By Neil Moran
Keeping commercial boats in good repair is crucial to getting people to and from local islands, moving products up and down the St. Mary’s River and meeting critical needs of the Coast Guard and other agencies.
What many locals may not know is that a small company located on the bank of the lower St. Mary’s River in Sault Ste. Marie works year-round to keep these boats in good condition to meet these needs.
MCM Marine Inc, formerly Twin City Dry Dock, has been serving boats that ply the river since 1970, according to Shipyard Superintendent Charlie Bumstead. Thanks to his team of welders and other mechanics, boats like the Sugar Island Ferry and Coast Guard vessel Buckthorn can safely perform their duties.
The next closest dry dock is 420 miles away in Superior, Wisconsin says Bumstead, which makes MCM the preferred company to service these vessels.
“We’ve got a pretty big customer base,” says Bumstead. “It currently tops 150.”
They service ferries for Sugar Island, Neebish Island and Drummond Island, as well as vessels for the US Geological Survey, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), US Fish and Wildlife, all local tug boats and an occasional freighter. They are also called on periodically for emergency repairs.
“If it floats, we work on it,” says Bumstead.
When a boat comes into the shipyard, the first chore is to place it in a dry dock. Bumstead says several years ago, they fashioned a dry dock out of an old tugboat barge. The dry dock process begins by opening 10 valves (five on each side) of a vertical wall. The valves have 12-inch openings and begin to fill up, sinking the platform down into the water. Then they bring the vessel forward over the surface of the platform and start pumping water out with six 12-inch pumps, allowing the loaded barge to return to the surface. The vessel sits on solid wood beams to be serviced.
“It’s capable of lifting 2000 tons,” says Bumstead. “It’s really pretty amazing.”
Bumstead’s team of seven workers, including himself, get to work on the vessel. It often includes cutting out and replacing sections of a hull where the constant wear and tear of the water and exposure to road salt corrodes the steel.
“People don’t realize that salt off of vehicles on the ferries degrades the vessel over time,” says Bumstead.
Bumstead says he also must be ready for the unexpected, which can come at any time. One evening, he received a call about a freighter with a crack in the bottom and was “shooting water like Old Faithful.” He was called out to fix the leak by installing “a hog,” to pinch off the incoming deluge of water and build a steel box around it to fill with cement
“Anything that gets them on their way,” says Bumstead of the repair, which took them 21 hours to complete.
In addition, they sandblast and paint the boats. As locals may recall, over two years ago. Drummond Island’s backup ferry had to be used while the Sugar Islander II was drydocked for painting and maintenance. It took time, but when complete, Bumstead said, “it looked like a million bucks!”
The Coast Guard requires ferries and tour boats to be inspected every five years. MCM has an ultrasound machine that measures the thickness of the hull. Once it is wasted to 25% of its thickness, it requires repair. The crew gets to work by cutting out a section of the hull and replacing it with new steel.
Bumstead and his crew have also replaced motors, props and just about anything that needs to be repaired. Most of the trades are involved in the work they do, including welding, plumbing, and HVAC. Much of the electrical work is completed by sub-contractors. They use a stick weld on the hulls, which is the cleanest weld.
Prior to coming to MCM, Bumstead worked at a fabricating plant in Kinross until it closed. He encouraged to apply at MCM, despite a lack of knowledge of boats. His mechanical aptitude and willingness to work hard to learn the ropes over five years allowed him to become head of operations.
“I like the challenge,” says Bumstead. “On a house, everything is square and plumb; with a boat, you throw out a square and level, it’s all angles. It’s kind of a lost art. I enjoy it and even after 30 years, I’m learning new things all the time.”