Introduction to Pilotage

#Anchor #shipanchor #windlass Anchoring is one of the very frequent operations onboard ships. A number of variables and external factors influence the duration and location of an anchoring operation. While the type of seabed is of utmost importance during anchoring, soft muddy grounds or clay bottoms are best preferred. It should be taken care that the anchoring bottom is free of power lines, submarine cables, pipelines or rocks. Various methods on anchoring include consideration of...

The Maritime Pilots Institute is the premier training facility for River Pilots employing a mix of virtual and real world facilities. Located in Covington Louisiana, we are 45 minutes from downtown New Orleans while offering the safety and amenities of small town life.
The training presents a balance between simulated locations with a variety of environmental conditions and manned scale models of cargo ships in a series of lakes with docking and currents and live factors such as wind and...

How to get information for wind & current limits to be potentially encountered by thrusters – or current? - this will be described in this movie:
- Measure Drift speed, due to beam wind with no propulsion;
- Measure drift speed using full thrusters
- Estimate wind & current limits to be potentially encountered by thrusters – or current...
- Finally there is a simple formula as Rule of Thumb: the transverse drift speed is about 7-8% of wind speed!

A handy and simple tool to determine in a minimum time what is really needed as tug assistance, is the Bollard Pull Calculator which calculates in an approximate way the total required tug power for ships in various conditions of wind and current. This tool can be loaded as an app on the smart phone.

Manoeuvring large ships at close quarters and on shallow water is one of the most difficult aspects of shiphandling because of the complex hydraulic interactions depending on the ships' speeds, on the water depth and on lateral restrictions like in canals. Training is conducted both on meeting and on overtaking ships in shallow waters. This video shows how overtaking in a canal should be conducted: come in close to the stern and then move away from the bow that will be sucked towards your...

On 9 February 2019, near the Port of Hamburg, the EVER GIVEN struck the 25-metre HADAG ferry Finkenwerder, moored at the Blankenese jetty, and severely damaged it. Two minutes after the collision, a ban was imposed on sailing on the Elbe due to strong winds.

The Port of Cork company has ordered a new pilot vessel from boat builders, Safehaven Marine based in Youghal.

In July 2021 DACOMA launched a new EU project: AMCOSTAR. Amcostar is a Eurostars/Eureka Network funded Eurostars project on Adaptive Control of Airkeel vessel stabilizer systems. The consortium partners, DACOMA ApS in Svendborg (DK), Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg (DK), and Automasjon & Data AS in Stavanger (NOR) and Tuco Marine ApS - ProZero Workboats (DK) in Faaborg, will optimize, test, and demonstrate an adaptively controlled Airkeel stabilizer on a...

A Virginia Pilot Association harbor pilot disembarks the U.S. flag containership Maersk Atlanta before the ship sails north along the U.S. East Coast.
Featured in this video is the Virginia Pilots' brand new pilot boat, Hampton Roads.