Boatnerd
{{Copy edit|date=April 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Boatnerd
| headquarters = Port Huron, Michigan, U.S.
| region = Great Lakes
| website = https://boatnerd.com/
}}
The Boatnerd corporation is a registered not-for-profit corporation intended to spread information about vessels that ply the North American Great Lakes.
Services
The organization holds annual festivals at sites of interest to those interested in maritime commerce on the Great Lakes.
The Globe and Mail profiled Boatnerd when the 2008 festival was held in a shipyard in Port Colborne, Ontario, where the Calumet, an 80-year-old lake freighter was being scrapped.
According to The Globe and Mail the site's volunteers often report breaking news prior to its announcement by official authorities. The Globe and Mail quoted a volunteer who described how, while professional mariners kidded the volunteers, they obviously monitored it, because they could count on regular mariners promptly informing them when they had made a mistake.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
The organization maintains an office in Port Huron, Michigan, overlooking the confluence of the St Clair and Black Rivers.
The site went online in 1995, and became a registered not for profit corporation in 2006, under the name Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping Online.
The organization provides unusual prizes through fund-raising raffles.
Various lake freighters were built with an "owner's suite". These suites are rarely used today, but the organization has been able to convince shipping companies to make cruises on board a working lake freighter, in the owner's suite, available to donors. Seventy-six donors have won Great Lakes freighter cruises.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
Recognition
When Acheson Ventures provided space for a headquarters for the organization in their Maritime Center overlooking the St Clair River, they called boatnerd "the most widely-used website for Great Lakes maritime information."
Reporters consider the Boatnerd site reliable enough that they cite or quote it by name in their articles.
The organization was profiled by The Globe and Mail in 2008.
Travel writer Bob Boughner, reporting in the Chatham Daily News, in December 2014, that "The average person, like myself, would have no idea where the ships were headed or what they were carrying if it wasn't for a relatively new organization headquartered in Port Huron, Mich., known as BoatNerd.com."
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite news |url = http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2014/12/05/travel-writer-finds-contentment-on-st-clair-river |title = Travel writer finds contentment on St. Clair River 3 |work = Chatham Daily News |author = Bob Boughner |date = December 5, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150815164830/http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2014/12/05/travel-writer-finds-contentment-on-st-clair-river |archive-date = August 15, 2015 |url-status = dead }}
{{cite news |url = https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/nerds-ahoy/article1350013/ |title = Nerds ahoy |work = The Globe and Mail |author = Patrick White |date = September 26, 2008 |location = Toronto |archive-date = November 21, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131121030156/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/nerds-ahoy/article1350013/ |url-status = live }}
{{cite news |url = http://www.achesonventures.com/MaritimeCenter.aspx |title = Visit the Maritime Center at Vantage Point! |publisher = Acheson Ventures |access-date = November 21, 2013 |archive-date = July 28, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728170846/http://achesonventures.com/MaritimeCenter.aspx |url-status = dead }}
{{cite news |url = http://www.fwdailynews.com/archives/boat-nerd-reveals-childhood-obsession/article_19d4c2b2-39c6-5ba1-a191-d8e1caf58b47.html |title = Boat nerd reveals childhood obsession |work = Fort Wayne Daily News |first = Jeff |last = Jones |date = March 13, 2013 |archive-date = April 10, 2014 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20140410052820/http://www.fwdailynews.com/archives/boat-nerd-reveals-childhood-obsession/article_19d4c2b2-39c6-5ba1-a191-d8e1caf58b47.html |url-status = dead }}
{{cite news |url = http://www.netnewsledger.com/2013/11/09/lake-superior-storm-claimed-edmund-fitzgerald/ |title = Lake Superior Storm Claimed Edmund Fitzgerald: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald |work = netnewsledger |first = James |last = Murray |date = November 9, 2013 |archive-date = November 21, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131121030213/http://www.netnewsledger.com/2013/11/09/lake-superior-storm-claimed-edmund-fitzgerald/ |url-status = live }}
{{cite news |url = http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article187652.ece |title = Tough times for Great Lakes shipping |work = Buffalo News |first = Mary |last = Kunz Goldman |date = September 12, 2010 |access-date = November 25, 2013 |archive-date = September 23, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100923053046/http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article187652.ece |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}
{{cite news |url = http://www.toledofreepress.com/2014/09/26/maumee-river-busy-with-new-project-freighter-action/ |title = Maumee River busy with new project, freighter action |work = Toledo Free Press |first = Don |last = Lee |date = September 26, 2014 |location = Toledo, Ohio |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141110111019/http://www.toledofreepress.com/2014/09/26/maumee-river-busy-with-new-project-freighter-action/ |archive-date = November 10, 2014 |access-date = January 1, 2015 |url-status = dead }}
}}
External links
- [http://boatnerd.com/ Boat Nerd website]