New Boatnerd Website Launching Soon

[Guest]

I cannot get into AIS. Very frustrating.

[Denny]

Hey Bob, I think 🤔 I found the Lay Up list (current one) under the heading Winter Lay Up Lists or something like that. If you look I think in the upper right hand portion of the Boatnerd pages, you hopefully 🙏 will see 3 White Bars or so. Just click on that, pull or scroll down the list to where you will see Winter Lay Up Lists. Try clicking that and it should hopefully bring it up for you then. As for your comments and questions on the AIS Map and the pictures and destinations not showing up, I too get the same thing on my mobile devices as I use my phone and Tablet both and each device I use does not show a picture of a vessel or its destination. Hopefully the good folks at Boatnerd are working on getting the bugs fixed soon on the AIS Map.

[Mn bob]

How did you find the new layup list? I haven’t found it. Also on the ais when I click on a certain ship there’s no picture and doesn’t show the destination. I’m doing all of this on my mobile phone and not a computer so don’t know if that makes a difference. Any info is appreciated

[Denny]

Thanks Boatnerd for taking the time as you mentioned as far as moving the Lay Up List from the Old Site to the New Site as it looks great. Matt Miner’s salty page looks better than ever as I like the updates and improvements and looking forward to another year and season of him and his great & excellent reporting of the salty traffic as he had done here for many years for all of us.

[Rob]

Where are the historical photos and news?

[Mr Link]

The Donation link does not seem to be working.

Thanks. Its on our list of minor glitches to fix.

In the mean time, donations are always appreciated and can be sent via PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/boatnerd
or via US Mail at: Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping Online, PO Box 304, Paris, MI 49338. Checks should be made out to Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping Online, the 501(c)(3) non-profit which operates the BoatNerd website.

[Guest]

The Donation link does not seem to be working.

[Ohio Bob]

BRAVO to all involved with the new website.
I'm sure it will take some time for us old farts to find our way around but the new look and features are fantastic.

Thank you for all you do!

[GreatLaker]

Working to get it moved over from the old site

[Denny]

What has happened to the 2025-26 Winter Lay-Up List? Since the launching of the new website, it does not show up anywhere from what I can see now? I used to have it saved when the old version of the website was around but now however, apparently the old links aren’t compatable now with new version of the website. While I’m finally starting to get the hang of the new website version and features, upgrades and updates it’s taken me most of the week now to try and learn and to figure it out. I do like a few of the new features such as the News Page but, is there any way to click on a photo to get a better view of it? I thought on the older version you could do that with the photos? Also, I totally understand and get the discontinuation of the Port Reports feature as I’ll miss that the most! However, the Port Reports used to have photos posted everyday. Will we no longer see any photos anymore like that? I would hate to see daily photos from the Port Reports no longer be put up here on boatnerd as at least we get some ideas of what’s going on around some of the ports, harbors, cities etc. on the Great Lakes-Seaway. Another question I have and sorry for so many questions on the new website. Regarding the Port Reports section, Is there any way of going back and looking through past Reports? In 2025 when I was dealing with serious health problems, I did not spend much time as you might imagine here on boatnerd thus I ended up missing many of the Port Reports. One in particular is Ron Beaupre’s Daily & Yearly Mariatown Vessel Passages as I really enjoyed his reports and I would view it often and it definitely helped me out whenever I’d miss something in the Seaway. Can you possibly go back through any types of archives and find any older versions of the Mariatown or any Port Reports? And my last question for now is regarding the past Lay-Up lists and Matt Miner’s Salty Reports. Rather than scrolling through an entire page to see previous reports by the year, wouldn’t it be better and easier to do those pages & reports separate as far as by the years rather than have them all on one page as it appears now with both of the past Winter Lay-Up lists and the Foreign Vessel Reports? Just my thoughts and opinions only on all this.

[Guest PaulA]

Great Job Everyone!

[BrassTack]

I haven't spent a lot of time on it yet, but GREAT JOB ON THE NEW WEBSITE. Such accomplishments require a whole lot of work by an amazingly few dedicated folks. THANK YOU. Love the new AIS maps by the way.

[Mr Link]

How do you get to the port reports section? Also on the ais web the ship names are no longer on there unless you tap on an icon. Is that the way ais is going to operate now?

In regards to viewing ship names on the new AIS system, click on the menu icon (four squares) in the top right corner, click "Map Style", and then move the "Show Vessel Name" slider to on. That will display names when the map is zoomed in. Names will not display when the map is zoomed out beyond a certain amount. This was done because in the prior version, we received a lot of complaints that the names were actually covering up the icons for other vessels (ie displaying names took priority over displaying ship icons.) This has been changed to display icons first and foremost, and then names if space is available. Passing the cursor over a vessel icon should display that individual ship's name, regardless of how the slider is set for the "Show Vessel Name" option.

As for the port reports section, the decision was made to eliminate it. There were several reasons for this. First, it was duplicating information found in the automated "Vessel Passage" section of the BoatNerd AIS system. In addition, it was causing issues with searching for historical vessel information on the BoatNerd page since any search would bring up each and every daily port report that contained that vessel's name. And in all honesty, it was also a duplication of information that can be found on almost any of numerous free AIS vessel monitoring programs/websites available online.

The new "Noteworthy Passages" section will continue to note any unique or unusual vessel passages, which aligns with how the vessel passages section was set up initially on the BoatNerd website. More details on what is considered a Noteworthy Passage is provided in this internal documentation:

Boatnerd 3.0 Editorial Guide: Noteworthy Passages (formerly Port Reports)

Beginning with the launch of the new Boatnerd 3.0 website, the Boatnerd leadership team has decided to replace the daily “Port Reports” with a weekly feature called “Noteworthy Passages” which will highlight unique, unusual, or otherwise noteworthy vessel passages over the course of the past week.

Why this Change?

The weekly Port Reports are a legacy feature that dates back to the original version of the website (back when everything was coded manually), but no longer really serves a practical or newsworthy purpose since it has largely been rendered obsolete by the Boatnerd AIS and its automated vessel passage that allows users to view which vessels have visited a particular port by using its various filter options.
But rather than eliminate it entirely, the Boatnerd team has decided to instead replace it with a weekly feature called “Noteworthy Passages.”
What is a “Noteworthy Passage”?

Noteworthy Passages may include, but aren’t limited to:

A vessel’s maiden voyage
A vessel’s first trip under a new name or new ownership
A vessel entering a port for layup (seasonal or extended)
A vessel returning to service/departing a port after layup (seasonal or extended)
A foreign vessel’s very first visit to the Great Lakes
A foreign vessel’s first visit to the Great Lakes under a new name or new ownership
A vessel’s very first time visiting a particular port
A vessel’s first time visiting a particular port after an extended absence
The first and last vessels to visit a particular port during a shipping season
Any unique or unusual trip for a particular vessel (e.g. the Badger sailing to Sturgeon Bay for maintenance under its own power instead of being towed)

[Mn bob]

How do you get to the port reports section? Also on the ais web the ship names are no longer on there unless you tap on an icon. Is that the way ais is going to operate now?

[Rob]

Where are the historical photos?

[Guest]

Great job on the new site. And keeping us boatnerds in touch with an industry we all love.

Today I'll make my first donation to support you guys.

[Guest]

Love the new Website! Thank you BoatNerd, Great job.

[Guest]

The new website is great! Thanks to all who developed it👍

[SeawaySlug]

First glimpse of the new site, and loving it. Thanks for 30 years, staff and volunteers. Still my (and many others) first go-to source for local shipping news.

[Dave2]

Perfection takes time. Happy St Patrick's Day