By Greg Knight, News of the North
The 2025 U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tender Round-Up Olympics was held in Juneau Wednesday, August 20 at the Coast Guard Station in downtown.
The BTR Olympics is an annual event that gives participants an opportunity to receive specialized training, discuss ways of enhancing effectiveness, and test the seamanship skills that enable crews to excel at Aids to Navigation missions in the Arctic.
Events included the chain pull, line toss, boom spot, tug-o-war, and heat-and-beat events.
Crew members from the vessels Kukui, Cypress, Fir, Aspen, Anthony Petite, and Elderberry took part.
Lieutenant Megan Grimes is the Coast Guard’s spokesperson for the event in Juneau. Aboard the Kukui, she told News of the North about the value events like the Olympics have in day-to-day operations in Alaska.
“The Olympics are very important because it’s essentially a skills competition,” Lt. Grimes said. “These are skills that the units employ underway during normal operations, and it’s a way to showcase the that proficiency, and with some friendly competition, rile each other up, see who does it best, and also learn from each other and learn from each other’s best practices.”
Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Shane Wood of the Cutter Cypress said unit cohesion among Alaskan units grows thanks to events like this one.
“The big thing that we do here is the networking, everybody comes together in one centralized area, which is uncommon,” BM2 Wood said. “So, unit to unit, we can help each other, as well as [help] within our own unit. We learn how to work together, through these events and the trainings we attend.”
The heat-and-beat competition, which involves heating a shackle pin with a torch until it’s glowing orange, and then using sledgehammers to drive the pin into place and secure a new chain link for a buoy, featured Rear Admiral Bob Little and Ensign Camden Martin on a team.
BM2 Wood said is was great to see a senior officer like Admiral Little, who is commander of the Coast Guard Arctic District, take part in the event.
“You get to see their appreciation for what we do, and the lower ranks, they can see that they they actually care about the job and what we do,” Wood added. “It’s super cool to see them out here doing heat and beats and doing the work.”
Crews aboard Coast Guard buoy tenders in Alaska service more than 1,300 navigational aids along 33,000 miles of coastline, as well as conduct search and rescue, environmental protection and law enforcement missions.