Coast Guard sail drones are working Lake Huron off Port Huron through Nov. 15, and boaters are asked to stay 500 meters away

PORT HURON — Boaters heading out on Lake Huron north of Port Huron this fall may run into something new: an orange-and-gray sailboat with no one aboard, working for the U.S. Coast Guard.

A Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners says Saildrone Inc. is running up to four uncrewed surface vehicles, called Saildrone Voyagers, between Port Huron and Pointe aux Barques at the tip of the Thumb. The notice is in effect from Sept. 15 through Nov. 15 and asks mariners to stay more than 500 meters, or about a third of a mile, away.

What to look for

The notice describes each boat as 10 meters long and 6.4 meters tall, or about 33 by 21 feet, painted gray and orange, marked “SAILDRONE” and topped by a tricolor light on its wing. Questions go to Saildrone Mission Control at 510-722-6070, the notice says.

The Coast Guard’s Great Lakes District, based in Cleveland, announced the program in May. It said the boats run mainly on hybrid-electric power, with wind assist from the sail and solar panels charging the batteries, and carry radar, cameras and collision-avoidance artificial intelligence. Human operators watch them around the clock and can take control at any time, the district said.

The Coast Guard said the drones will help it “track illicit activity, and keep our maritime borders safe,” gather weather data for emergency planning and spot boats in distress. It called the sensors “strictly focused on maritime domain awareness” and said the drones add to, not replace, its crews. The district’s release said the boats would work from May to October; the Lake Huron notice runs to mid-November, and CBC reported that the boats are pulled from the water once ice forms.

A drone in the St. Clair River

Across the river, Sarnia, Ont., Mayor Mike Bradley told CBC Radio he spotted one of the vessels in the St. Clair River and thought it looked “like something from Mars.” He said Canadian mayors were never told. “We have thousands of boaters on the river St. Clair, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and now they’re going to be photographed and watched,” Bradley said.

A Coast Guard officer told CBC Windsor in June that the boats are “just out there for awareness,” that staff monitor the cameras around the clock and that the footage isn’t recorded.

Saildrone owns and operates the boats under a $15.5 million Coast Guard contract funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill, CBC reported. The company’s president, John Mustin, said the fleet will help the Coast Guard spot “threats in real time” and enable “focused, high-impact interdiction.”

For Michigan boaters and anglers, the practical advice is simple: if you see one, give it room, and report anything that looks like a problem to the Coast Guard on VHF channel 16.

Sources:
U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District, “Coast Guard Great Lakes District set to use autonomous sail drones,” May 4, 2026, via DVIDS (mission, propulsion, sensors, human monitoring, May–October season), https://www.dvidshub.net/news/564327/coast-guard-great-lakes-district-set-use-autonomous-sail-drones
U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District Local Notice to Mariners 40/2026, “Port Huron to Pte aux Barques – Lake Huron, Autonomous Vessel Operations,” as republished by SeaLagom (up to four Voyagers, size, markings, 500-meter request, Sept. 15–Nov. 15), https://www.sealagom.com/coastal/176/message/40070/lnm09-db88c3-port-huron-to-pte-aux-barques-lake/
CBC Radio, Sheena Goodyear, “The U.S. put surveillance drones in the Great Lakes, and this border town mayor isn’t happy,” Oct. 26, 2026 (Bradley quotes, Coast Guard statements to CBC Windsor, contract, Mustin quote, ice-out), https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/sarnia-mayor-great-lakes-drones-9.7396779
MLive, “Wind-powered surveillance drones headed for the Great Lakes,” May 2026 (33-foot Voyager model), https://www.mlive.com/environment/2026/05/wind-powered-surveillance-drones-headed-for-the-great-lakes.html
Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Saildrone in 2019 NOAA Arctic mission,” Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saildrone_in_2019_NOAA_Arctic_mission.jpg

Port Huron

Tags: Port Huron · U.S. Coast Guard · Saildrone · Lake Huron · St. Clair River · Border security · Boating