The 2025-2026 winter layup list is now up and running at; https://www.boatnerd.com/winter-lay-up-list-2025-2026/
Post Your Christmas, Holiday cards on Boatnerd
Feel free to share your boat-themed Christmas and holiday cards by posting them in this thread. Attachments must be under 2 MB.
https://newsearch.boatnerd.com/viewtopic.php?t=178409
Atlantic Huron making last trip before retirement
After decades of service across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, the Canada Steamship Lines self-unloader Atlantic Huron is winding down her final season. Leaving Quebec, she is currently making one last run to Hamilton to load cargo destined for Quebec, her closing voyage in active duty.
From there, she will head to Nova Scotia to be recycled by R.J. MacIsaac Construction in Sheet Harbour, NS (near Halifax).
Built in 1984 at Collingwood Shipyards for a reported $35 million, she was launched in October 1983 under her original name, Prairie Harvest, intended to move Prairie grain east through the Seaway. In 1989, she was converted to a self-unloader, marking a new era for the fleet, and she holds a distinction of real significance: she was the last straight-deck bulker ever built for Canada Steamship Lines.
[Janey Anderson – Ship Junkies – Lakes, Locks & Rivers (LL&R)]
Preview S.S. Badger Documentary on Facebook
Check out the preview of “Railroad on Water,” a comprehensive documentary about the historic S.S. Badger and Lake Michigan Carferry. Filmed and edited by filmmaker Drayton Blackgrove of Delay In Block Productions, the documentary dives into the rich and expansive legacy of the Badger and the carferry industry.
To check out the documentary, click here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1954359895492011
For more history on the Badger, visit ssbadger.com/history
[S.S. Badger: Lake Michigan Carferry]
NAVFAC Atlantic Awards $49.7 Million Modification for Heavy-Lift Portal Crane Supporting Shipyard Modernization Efforts
Story by Michael Morris
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic has awarded Konecranes Nuclear Equipment and Services LLC of New Berlin, Wisconsin, a $49,673,119 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N62470-20-C-0002 for a 175-ton heavy-lift portal crane to be installed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
The modification increases the total cumulative value of the contract to $293,839,843.
Under the contract, Konecranes will design, fabricate, assemble, shop test, deliver, install, inspect, and conduct field testing of the crane, which will feature a portal-type structure with a rotating superstructure, luffing boom, and both main and auxiliary hoists engineered to meet the shipyard’s dimensional and functional requirements. Work will be performed in New Berlin and is expected to be completed by November 2028.
Fiscal 2026 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $49,673,119 are obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. NAVFAC Atlantic, based in Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
The crane is a major component of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP), a multidecade effort to modernize industrial plant equipment and revitalize critical infrastructure at the Navy’s four public shipyards. The 175-ton crane will provide essential lift capacity to move shop stores, materials, large ship components, radar arrays, antennas, and increasingly heavy propeller shafts—capabilities central to returning submarines and surface ships to the fleet.
By enabling safer, more efficient heavy-lift operations without the need for tandem cranes or supplemental equipment, the new crane enhances shipyard throughput and strengthens support for the Navy’s nuclear-powered fleet.
SIOP is delivering integrated modernization across public shipyards to meet evolving maintenance requirements for aircraft carriers and submarines. Since 2018, more than 50 facilities projects valued at nearly $1.5 billion have been completed, including utility upgrades, flood protection systems, and training facilities. More than 300 pieces of industrial plant equipment worth over $700 million have also been delivered, including new high-capacity cranes, precision machining equipment, and advanced fabrication systems.
More than 40 additional projects, totaling over $6.5 billion, are now under contract—among them the first new dry docks at public shipyards since 1962 and the conversion of a World War II-era dry dock for Gerald R. Ford-class carrier maintenance. These efforts directly support increased maintenance throughput, optimized shipyard configuration, and improved working conditions for the Navy’s 37,000 shipyard personnel.
