The risks of the sea are many; who knew they flowed up the Penobscot and into City Council chambers? Bangor councilors, however, can avoid a shipwreck in their dealings with the River Dog tour boat by adopting as their goal the return of the boat to the hands of a private operator without further damage to the city’s coffers.

Bangor entered into its relationship with the River Dog with the best of intentions: it sought a private entity to operate a cruise boat that would highlight the benefits of the city’s waterfront and the attractiveness of the Penobscot River. By March 1998, it thought it had found an operator in the Bangor Packet and Steamship Co., but even with city loans and a line of credit, the tour lasted a single season. Then came boat repairs and other expenditures, leaving the city $138,000 to the worse, a shortened season last summer and with an uncertain relationship with the boat’s owner.

The options for Bangor are to try to operate the boat itself, buy the boat at an attractive price — as its lease may allow — then sell it to an operator at a higher price and reduce its debt, or walk away from the whole thing as quickly as is dignified. Though the city does not currently own the boat and its lease has ended, it has solicited bids for potential purchase of the boat, which it will open Dec. 29.

Plans for Bangor’s waterfront are ambitious and impressive, but they are only plans so far. A decade from now, if all goes well, it will have an attractive public space and a cruise boat would fit right in. Until then, the council is getting ahead of itself if it sees the cruise boat as an intregal part of the city’s responsibility there.

Instead, as several councilors recognize, its task is to get a firm price, with all the ancillary costs factored in, for purchasing the boat; compare that with the bid prices and purchase it only if a bid price significantly exceeds Bangor’s cost. At the very least, a bid to meet the city cost plus a pledge to continue operations here without further city investment might be considered.

But certainly, Bangor is not in a position to lose or risk losing any more money in this endeavor.