Yesterday morning some pallets got lifted from a terminal in Hunt’s Point in The Bronx by a Hudson River-based liftboat
to a Brooklyn-based ex-BUSL.
Meanwhile, a Brooklyn-based crane ship on the hull of a repurposed lube tanker took
position on the East Side of Pier 17.
The lift boat Legs III is operated by Maritime Projects LLC, Helen A … by Brooklyn Marine Services, and Louis C … by Lehigh Maritime.
For what’s going on here, I quote from “Beer Delivery Returns to NYC Waterways After 100 Year Absence“, a press release from Oak Point Property LLC and Manhattan Beer Distributors, “Hunts Point community leaders, local businesses, maritime advocates, and public officials today cheered the first maritime delivery of beer on NYC’s waterways in over a century. The pilot project, planned and executed by Oak Point Property LLC, Manhattan Beer Distributors (MBD), The Howard Hughes Corporation, Maritime Projects LLC, and Barretto Bay Strategies, with ongoing support from the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Greater Hunts Point EDC, delivered MBD’s six pallets of beer and Brooklyn-born Q Mixers from Oak Point terminal to Pier 17 at the Seaport.
With pallets loaded on its stern, Helen A., a New York harbor workboat, departed the Oak Point shoreline at 10:38 AM EST and reached Pier 17 at 11:38 AM. The Seaport’s operator The Howard Hughes Corporation received the shipment and distributed it to three businesses on the pier, including The Rooftop at Pier 17, NYC’s premier open-air venue hosting over 60 concerts this season.
The pilot is a crucial test of the viability of inter-borough shipping, tidal-assist propulsion, and congestion mitigation through waterborne problem-solving. One of the region’s busiest trucking hubs, the Hunts Point peninsula is criss-crossed by over 15,000 truck trips each workday.”
“Inter-borough shipping” is a subset of short sea shipping, and in this case, short sea shipping confined to the sixth boro, recognizing that the sixth boro IS the underutilized link between the other five. Too bad “inter-borough shipping, tidal-assist propulsion, and congestion mitigation through waterborne problem-solving” doesn’t easily lend itself to a clever acronym. IBSTAPCMWPS is quite unpronounceable. Any pronounceable suggestions?
Helen A‘s arrival was in fact timed to ride the tidal current, saving on fuel as well as mitigating the issues of delivery trucks making the approximately 12-mile run.
Again, this was a pilot, a proof of concept, so a smaller scale cargo vessel is used, understood that you can’t scale up delivery trucks in nearly as many ways as you can a delivery vessel.
In minutes, Helen A was fast alongside Louis C.
The lift began almost immediately, and
within 10 minutes of docking alongside with the cargo,
Louis C crew
lifted the first pallet
and swung it
safely ashore, where hand trucks
awaited to move the cargo into the coolers.
What’s next? “The pilot will gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of waterborne solutions to middle-mile challenges while improving air quality and addressing environmental justice challenges in Hunts Point and other outer borough communities like it. To track outcomes, CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering will collect data from the pilot run and conduct a comparative analysis with truck-based delivery.” I look forward to reading their report.
The first two photos are credited to Oak Point Property LLC and Manhattan Beer distributors; all others and any errors, WVD.
Some previous posts on similar projects include Black Seal , Ceres, and Grain de Sail.
tugster: a waterblog 
15 comments
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October 21, 2022 at 11:26 am
eastriver
Good post! (Glad to see it wasn’t a beer run for the pilots)
October 21, 2022 at 12:32 pm
tugster
eastriver– Thx for the comment. A nugget of an idea in yr comment sent me looking, and there is in fact a term “pilot beer” https://www.ironhorsebrewery.com/what-is-a-pilot-beer-anyway/ You just gotta love English!
October 21, 2022 at 12:46 pm
vivian cruise
1. Boat hop!
2. A Lighter Shade of Pale, Ale 😉
3. Beer On The Run
4. Beer Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
5. A Sixth Pack
6. Hop on Popster
7. Two-fer (24) on the Hudson: twofer is a Canadian expression: as in picking up a flat of 24 beer to take out to the cottage on a lake or to a piss up at a tailgate party, “Pick up a twofer, Joe, we’re going fishing!”
October 21, 2022 at 12:49 pm
tugster
Thx, vivian– I like these! You made me think of another: Route Beer Float!
October 21, 2022 at 1:01 pm
vivian cruise
RBF in the Sixth 🙂
Floatsome/Jetsome, eh?
October 21, 2022 at 1:03 pm
tugster
LOVE!!! that one. A barge moved by a jet boat?
October 21, 2022 at 1:31 pm
vivian cruise
Floatsome jettison others!
October 21, 2022 at 2:43 pm
tugster
Proof of concept feasibility is required, but of course intra-urban shipping of goods by water has been done elsewhere. A half decade ago I did some posts about Venice IT: https://tugster.wordpress.com/?s=port+of+venezia
October 22, 2022 at 4:30 am
agnes azzolino
well done report – text, pictures, message
thanks
October 22, 2022 at 5:31 am
tugster
Thank you, agnes. It was an important test run, imho….
October 22, 2022 at 8:33 am
Chris Roehrig
Will
Years ago Schaffer Brewing had a plant in Brooklyn that shipped beer by barge all over the harbor (somewhere I have a pic) including going along side a ship to offload. We used to hang on to the Schaffer plant pier and there was a steel ‘’window’’ that we would knock on and a worker would slide it open and we would hand him a stainless bucket kept aboard just for this purpose…the guy would fill the bucket from the vat of beer in the plant and we would give him a buck or two. Back on the tug we would dip coffee mugs in the bucket for our afternoon or evening libation. (Sometimes morning, tug men did not discriminate in those days)
October 22, 2022 at 8:53 am
tugster
Thx for that, Chris. You ever write these things down? You must have a great book in you. I’d be happy to ghost write it. And I’d love to see that photo. I’m always a bit skeptical of superlatives and phrases like “first time in xx years” but given the popularity of “waterfront [or near waterfront] bars and restaurants” everywhere, “beer piers” is a no brainer concept with transport from the pier to the “near waterfront” and inland bars …
October 22, 2022 at 1:19 pm
William Lafferty
Hauling fermented malt and hops by water has a long history where my mother was born and raised. I recommend visiting the Storehouse for the view of the Wicklows (where the brewery still obtains its water) and the libation served there, although not necessarily in that order.
October 22, 2022 at 1:30 pm
tugster
William– Fascinating new info for me. Gives me a second reason for making my way to the Guiness storehouse! Low bridges make the design similar to vessels on the Barge and Erie Canals.
December 31, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Rembert
Here, we are sometimes fascinated by the speed at which things develop on the other side of the ocean. For example, about how long it takes to find out who wanted to send whom to Washington. But above all about how quickly good ideas become reality there, that don’t even have a chance as dreams here. It would be really nice to hear again in a year or so, whether New York bars are supplied over the water.