How do marine pilots work? Example: Bringing a bulkcarrier alongside to „Hansaport“ in Hamburg. Here the tugboats „Prompt“, „Resolute“ and „Bulldog“ are involved. The master has to rely on the pilot. One reason is, that he can‘t know how to deal with these tugs. A maneuver like this is only safe, when the pilot has a lot of practical experience. A master who is doing a maneuver like this only about once or twice a month and each time with tugs he doesn’t know in areas he hasn’t been to...
They look like toy boats, but they serve a serious purpose. An outsider at this facility near Grenoble, France, may see grown men riding arounda lake in miniature ships. But these are pilots of the world's largest ships, and they're practicing navigation with meticulously engineered 1:25 scale models of real cruisers, tankers, and containerships. Port Revel Shiphandling Training Centre, in operation since 1967, has had more than 6,000 maritime pilots and merchant ship officers from all over...
We we’re out on sea trials with the two newly launched Interceptor 48 pilot boats when the Port of Cork pilot boat ‘Failte’ passed by to undertake a pilot transfer from an outbound ship. It was a nice opportunity to capture some cool video of the action as the boats ran alongside before the ship turned to create a lee for the pilot to disembark. Although the seas weren’t very big, it was blowing hard at the time with gusts of over 50kts recorded at Roches PT lighthouse as we passed.
