There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.

During the transit time on the pilot launch between the shore and the vessel, marine pilots will spend at least a portion of that time carrying out (either consciously or subconsciously) a risk assessment of the forthcoming operation.

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.

Harbor Pilot Nasir Khan from Pakistan has sent his own checklist to Marine-Pilots.com - we share this list for our readers and look forward to an interesting discussion.

Here we board the container ship President Kennedy, inbound for the San Francisco Bay.
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Pilot Boat Marseille France port

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.

Embarque e desembarque de pilotos no Porto de Leixões

Recently Capt. Troy Evans did a research into the breaking strength of various securing methods. To quantify the problem of unsafe practices, now is time to have a survey into the number of the various securing methods used worldwide.

Filmed pilotboat Lesath outbound for her new pickup/drop off ..
These brave man now to bring the ships safe in Port of Rotterdam.
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