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She and her fiancée, Yolande Milan Batteau, 51, an artist, renovated a 19th-century shoe factory in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where they now live with their dogs, Kitsune and Misaki and Dagmar.

Thanks to Will Cash and Will Smith, James River Batteau Festival veterans, experiencing a bateau ride is available to everyone with the launch of their James River Batteau Company tour service next month.

But having experienced the 120-mile journey downriver during the James River Batteau Festival, with the tight turns, rocky shoals and swift rapids — something only exceptionally strong individuals with a deep understanding of the currents could manage — Smith and Cash hope to give nautical tourists a newfound appreciation for these brave and bold watermen who, for a time, made the James River a bustling world of interstate commerce.

Today, outdoor and history enthusiasts annually re-create their journey each June from Lynchburg to Maidens during the eight-day James River Batteau Festival.

James River Batteau Company will offer guests river tours, sunset cruises and private charters April through October on the Morning Dew, a period-correct reproduction that Smith built with his father and brother in 2011 and one of the only bateau floats of its kind in America.