Sustainability in pilot and embarking ladders - PTR Holland (c)

"Rope Ladders" by PTR Holland

PTR Holland® are aware that certain parties have copied and supply, low-quality imitations of our rope ladders through several ship-chandlers in Rotterdam, Houston, Greece and in Turkey.

Statement von Joris J. Stuip, Senior Vice President PTR Holland and a comment by Frank Diegel, CEO & Founder of Marine-Pilots.com

A pilot ladder is a highly specialized form of rope ladder, typically used on board cargo vessels for the purposes of embarking and disembarking pilots.

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.

Before you, you see my third article on pilot boarding arrangements. After my two previous articles ‘1000 ways to secure a pilot ladder’ and ‘1000 ladders around’, I have received a lot of feedback and also questions to get deeper into the matter of combinations and embarkation platforms.

Hardest part of getting on board of a ship is climbing up on a maximum height of pilot ladder as 9m. Vessel on that video is a 27kdwt bulk carrier in ballast condition bound for İstanbul strait northbound passage.

The video was recorded by Marine Pilot J. von Krahn (Elbe Pilot, Germany) on 08.10.2018 and is the original video with his permission.
The video is taken from the bulk carrier SEA MOON.

We take a look at some of the dangerous ladder arrangements provided by ships when attempting to take maritime pilots on board. Our message is simple: if you are offered an unsafe or non-compliant ladder, do not board!