There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.

During the transit time on the pilot launch between the shore and the vessel, marine pilots will spend at least a portion of that time carrying out (either consciously or subconsciously) a risk assessment of the forthcoming operation.

Over the past few years a number of pilot transfer accidents have occurred resulting from total failure of the side ropes, one school of thought is that the methods of securing a pilot ladder is a factor in such occurrences.

In this movie the efficiency of two different pod operation strategies is compared: With azimuth propeller ships the Pods can be used in two ways to control the speed, e.g. for speed reduction: 1. by adjusting the engine orders, e.g. by reducing the RPMs to get lower speed - this means to drive the ship in the same conventional way as for twin screw vessels, 2. by turning both pods either in- or outward (TOE-IN or TOE-OUT) to reduce the forward thrust and therefore reducing the speed – the...

An article by Arie Palmers highlights his collaboration with Multraship to develop a solution aimed at enhancing the safety of pilot boarding on harbor tugs, ultimately reducing delays.

“Marine Pilotage – The Arabic book" by Ahmed Sati, Marine Pilot at P&O Maritime, is the first of its kind in Arabic language and specifically concerned with maritime pilotage, it is a reference book and introduction to the basics of the Marine Pilot's work for Arabic readers who are willing to take the challenge and join the force of Pilotage and to act as a refresher to the experienced Pilots who are practicing Pilotage in local or foreign organizations.

Understanding the fundamentals of the pivot point is highly required for understanding the alteration of the courses. Pivot point is an imaginary point on the vessel which turns on a circular path on the perimeter of vessel’s turning circle when the vessel makes a turn. The knowledge about the position of the pivot point in a manoeuvring situation provides the ship handler with the information on the geometry of motion of the ship.

Another very good explanatory video by Knud Benedict. Absolutely worth seeing.
Yaw Stability is an important element of Ships Manoeuvrability - both for course keeping and turning ability. This first video in a series explains the Basic Principles of stability in steady state equilibrium conditions and the forces / moments involved

Women’s rights and gender equality are taking centre stage in 2020. But for some women, the fear of gender discrimination has never stopped them from pursuing their dream and Ms Amelia Pickering, a Harbour Pilot, is one of them.
Inspired by her father, she shares how she started her journey in the Maritime industry and some of the challenges she faced being a female Harbour Pilot.