The NZMPA Good Practice Guide for Pilots 2021

The New Zealand Maritime Pilots Association (NZMPA) mobile App has just been released for Android devices.

The App is primarily an information-sharing tool to help improve communications and enhance maritime safety.

The next step for NZMPA is to issue a set of regulator-endorsed guidance notes. The first version will focus on accommodation ladders used in conjunction with pilot ladders.

Fathom Safety was established as a not for profit organisation dedicated to improving maritime pilot transfer safety. Here is a guide to pilot ladder rigging. We hope you like it!

The collision of 3 ships, an unfortunate event that highlighted the importance of human factors on accident causation,

Mission ended well and disembarked on 13/12/2021. She didn't. Weekes later she caught major fire and sank South of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately, the crew abandoned the ship and no casualties were reported.

Editors note: There was a reason why this idea of a kind of ladder-elevator did not become accepted!

Going down the accommodation ladder with neither lifevest nor safety line must have been based on similar, past, successful operations, which may have never been challenged on board. This ‘slippage’ in safety is a pernicious and common phenomenon.

It has been exactly one year ago that a pilot from Sandy Hook (New York), Dennis Sherwood, died in the line of duty while attempting to board the container vessel Maersk Kensington.
What has happened since then? Has safety been improved for the pilots?

Manoeuvring large ships at close quarters and on shallow water is one of the most difficult aspects of shiphandling because of the complex hydraulic interactions depending on the ships' speeds, on the water depth and on lateral restrictions like in canals. Training is conducted both on meeting and on overtaking ships in shallow waters. This video shows how overtaking in a canal should be conducted: come in close to the stern and then move away from the bow that will be sucked towards your...

Crude Oil Tanker British Robin passing St Anns Head on a rather windy day in Pembrokeshire.