Harbour Master

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 term pilot is defined as, “a person who is qualified and usually licensed to conduct a ship into and out of a port or in specified waters.” The Merchant Shipping Act 1894 states that, “a pilot is any person not belonging to a ship who has the conduct thereof.”

Opening the building to unveil the Pilotboat "Columbia". Preparing for launchday.

The debate is whether highly skilled pilots could have successfully overcome the recent Boeing 737 MAX computer deficiencies. Will this question eventually be relevant to harbor pilot skills?

With a long tradition in building high performance vessels using composite material Hart Marine now produces some of the finest pilot boats available. European Design. Australian built. hartmarine.com.au

The last month Jan Tiedemann from Alphaliner (BRS) in Hamburg has reported, that DNV GL has awarded Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding (group) Co., Ltd. an approval in principle for the design of an LNG-powered 25,000 TEU container vessel. Based upon the reported vessel dimensions, he reckons that the ship could actually have a capacity closer to 26,000 TEU.

Estuary Services crew Andrew Howland (coxswain) and Wayne Goldfinch (deckhand) transferring PLA pilot, Stephen Ford on an approx. eight-mile trip from Ramsgate to board the tanker Songa Breeze at the NE Goodwin pilot boarding ‘diamond’. Departing at 0955 on 20 April 2020, they steered an easterly course to reach the ship by 1030. Weather: wind North Easterly F6, sea state moderate to rough, visibility 10 nautical miles. Footage: ESL Edit: Theo Albanis, Port of London Authority Music:...

Took this in 2021. The pilot boat is helping to navigate through the Port of Barcelona.

For days, the container freighter "Ever Given" had blocked the Suez Canal. Now Egypt and the shipping company are apparently arguing about compensation. For safety's sake, the canal authorities had the ship chained up.

Goodchild ORC 171 Pilot Boat "Ouse" recently delivered to Associated British Ports (Humber)