Coast Guard's $1.64 million Sitka hoist agreement starts with a $419,840 order

Benjamin Lawrie of Sitka will be paid $419,840 over the next year to put boats under Coast Guard helicopters while crews practice lifting people off the water. The order was signed Aug. 27 and starts Tuesday. It is a call against a five-year agreement the Coast Guard set up with him in March, worth up to $1.64 million through March 2031.

The work is described as providing and operating a vessel or vessels in support of helicopter hoisting operations in accordance with a statement of work, with a performance period running Sept. 1, 2026 through Aug. 31, 2027. The Coast Guard competed it as a total small business set-aside under simplified acquisition procedures and received one offer.

In a hoist, a helicopter holds a hover while a swimmer or basket goes down a cable to a vessel or to the water. Training it requires a surface platform.

In a sources-sought notice issued Aug. 7, 2025, the Coast Guard Operational Logistics Command in Norfolk, Virginia, described a contractor responsible for "management and supervision of vessel operations," personnel, materials, fuel, and "ensuring that all services meet the requirements for helicopter hoisting operations."

That notice covered Sitka alongside Kodiak, Astoria, Clearwater and nine other locations, and anticipated a one-year base period plus four one-year options across those sites, up to five years total. The Sitka agreement runs April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2031, which is that structure.

The same statement of work runs at other stations. The Coast Guard is paying B & B's Aloha LLC $301,440 over ten months, and paid Management Marine Service $546,800 for a year of the work at Atlantic City. The award record does not describe Lawrie's vessels. Air Station Sitka flies MH-60 Jayhawks.