The Yard

On waterways in Alaska, Oregon and New Jersey, deadline-driven shipyards and scrappy salvage operations build, repair and rescue boats. It’s a high stakes business and time in the yard means boat owners are spending big money and not making any. Using ingenuity and craft, shipwrights do whatever it takes to get boats back on the water and back in business.

In shipyards around the country, the job of building and maintaining the nation’s fleet of fishing and work vessels is fraught with danger. At Superior Marine in southern Alaska an accident sets a vessel ablaze. The flames turn its insides into a charred mess that Don Sorric and his crew must go into overdrive to fix. At Diversified Marine, a dry-docking mishap threatens to capsize a tugboat.

At Superior Marine, when an uninvited boat arrives needing work, Don Sorric brings on a new hire to get the job done. Don’s patience is tested and the axe falls in record time. At Diversified Marine, new homeowner Chris Waters is torn between family demands and his job. At Yank Marine, an authentic paddle wheel boat needs an upgrade and yard owner John Yank begins to look for a successor.

Shamrock Salvage and Towing’s crew finds themselves immersed in a tricky situation, figuring out how to raise a rusted old barge from the shallows before someone gets hurt. At Diversified Marine, the state-of-the-art Z-Drive Shaft installation on the tugboat Lela Franco is stalled because expertise is in short supply. At Superior Marine, tensions are mounting to get boats back into the water. Don Sorric is calling the shots and ready to explode.

Yank Marine in New Jersey is in a race to get a deep-sea fishing boat ready to start its season, including a Coast Guard inspection. At Diversified Marine in Portland, Oregon, a tugboat needs to have electrical wiring run throughout its pilothouse. Superior Marine in Wrangell, Alaska, is assailed by a storm, and owner Don Sorric leads the charge to save the boats from gale force winds.

Shamrock Salvage and Towing in New Jersey rescues a sinking houseboat along with the occupants - one man and his two dogs. Diversified Marine in Portland, Oregon, has two boat launches to oversee - one successful and one not exactly on point. At Superior Marine in Wrangell, Alaska, a rookie tackles a complicated plumbing job that can make or break his career.