Digitalisation of the Oceans Virtual Summit

The following short clip appeared on TikTok recently, showing a non compliant trapdoor arrangement, and a pilot using it. From this short video, the dangers of this kind of arrangement are very clear.

The article was written by Allen Garfinkle, Executive Director – Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun

The practice is essential to the safety of waterway traffic, as it avoids or minimizes accidents that can cost the lives of people, cause damage to the environment and enormous material losses.
The structure is fully maintained by the practicing companies themselves, without the contribution of any public resource, related to the maintenance of the speedboats, the 24-hour operation of their Operations Centers, the training of their employees, the acquisition and maintenance of communication,...

In fact, the pivot point that we “see” is a trick of the eye, it looks like the ship is rotating about this point but in fact it is elsewhere, a point that you cannot see.

Each pilot association and each country can get a good overview of how other colleagues approach safety.
Ship crews can see which rules apply in which country.
In any case, this list from IMPA is worth looking through and reading.

North River Boats (Pilot Boat)

Here’s a nice video of the ‘Independent Vision’ having her pilot embarked offshore by the Cork pilot boat ‘Failte’ an Interceptor 48 before she enters Cork Harbour. We also undertook some alongside handling trials at the same time with ‘San Cibrao’ before she is shipped to Spain. Sure was interesting trying to land the drone back on the boat in the 40kt winds offshore!