Page 19: of Marine News Magazine (September 2026)

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for Georgian Bay’s demanding winter environment, it oper- ates 365 days per year and makes 12 daily round trips.

The ferry accommodates 150 passengers and 36 cars or trucks, with RoRo loading simplifying the constant move- ment of people, vehicles and supplies between the island community and mainland.

Technically, its de? ning feature is its propulsion system.

Niigaan Enaazhek is equipped with two Voith Schnei- der Propellers, positioned to give the double-ended ferry exceptional maneuverability and rapid thrust control in virtually any direction. The arrangement is particularly suited to a ferry that spends its life repeatedly approaching and departing terminals and operating in con? ned waters.

It is also engineered for ice.

The vessel carries an Ice Class 1A rating, with the VSP installation designed to maintain propulsion performance in the harsh winter conditions encountered on Georgian

Bay. Fraser describes Niigaan Enaazhek as the only dou- ble-ended ferry operating on the Great Lakes equipped with two Voith Schneider Propellers.

Kelly calls it “the most technically advanced ferry boat operating on the Great Lakes today.” “The captain can literally turn on a pinwheel if he or she so chooses to do,” said Kelly. “Incredible maneuver- ability. We’re really proud of that vessel.”

More importantly, it is doing precisely what it was de- signed to do: keeping an island community connected to the mainland throughout the year.

That combination — practical commercial shipbuilding, specialized engineering and a skilled Great Lakes workforce — provides a useful window into Fraser’s potential future.

Amid the increasingly urgent national conversation sur- rounding U.S. maritime industrial capacity, Fraser possesses several ingredients that cannot easily be manufactured: 138 years of experience, an existing workforce, established custom- ers, waterfront infrastructure and considerable room to grow.

Now add the shipbuilding technology and production expertise of HD Hyundai.

The opportunity, if the pieces come together as envi- sioned, is not simply to make an old shipyard bigger. It is to use an established American shipbuilder as a platform for a more modern production model — one capable of serving commercial and military customers while putting hundreds more skilled tradespeople to work year-round.

For Kelly, the immediate priority is straightforward: “It’s about sticking the landing with all the things we’re talking about with HD Hyundai.”

If Fraser does, those unused 85 acres on Lake Superior could become an important piece of America’s effort to rebuild its shipbuilding muscle.