Margy News

Sparks are flying on the bulkhead and engine room of the $3.8 million, 85-foot Miss Margy, the newest addition to the Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry fleet, at Moran Iron Works. Bill Shepler, CEO of Shepler’s, and Tom Moran, CEO and founder of Moran Iron Works, announced the project last month, when pre-production work started. The all-aluminum ferry – named after Shepler’s mother – is scheduled to carry its first passengers in July 2015. It will include an air-conditioned cabin…

A $3.8 million ferry for Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry will soon be under construction at Moran Iron Works in Onaway, Michigan. The 85-foot, all-aluminum ferry—to be christened Miss Margy—is scheduled to carry its first passengers in July 2015. The keel will be laid in mid-January and the hull completed over the next four months. The ferry will then be launched through Moran’s Port Calcite Collaborative, a deepwater port in Rogers City, Michigan and transported to Shepler’s facility in Mackinaw City, where seating will be installed and painting done. The 281-passenger ferry, Shepler’s largest, will have a top speed of about 40 mph. Shepler’s currently has a fleet of five passenger ferries and one cargo vessel. Miss Margy will be a K Class passenger vessel built in accordance with U.S.