WATERFORD, N.Y. -- Here where the Hudson River meets the New York State Barge Canal, the big pleasure boats were lined up for days in May, waiting for the canal to open for the season. But the boaters didn't seem to mind.

Al Sprung of Ontario, skipper of the Suvorov, said most harbors charged more for fewer amenities. Here in Waterford, which advertises "First two nights free, after that $10," he had film developed and attended a $5 pancake breakfast with the money he had saved on docking.

'Stay in Waterford'

Andre Rocheleau, a fellow Canadian, was also perfectly content to be stuck until Lock 2 opened. "People on the water say, 'Stay in Waterford,'" Rocheleau said. "The two nights free, the way they treat you, says, 'Welcome, nice to meet you.'"

Not long ago, arriving boaters found just an unlighted concrete wall to lash their vessels to, and a lonely overnight wait. Like many communities here along the middle stretch of the Hudson, Waterford had largely turned away from the river once commercial shipping died and great factories had poisoned the water.

Now the Waterford Harbor Visitor Center is a place for boaters who tie up here to shower, check e-mail and shop in town. A logbook lists visiting skippers from from Arizona, Canada and the Caribbean, and a bulletin board displays friendly greetings from those who have sailed on.

It would be hard for navigators to avoid Waterford, which is wedged right at the intersection of the Hudson, the Barge Canal, the Champlain Canal and the Mohawk River -- the routes north to Lake Champlain, west to the Great Lakes and south to the Atlantic.

But now they have reasons to linger as Waterford moves to reclaim its waterfront. In September, old steel tugs and wooden barges will converge at the annual Tugboat Roundup. They will be joined by the Waterfront Museum, a deteriorating 88-year-old barge that arrived from Brooklyn on May 26 to be repaired at the state dry dock here.

In this, some canal fans see a historical re-enactment of Waterford's old trading ties with New York Harbor.

'A great marriage'

"With it coming here 150 miles up the river, you have a great marriage between the past and the present," said John Callaghan, a third-generation resident and administrator at the State Canal Corp.

Waterford is well ahead of other river communities in the Albany region. Albany, eight miles south, has only one riverfront restaurant, and it is just now building a pedestrian bridge over the interstate that blocks foot traffic to the water.

This is not the wide Hudson where the Catskills inspired a school of painting, nor are these the piney shores of the Adirondack Park.

Here, the water is mud brown and narrow, the scenery a study in smokestacks and rusted rail bridges.

This Hudson powered factories that produced goods for the world. Today, the water is significantly cleaner than when it was a dump for chemicals and sewage, but its communities retain the look of business..

"We've been too busy making things to show you around," said Richard Hurst, harbor master in Waterford, who helped to plot the town's latest renewal as a way to cash in on the canal's growing tourist trade.

The town has always capitalized on its location, said Brad Utter, director of the Waterford Historical Museum. By the 1600s it was a center for Indian trading, and by the 1800s a hub for the Adirondack timber trade.

Soon, the water powered local factories that produced stoves, knitting machine and tools. When the canals opened in the 1830s, barges headed east to New York and west to the Great Lakes lined up to get through Waterford' s five locks.

Barges still occasionally came through. Increasingly, so did $1 million yachts. People who lived on the water often lent boaters their phones and even their cars.

Waterford, like the state, had fought to clean up the water, and the Hudson was no longer visibly coated with waste.

A local committee was formed to find creative ways to greet boaters, and three years ago, thanks to a $3 million state grant, the visitor center opened. There is talk of a restaurant, and of reviving a shipyard so that more boats like the Waterfront Museum can come for repairs. At the Tugboat Roundup in September, Ralph Folger, 78, a retired tug engineer, expects once again to join the roundtable discussion on Waterford's heritage. No one was asking him about that history when he retired 30 years ago.

"There has been more of an interest," said Folger, last of a line of tugboat engineers that started with his great-grandfather. "It used to be that every other guy in town was a captain or engineer. There are not as many of them left."