The guy who bought Captain John’s restaurant boat has finally paid up

The epic saga of Captain John’s floating restaurant is at last coming to a close, it appears. James Sbrolla, the entrepreneur who won a court-ordered auction for the crusty Toronto landmark last month only to blow several payment deadlines, has transferred the last of the outstanding funds, about $35,000, to the Toronto Port Authority. This increases the likelihood the ship will finally be removed from the foot of Yonge Street next week.

Sbrolla said he had hoped to preserve the former Yugoslavian passenger ship, which has been permanently moored at its downtown location since the 1980s, but that it wasn’t feasible to do so. “We turned over every rock, we tried every alternative,” he told us.

The ship will be stripped of its useful parts—dials, gauges, valves, engine parts, and lifeboats—and any dangerous material at a location in the Toronto harbour, and the remaining hull scrapped elsewhere. “To me it seemed pretty obvious scrapping it while taking off the savable things was the best thing to do,” Sbrolla said.

The payment, which the Toronto Port Authority confirmed it received today, still needs to be approved by a local court. Sbrolla hopes that will happen next week, clearing the way the ship to—just maybe—be moved next Friday.