Pilotboarding by crane

To minimize the risk of a vessel allision with a terminal gantry crane, the American Harbor and Docking Pilots Association recommends that all terminal operators with gantry cranes adopt the following Best Practices.

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and other individual MOB devices have been available for some years now and have evolved to incorporate a variety of different alerting methods and combinations. However, usage of these additional enhancements within UK Pilotage is still in its infancy.

Like many seafarers I have long been a keen follower of The Nautical Institute’s MARS programme, and along with many other members I listened to the recent webinar on that topic. One theme which was repeated more than once was that it is better to learn from someone else’s misfortune rather than have it happen to you. Having personally been involved in two near misses resulting from unsafe pilot transfer arrangements in a relatively short space of time, I asked how experiences and knowledge specifically about pilot ladder safety could best be promulgated to avoid repeating common accidents or near misses.

Brief footage of a maritime pilot disembarking the Disney Magic and boarding his pilot boat as we left Nassau in January 2022.

Columbia River Bar pilot transfer using helicopter from Articulated Tug and Barge Island Monarch / Island Trader, April 29, 2021 near Astoria, Oregon, USA.

Some words on cruise ships and their compliance with SOLAS ch.V reg 23, IMO A.1045(27)? At the start of 2020 a pandemic we haven’t seen before in hundreds of years has struck the world, putting economies to a halt and had a devastating effect on the beautiful cruise business.

RightShip continues its webinar series on pilot ladder arrangements. On September 18th, they´re asking two marine pilots to share their first-hand perspectives on pilot ladder arrangement best practices.

Supmar Marine Pilot Boat 12m GRP
Venha navegar conosco.

SAMMON Lecturing Video describing
"Pivot Point Demonstration"
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SAMMON - the IDEAL tool to identify manoeuvring capabilities of a ship - SAMMON - learning the EFFECTIVE way