Compilation clip highlighting some of the diverse custom boats Dongara Marine has built in recent years.

Spotted some Pilot Boats in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand and Melbourne & Fremantle Australia (Port codes: Auckland:NZ AKL ; Melbourne:AU MEL ; Fremantle:AU FRE).

Join us for a full exterior walkaround of the Norwegian pilot boat LOS 107 while she’s underway — bow to stern, wheelhouse to fenders. Real-time footage of a working pilot/launch at sea.

We’re paying homage to some of the most skilled sailors around…Port Pilots. Learn why you always want them behind the wheel when you’re pulling into port on this edition of Terms of Trade, the Port of Long Beach’s video glossary.

The term pilot is defined as, “a person who is qualified and usually licensed to conduct a ship into and out of a port or in specified waters.” The Merchant Shipping Act 1894 states that, “a pilot is any person not belonging to a ship who has the conduct thereof.”

River Clyde inbound to Rothesay Dock (Clydebank) Fuel Berth
~hours of darkness~
BRO DELIVERER (146m x 22m)
08 July 2020

A more unique angle regarding freighter departures; I was able to film the routine disembarking of one of our local ship captains and officers after piloting Solina out of the harbor. This is a required procedure, as per US Maritime Laws, all international freighters must be piloted in and out of a US harbor by a US Captain. Here we have out local pilot vessel Sea Bear running up alongside the Solina to allow the two officers to depart the freighter before she heads out across Lake Superior

This article was first published back in September 2021: Pilotage operations require close interaction between human and machines. This complex sociotechnical system is necessary to safely and efficiently maneuver a vessel in constrained waters.

"Analysis of reports indicates that pilot ladders (Pilot Transfer Arrangements, or PTAs) and
intentional deviations from safety procedures remain the main causes of near misses..."