A splashing return on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

BILL BULEY | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 1 month AGO

Zach Johnson, general manager with StanCraft Marine Construction, records the launching of a renovated barge back to Lake Coeur d'Alene at Finney Boat Works on Wednesday.
BILL BULEY/Press

Zach Johnson, general manager of StanCraft Marine Construction, records their renovated barge returning to the water on Wednesday.

Fred Finney of Finney Boat Works walks on the dock to inspect the barge as it returns to North Idaho waters on Wednesday.

Walle, a StanCraft Marine Construction tug, noses up to a barge on Wednesday on the Spokane River at Finney Boat Works.

The StanCraft Marine Construction tug waits on the dock at Finney Boat Works on Wednesday.

A barge said to be the largest on Lake Coeur d’Alene for the past five decades returned to the water Wednesday following a half-year, million-dollar makeover.

“It's beautiful. Look how nice it’s floating,” said Fred Finney, owner of Finney Boat Works, which handled the restoration project.

The roughly 200,000-pound barge, about 100 feet long by 36 feet wide, will reclaim its role as a workhorse on the lake.

“It’s going to do a lot of work for them,” Finney said.

Zach Johnson, general manager of StanCraft Marine Construction, was pleased as he recorded the minutes of the barge slowly being rolled downhill and into the Spokane River on what he called "launch day."

“It’s awesome,” he said. “Not many people get to see that.”

The barge and other assets came to StanCraft Companies when it purchased North Idaho Maritime, established in 1918, in November 2022.

“Our goal is to continue to advance current service, introduce new products and industry advancements, while expanding on environmentally friendly solutions," owner Robb Bloem said at the time.

Aaron Goodrich, Finney Boat Works shop foreman, said the barge was in rough shape when they brought it ashore last fall. It took several days to drain about 50,000 pounds of water and gunk from the hull.

They repaired, replaced, welded, sanded, painted, updated and upgraded the barge. They put in new hatches, braces, cleats and decking.

The word “Buffalo” on the side of the barge pays tribute to the University of Colorado, Bloem's alma mater.

“The bow had a lot of wear and tear on the front, so we armor-plated it," Goodrich said.

And now?

“It’s like a brand-new barge,” he said. “Any issue there was addressed.”

He took pride in the barge's long history on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

“A lot of hands have touched it,” Goodrich said.

The project brought together two of the area’s longtime water-related businesses, Finney Boat Works, led by Fred Finney, and StanCraft, led by Robb Bloem.

StanCraft Wooden Boat Company was founded in 1933 at Flathead Lake in Lakeside, Mont., by Amy Bloem’s grandfather, W.H. “Billy” Young, and his son, Stanley C. Young. Operations began in Hayden in 2003, when Robb and wife Amy moved back to Idaho after being away for 12 years. It expanded in 2018 with StanCraft Jet Center at the Coeur d’Alene Airport.

A tug will pull the barge to Wolf Lodge Bay, where a 100-ton crane will be added. Johnson said it will be the largest barge on the lake, with the largest crane, too.

The renovated barge will be central to StanCraft Marine Construction’s operations, which include other, smaller barges. Its crane and barge services include pile driving, anchor setting, bank stabilization, equipment and material transportation, recovery and dredging.

“It's the main infrastructure of the barge business," Johnson said.

A few pinhole leaks were found during the inspection as the barge floated on a sunny Wednesday morning, which isn't unusual with a project of this scope, so Finney said it would be pulled back to land for a few repairs that should take about a day.

“We want it to be bone dry,” he said.

The $1 million renovation was well worth it, Johnson said.

"We're putting history back on to the lake,” he said.