to get them operational, and this kind of fit in with the whole mix,” he said of the purchase.

As owner, Gibbs said another person will ultimately run the cruises once the boat is moved and renovations are completed.

The Summer Wind, which had long been docked in Celoron, has been a summertime tradition on Chautauqua Lake since the late ’90s. It has been used for birthdays, weddings and tours.

The boat’s future had been in limbo for some time. A powerful wind storm that rolled through the south county June 1, 2019, sheared the upper deck off the Summer Wind and damaged the docks in the process. Debris littered the area surrounding the Boatworks, and put an indefinite hold on the season that was about to commence.

At the time, repairs were estimated between $30,000 and $50,000.

The Jamestown-based Williams Fabricating was hired to make repairs on the boat and Willman figured the Summer Wind would be ready to launch for the 2020 season.

However, the coronavirus reared its head in March 2020, and repairs that included replacing the deck and constructing a support structure to hold a new canvas were delayed. Further complicating the matter were state guidelines that limited businesses, especially ones that involved people being in close contact.

The decision was made in April to cancel the entire 2020 season.

In October 2020, The Post-Journal talked with Willman, the longtime owner and captain of the boat. He expressed excitement to get the Summer Wind operational and to have its first paying customer since September 2018.

However, Willman passed away Feb. 7, 2021, further leaving the boat’s future unknown.

Mike Peterson of Mike Peterson Auction & Realty Service said the auction “brought a lot of people out of the woodwork.” He alluded to bidders from different parts of the state, and even one from Key West in Florida.

Peterson acknowledged the county was losing a local treasure, but noted that with Gibbs, the Summer Wind “at some point will be back in service.”

Asked if he planned to keep the name “Summer Wind” for the boat, Gibbs laughed. He said he had a lot of work ahead in the next week getting the boat ready to be moved that he hadn’t thought about its name.

“I might keep it — I just really haven’t thought about it yet,” he said.