Liverpool Pilot Boat Returning to Liverpool

Pilot boats Petrel, Kittiwake and Razorbill officially named in the Albert Dock, Liverpool back in April 2018. Each boat was officially named. Afterwards i was allowed onboard to have a sneak peak at Petrel, which a short video is included at the end of this video.

All working vessels on the River Mersey gathered in front of the Three Graces – Liver Building, Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building. The formation included pilot launch boats, RNLI Lifeboats, river tugs, Mersey Ferries and the Disney Magic cruise liner. They all blew their whistles in tribute to The Sovereign, who passed away last week. River tugs will perform Fleur De Lis – spraying water from their fire cannons. Vessels currently within Liverpool and Wirral dock systems,...

River Mersey Pilot Boat going slowly inbound on the river before turning and heading northbound again.

The Port of Waterford is to invest almost €1m in a new pilot boat to be named Port Láirge, which as Irish for Waterford is a name long associated with a steam-powered dredger that served Waterford for more than 70 years until the 1980s.

Fremantle Ports in Western Australia has awarded local boatbuilder Dongara Marine a contract for the construction of two new pilot boats.

The Pacific Pilotage Authority of Canada (PPA) has taken delivery of a new aluminium pilot boat from Ocean Pacific Marine of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Dublin Port Company has officially christened its new Pilot Boat, DPC Tolka, in a short ceremony held at Poolbeg Yacht Club. The state-of-the art vessel arrived in Dublin Port in December.

Safehaven Marine have just launched a new pilot vessel for Svitzer. ‘Svitzer Oued Martil’ is a new 15m Interceptor 48 Pilot for pilotage operations in Tangier,Morocco and is the third pilot boat we have supplied to Svitzer in Tangier, with the first and second pilot 48’s working successfully the past 3 years and represents Safehaven’s 47th pilot vessel delivered Worldwide.

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.

It has been exactly one year ago that a pilot from Sandy Hook (New York), Dennis Sherwood, died in the line of duty while attempting to board the container vessel Maersk Kensington.
What has happened since then? Has safety been improved for the pilots?