Study on European maritime pilots: Working unusual hours and its relationship to job satisfaction

Already published for the first time in September 2020: Maritime piloting operations involve on-call work schedules that may lead to sleep loss and circadian misalignment. The study documented pilot work scheduling practices.

Case Study: A study conducted for Fremantle Ports on vessel interacting within the harbour.

Maritime pilots work in an irregular deployment system (rotation system) with unpredictable work assignments under high levels of physical and mental stress. Fatigue or chronic diseases, e.g. coronary heart disease, peptic ulcers or gastritis can occur as a consequence.

At the A&R shipyard in Germany, the successful principle of SWATH boats was further developed in 2013: The SWASH principle allows sea-going, smaller and more economical boats.

Over the past few years a number of pilot transfer accidents have occurred resulting from total failure of the side ropes, one school of thought is that the methods of securing a pilot ladder is a factor in such occurrences.

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 can easily fail.
More information: http://www.portrevel.com/3781-shiphan...

Another good explaining video from Knud Benedict, ISSIMS

Finland's first remote pilotage of a cargo ship will take place at the beginning of 2022. The first remote pilotage permits may be issued in 2025.

Video by Safehaven Marine / Frank Kowalski
Here’s a cool video of the latest Interceptor 48 pilot boat we’ve launched for the Gdynia Pilots in Poland. We captured some nice alongside ship footage during the sea trials and had a chance to test out our new drone ‘catch net’ on Thunder Child.

This article was already published on 05.01.2022: This study sample consists of a group of healthy middle-aged maritime pilots (n=20), who have been exposed to highly irregular work schedules for more than 15 years.