Loadmaster & Marine Pilots

From home to work.

Most pilot embarkations and disembarkations around the world, are still carried out using a traditional pilot ladder, consisting of wooden steps supported and secured by side ropes.

The Pilots’ Association of the Bay and River Delaware have ordered another pilot boat from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation. It’s the pilots’ association’s fourth Chesapeake Class launch and eleventh pilot boat built by the Somerset, Mass., shipyard since 1957. Delivery of the new pilot boat is scheduled for 2024.

From our deck 12 cabin balcony, some footage of the pilot boat coming alongside Virgin Voyages' cruise ship Scarlet Lady in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. If you're expecting action and excitement then brace yourself for not quite that at all, but it is fairly impressive how close the pilot boat gets to the larger vessel, bouncing around on the waves. I did want to see the pilot leap from the ship to the boat but in truth got tired of waiting so if that's the bit...

The Varna Pilot Station in Bulgaria has chosen Seably, the global online marketplace for bespoke maritime learning, to become the first pilot station to use the digital platform for its training.

We’re paying homage to some of the most skilled sailors around…Port Pilots. Learn why you always want them behind the wheel when you’re pulling into port on this edition of Terms of Trade, the Port of Long Beach’s video glossary.

Despite clear regulations and regular maintenance requirements, safety often falls by the wayside, as the current example of a bulk carrier vividly demonstrates.

Video by Maksym Kunchev. Thank you!

It has been shown that a majority (51%) of pilot ladders is secured by means of D-shackles, when secured at intermediate length. Previous research (Evans, 2020) has proven that this method has only about 50% of the strength of the pilot ladder when secured at full length (“double ended ladder”), or by means of the “endless-sling” method.