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The operational replica canal boat for the Wabash & Erie Canal Association will be built in Albany, N.Y., on an aluminum hull with wooden upper features, electric power and 54 feet of length. It will be possible to tow with animal power for special events, and it will feature charter options for use by groups. It will be built to two-thirds scale to clear the stone arch bridge. Canal board president Dan McCain visited the boat manufacturing plant in September. Scarano Boat Company engineers produced a 3-D drawing, represented above, to aid in the planning for construction. The boat will be built this winter. Canal volunteers also will be busy in the next six months, building such things as a plank dock, an interactive full-size guard lock (set of gates) at the south end of Canal Park, two turn-around basins, and a railing under the stone arch bridge to keep the new boat on a straight track through the tight space.