WATERFORD — The Town of Waterford’s Tugboat Roundup began in 1999 and has been held annually since with the exception of 2011, following Hurricane Irene, and 2020. Tugboat Roundup is a three-day festival and gathering of tugboats, workboats and barges to celebrate the maritime heritage of the Northeast Inland Waterways. The festival features a tug parade, tug tours, boat rides, tug talks, competitions, fireworks, children’s activities, vendors, food and more.
Tugboat Roundup begins with a tug parade up the Hudson River. On Sept. 9, at approximately 3:30 p.m., the parade will leave Albany. Spectators can watch the parade pass by from any accessible river front spot Menands, Watervliet, Green Island, Troy, Cohoes.
Once the parade reaches Waterford, tugboats, workboats and other vessels dock where they, their crews, tug enthusiasts, and visitors gather to celebrate the maritime heritage of the Northeast Inland Waterways.
Each year Tugboat Roundup celebrates a tug of the year. This year’s recipient of that honor is the J. Arnold Witte. The J. Arnold Witte is a newly built tug by Donjon Marine.
The Tugboat Roundup is free to attend.
A full schedule of events is at https://www.tugboatroundup.com/schedule
The largest annual publically-accessible gathering of tugboats in the northeastern United States, the Waterford Tugboat Roundup began in 1999 as a way to celebrate the rich maritime industrial heritage of New York’s Canal System in general, and the community of Waterford specifically. Initially a one-day event, the Roundup begins every year with a parade of tugboats from Albany to Waterford on Friday, with tugboat tours and other maritime lectures and exhibits throughout the weekend. The three-day event now features over thirty tugs and other vessels, vendors, live music, kids’ activities, demonstrations and more, along a half mile stretch at the Hurst Harbor Center at the gateway to the Erie Canal. The Tugboat Roundup is made possible each year through the support of the Town of Waterford, the maritime community, numerous sponsors and volunteers.
The Tugboat Roundup has announced its “Tug of the Year” and selected a Grand Marshall for the 2022 Tugboat Parade, Waterford Town Supervisor Jack Lawler announced today.
Historic tugs dominate the list of past Tug of the Year honorees. This year is a little different. The J. Arnold Witte was built in 2020 and will hold this year’s Tug of the Year title. The 78-by-26-foot, 2,400 horsepower tugboat is the newest tug in Donjon Marine’s fleet.
The J. Arnold Witte was designed by Boksa Marine Design (BMD), a Florida based naval architecture and marine design firm. The triple-screw boat’s dimensions, telescoping wheelhouse, and nine-foot-draft are all reflective of what BMD and Donjon Marie see as continuing - and renewing - opportunities to move cargo through the nearly two-centuries-old, 524-mile New York State Canal System and connected waterways such as the Hudson River, New York Harbor, and the Great Lakes.
The 2022 Tugboat Roundup won’t be the J. Arnold Witte’s first pass through Waterford. Donjon Shipbuilding & Repair (DSR) built the vessel at its Erie, PA facility and transited the Canal eastbound in 2021, passing through the Port of Waterford, enroute her homeport of Newark, N.J.
“The J. Arnold Witte is the perfect boat to celebrate in 2022, as we near the bicentennial of the Erie Canal,” Waterford Town Supervisor Jack Lawler said. “Her design and construction by a major firm like Donjon Marine is illustrative of the fact that the Canal is not just about our past but also about our future.”
“We are honored to have the J. Arnold Witte named as the Waterford Tugboat Roundup’s ‘Tug of the Year’ for 2022,” John A. Witte, Jr., President & CEO of Donjon Marine, said. “We believe in the future of our inland waterways, including the New York State Canal System, to play a major role in a more sustainable transportation model which delivers value, reduces fossil fuel consumption, and - just like it has for two centuries - helps drive the economy of the Empire State.”
Tugboat Roundup’s Event Coordinator Mary Stalker said, “We’ve featured many historic vessels over the years, but in 2022 it is fitting that we look ahead and honor a brand new boat. The J. Arnold Witte was purpose built for New York’s Canals and connected waterways. We commend
Donjon Marine for investing in the future of this storied waterway, even as we celebrate its history.”
Lawler also announced that Waterford Town Historian Russ VanDervoort will serve as Grand Marshal for the 2022 Tugboat Parade, which kicks off the three-day event on Sept. 9. VanDervoort, Director of the Waterford Canal & Towpath Society, noted historian, and author of Canal Canaries and Other Tough Old Birds has been an active volunteer and proponent for New York’s Canals his entire life. A recipient of the prestigious Capt. Bart Brake Canal Lifetime Achievement Award, he has written and lectured extensively on the Canals, especially the 19th century “enlarged” Champlain Canal, on which his family operated a fleet of vessels for decades. The VanDervoorts are chronicled in Canal Canaries and other works such as Fred Godfrey’s From Mules to Tugboats, Fugitive Deckhand, and Sailors, Waterways, and Tugboats I Have Known.
“Russ VanDervoort epitomizes the very spirit of the Canal, and we could not have a more accomplished, distinguished, and well-regarded Grand Marshall than he,” Supervisor Lawler said. “The passion that Russ brings to his role as Waterford Town Historian, and his unrivaled,encyclopedic knowledge ofCanal and local history, make him a treasure not just to our community, but to the entire State of New York.”
“I am honored and quite pleased to be offered the opportunity to be the first Grand Marshal of the Annual Waterford Tugboat Parade,” Vandervoort said.
New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian U. Stratton said, “We heartily convey our congratulations to Donjon Marine and to Russ VanDervoort, a Canaller of no small acclaim, for these prestigious honors. We look forward to seeing the J. Arnold Witte in port for the 2022 Tugboat Roundup and plying the waters of the New York State Canal System for many years to come.”
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Executive Director Bob Radliff said, “We are please to offer our congratulations to Donjon Marine for the J. Arnold Witte’s Tug of the Year designation, and to our good friend Russ VanDervoort for the well-deserved distinction of being named the Grand Marshall for the 2022 Tugboat Parade. The Tugboat Roundup’s unique role in acquainting the public with not only the rich commercial maritime history of New York’s Canals, but also its contemporary uses, is one of the reasons we awarded funding in conjunction with the New York State Canal Corporation as part of the 2022 Tourism Infrastructure and Event Grants program.”
2022 also marks the return of the venerable retired New York City Fireboat John J. Harvey to the Waterford Tugboat Roundup, where she has appeared several times previously. After a distinguished career with the FDNY for nearly seven decades, the John J. Harvey was called back into service in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, helping to evacuate 150 people from lower Manhattan and providing 20,000 gallons per minute of critical firefighting water for three straight days.
In addition to the John J. Harvey, South Street Seaport Museum’s W. O. Decker and over two dozen other historic, actively-working, mini-tugs and replica craft are expected to line the shores in Waterford during the three-day event.