Chippewa Bay July 25, 2006—Boating has always been part of life in the 1000 Islands Region. Dark Island's owner, Frederick Gilbert Bourne, was a noted yachtsman serving a Commodore of the New York Yacht Club. When he built his “hunting lodge,” The Towers, the plans included two large boathouses. The North Boathouse for the family's many boats such as the Commodore's 131' steam yacht the Artemis, the 48' sailboat the Reverie and the Bourne children's 36' racing boat the Moike . Bourne even purchased an electrified Venetian gondola for the use of his guests. The South Boat House was used to house the boats belonging to guests visiting Dark Island. Today a section of the South Boat House is used as Singer Castle's Gift Shop and offices. The docks at the South Boat House have been restored and provide ample space for both tour boats and private boaters.

The number of private boaters visiting Dark Island is steadily increasing and private boaters now average thirty percent of the day's total visitors most days and make up to fifty percent of the total on others. Boats of all types, new and old, as small as personal watercraft and as large as fifty-five foot yachts can be seen mooring with the assistance of the castle's able dockhands. Most often visiting boaters are vacationers who have come to the 1000 Islands region for many years or summer residents who bring visiting friends and family to enjoy a guided tour of Singer Castle. The castle, which is situated straight out from Chippewa Bay, is an easy half hour cruise from Morristown or Alexandria Bay and boaters from the Clayton area have made the journey in as little as an hour. Occasionally a boat will pull in to the docks to visit and to take a break from a much longer journey. One husband and wife who visited recently were on the final leg of a thirteen-month journey that began on Lake Erie traveled around the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence River, down the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida for the winter and back.

Singer Castle will continue to welcome private boaters daily until Labor Day and Saturdays and Sundays through early October. Guided tours are available beginning at 10 a.m. with the final tour departing the South Boathouse at 4 p.m.