The Boats That Built Britain - The Pilot Cutter - Part 2

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.

On September 6th, 2023 the ONE INTEGRITY made her maiden call to rotterdam. With a length of 400m, 61,5 meters beam and a drift of 16,5 meters, she is one of the largest containerschips afloat today. Assisted by KRVE boatmen class of 2023 and three Boluda tugs, as well as an excellent ship’s crew, the inbound voyage was a real pleasure.

Pilot off an outbound container ship, carrying empty containers out from the Port of Oakland. Working hard to repair the supply chain!
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LEIGH ANN MORAN - Towing Vessel and the YELLOW ROSE - Pilot Vessel

This is a video I had captured off U.S Coast from a merchant vessel as the Pilot was transferred from our Ship to Shore via Helicopter.
All recordings were done using N8 (unbelievable clarity!)

The first of three Watercat 160 Pilot was delivered to the Finnish Finnpilot Pilotage Ltd. in spring 2022. This PILOT boat has a self-righting ability as well as the ability to sail in surface ice of up to five centimetres thick. It can also be operated in deeper offshore waters to accommodate transfers of pilots to deeper-draught ships. The Watercat 160 Pilot can operate even in more restrictive inner harbour waters. The bow has D-type rubber fendering while the hull sides are equipped...

Poseidon on the model boat pond in Vallensbæk, Denmark.
Poseidon is a pilot boat based on a kit but modified to match the real pilot boat "Poseidon". The entire super structure is scratch built with very detailed interior that this video doesn't do justice. The real boat is based in Hornbæk, Denmark. The builder has made many visits to this boat to get all the details right.
Builder and owner: Ole Bødker
Link to Vallensbæk model boat club (Danish): http://www.vallensbaekmodelskibsklub.dk