Sanmar Shipyards has signed six vessel contracts together totalling US$33.46 million with the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) in Pakistan for four high-performance state-of-the-art tugboats and two pilot boats. The tugs are scheduled to be delivered in 12 months and the pilot boats in 10.
A loaded bulk carrier is a bit tricky to handle, do to all that mass: de require a lot of power in order to be stopped. This is why this maneuver are normally slower. Same applies to tankers.
Earlier this month, Snow & Company of Seattle, Wash., handed off Savannah, the first of two new 64-foot aluminum pilot boats to the Savannah Pilots Association.
by Iiro Törmä (abridged) - published on 15 October 2026
A Finnish research project has concluded that remote pilotage can be built today with components already on the market. Its most difficult problems turned out to be cognitive load, communication discipline and trust.