TRADITION RETURNING
Tugboat Roundup begins Friday
WATERFORD, N..Y. » The Tugboat Roundup, a tradition started in 1999, is returning to Waterford this weekend, welcoming tugboat experts and novices alike.
This festival will mark the 20th Tugboat Roundup. In addition to being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was also canceled in 2011 when the waterways were affected by Hurricane Irene.
Many local residents and folks within the boating community are looking forward to the event’s return for 2021.
“We’re excited to be able to have the event this year,” said festival coordinator Mary Stalker.
The Tugboat Roundup will kick off at 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 10 with a tug parade at about 5:30 p.m. as the vessels arrive for the festival, as well as vendors, live music, face painting, and fireworks after dark.
The festivities will continue from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, when visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the tugboat world through tours, boat rides, and tug talks, along with special activities for children’s activities.
Even more tug fun will take place on Sunday, from 10 a.m. until the Tugboat Roundup’s closing ceremonies at 3:30 p.m.
“The Tugboat Roundup started as a celebration of New York’s waterways and working vessels on the waterways,” Stalker said, noting that this is still what the event is about at its core.
Over the years it has grown in popularity, attracting about 30,000 attendees each year.
“It’s an event for tug enthusiasts to come and gather,” Stalker said, “but also a family-friendly festival for anyone.”
A total of more than 20 vessels are scheduled to appear at this year’s Tugboat Roundup, including working tugs from New York Marine Highway in Troy, C.D. Perry and Sons of Troy, and Carver Companies from Port of Coeymans, several mini tugs, and a few restoration projects and privately owned tugboats.
“We will have a variety,” Stalker said.
The star of the show will be the Day Peckinpaugh, which has been named the Tugboat Roundup’s 2021 Boat of the Year.
A self-propelled motorship built in 1921 at McDougall-Duluth shipyard,
the Day Peckinpaugh was built to transport cargo on the newly completed barge canal, a 524-mile network and third iteration of New York’s iconic Erie Canal, which was then just a few years old. Now nearly 300 feet long and 44 feet wide, the behemoths filled the locks with only inches to spare. Cargo shipping on the Canal was at its peak. At 259 feet by 36 feet, the Peckinpaugh fits snuggly in canal locks which are 300 feet by 43.5 feet. At one point there were more than 100 vessels like the Peckinpaugh operating on canals. The Peckinpaugh was among the first five of her kind, and, since 1994, is the last remaining.
In 2005, the Peckinpaugh was saved from the scrapyard when a partnership of organizations including the New York State Museum, Canal Corporation, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Erie Canalway, and the Canal Society transformed the boat into a floating museum and the Peckinpaugh embarked on a 330-mile trip from Erie, Pa. to Waterford.
In 2009, it traveled from Waterford north to Lake Champlain — calling on the ports of Plattsburgh, Crown Point, Burlington and Whitehall — and south to New York Harbor — with the boat’s main hold converted to exhibit space. At 100 years old, this longestserving canal boat in New York State history is now the New York State Museum’s largest artifact.
The Peckinpaugh is currently between Locks 2 and 3, and will remain there for the Roundup. Boat rides alongside the Peckinpaugh will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. These rides are free of charge and load at Lock 2.
More information about the 2021 Tugboat Roundup, including a detailed schedule of events, is available online at www.tugboatroundup.com.