PILOT

Compilation video of the best rough weather sea trial moments from 2009-2013 by Safehaven Marine

Efforts to free the giant container ship are continuing after the 400m-long vessel became stuck in the Suez canal. Local authorities attempted to dislodge the 220,000 ton vessel from the banks of the canal using tug boats, but the megaship remains stuck more than one day after it ran aground.

A new £1.35 million pilot vessel, Stainsby, was added to the Pilot Boat fleet last year. The vessel was built in Wales by Holyhead Marine Services, an experienced builder of pilot boats that delivered Teesport the similar Saltholme in 2014. The 16.5 metre boat is powered by twin Scania DI16 diesels, producing 525BHP @ 1800RPM. Transmission is via Twin Disc “Quickshift” MGX-5136SC Gearboxes.

The PLA welcomes Sathar Sulaiman and James Kitney as they join as Trainee Marine Pilots.

Here’s a nice video of the recent sea trials with ‘South Esk’, a new Interceptor 48 pilot boat for the Montrose Port Authority in Scotland. It was fairly rough during our sea trial days with a fair bit of wind, and although it was touch and go flying the drone, we managed to capture some wonderful video of her and Ederra 7 at the entrance to Cork Harbour in a gale.

Correct method of rigging pilot ladder explained.
As explained, a large number of reports related to the use of pilot ladders which are too long relative to the vessel’s draughts. As a result, the excessively long ladders require shortening up before being deployed for boarding pilots. In these cases, ship crew shortens the pilot ladders, using D-shackles to choke the side ropes at the required height along the ladder’s length. In this method, the D-shackle is first secured to a hard point...

Drydocking or undocking is always a difficult task, particularly with a “dead” vessel (no power/propulsion) and the wind blowing on the ship's side.

The ETA Nautical Technical Committee has worked together with the European Maritime Pilots Association in order to define a series of recommendations for tugboat captains, pilots and harbour masters which will help them optimise the energy efficiency on the tugs and the assisted vessels during harbour towage operations. These recommendations are based on 3 main principles: Planning, Cooperation and Communication.