The historical Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter - Part 1

Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.

Let us start a journey back in time. Back to the black and white films of history. The times have changed, but it is good to know what kind of things have changed and where are the roots of pilotage.

Look at Life Vol 01 Transport Pilot Aboard 1963
The story of Britain's pilotage services.

Video by Safehaven Marine / Frank Kowalski
Here’s a cool video of the latest Interceptor 48 pilot boat we’ve launched for the Gdynia Pilots in Poland. We captured some nice alongside ship footage during the sea trials and had a chance to test out our new drone ‘catch net’ on Thunder Child.

Hike Metal is excited to announce the launch a new vessel, here are the specs: Introducing the new HIKE Navigator! This 38' Pilot Boat has an impressive 13.3 ft beam. Powered by two Volvo Penta Diesel engines, this vessel can run at a max speed of 39 knots (45MPH, 72KMH) and has a 300 mile range. Hike Metal is a world Class custom boat builder offering unparalleled design of maritime engineering, production, and manufacturing of a variety of boats and ships for commercial, government, and...

Raw footage of a an offshore Pilot transfer.
More pictures and an occasional video can be found at
https://instagram.com/sea_weathered?igshid=3qbu808ioyqf

A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting.

This article was originally published on Baird Maritime (link below)
When a pilot is berthing a ship with the aid of tugs, it sometimes happens that the ship lands heavily and suffers minor damage. More commonly in my experience, it also happens that the crew discover a large dent for which they cannot account ...

Editor's note: The pilot boarding seems a bit improvised and unsafe to me, but that's certainly business as usual, isn't it?