The boatnerd corporation, a registered not for profit corporation, circulates information about vessels that ply the

North American Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. When

Acheson Ventures Acheson may refer to: *Acheson, Alberta, a locality and industrial area in Alberta, Canada *Acheson (surname), people with the surname ''Acheson'' *Acheson Irvine (1837-1916), Canadian policeman * Dean Acheson (1893–1971), American statesman *Edw ...

provided space for a headquarters for the organization in their Maritime Center overlooking the

St Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron i ...

, 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 ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' in 2008. 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 gets over 20 million page views a month. 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. The organization is large enough to maintain an office in

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

, 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''. Travel writer

Bob Boughner Robert Douglas Boughner ( ; born March 8, 1971), nicknamed "The Boogieman", is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is currently an associate coach for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). As head c ...

, 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."'' 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. 76 donors have won Great Lake freighter cruises.

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 =

, 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.boatnerd.com/501/default.htm , title = Campaign for boatnerd , publisher = Boatnerd , archive-date = May 9, 2013 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130509163620/http://www.boatnerd.com/501/default.htm , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://www.boatnerd.com/about/worldHQ/default.htm , title = World Headquarters at Vantage Point, Port Huron, Michigan , work = Boatnerd , access-date = November 21, 2013 , archive-date = May 9, 2013 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130509134229/http://www.boatnerd.com/about/worldHQ/default.htm , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://www.boatnerd.com/trips/ , title = Cruise the Great Lakes on a Working Freighter , work = Boatnerd , access-date = November 21, 2013 , archive-date = September 7, 2013 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130907015511/http://www.boatnerd.com/trips/ , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://www.achesonventures.com/MaritimeCenter.aspx , title = Visit the Maritime Center at Vantage Point! , publisher =

, 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 ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

, 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 The ''Toledo Free Press'' was a weekly newspaper which was published from 2005 to 2015 in Toledo, Ohio. History It was founded in March 2005 by Thomas Pounds, a veteran administrator of daily newspapers in Toledo and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On ...

, first = Don , last = Lee , date = September 26, 2014 , location =

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, 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 {{cite news , url = http://www.dailytribune.com/20100425/despite-the-name-this-website-is-for-anyone-but-nerds , title = Despite the name, this website is for anyone but nerds , work = Daily Tribune , date = April 25, 2010 , access-date = June 22, 2015

External links

Boat Nerd website
Water transportation in North America