SWIRE new ship SUVA CHIEF, dangerous swaying rope ladder for pilot disembark

KITTIWAKE ( MMSI 232008570) is a Pilot and currently sailing under the flag of United Kingdom (UK) Here she is speeding down the River this morning.

A 1,000 Navy Vessels around... Quite often those vessels have the tendency of presenting themselves with a pilot transfer arrangement which is non-compliant.

All five crew of pilot vessel POLLUX PILOT VESSEL, Dutch Pilotage Service, came up with positive test after self-testing on 9 January 2022.

In this issue:
- Feauture Article - Performance Standards for Marine Simulation
- Presidents Report
- The Changes in Piloting over 18 years
- Facts & Furphies about Portable Pilot Units

Here’s a nice video of the recent sea trials with ‘South Esk’, a new Interceptor 48 pilot boat for the Montrose Port Authority in Scotland. It was fairly rough during our sea trial days with a fair bit of wind, and although it was touch and go flying the drone, we managed to capture some wonderful video of her and Ederra 7 at the entrance to Cork Harbour in a gale.

There were some astonishing pictures in the press some weeks ago of a Royal Marine employing a jetpack to launch himself from a RIB to land on the deck of a ship with extraordinary precision. You cannot imagine that it would be a feasible proposition to equip pilots with such a device, but it did cross my mind after reading a horrible catalogue of disgraceful seamanship and poor design exhibited in what ought to be the simple matter of keeping pilots safe as they board and leave ships.

A selection of webcams from all over the world are now available at Marine-Pilots.com

Since the late 2000s, a debate has been sparked on the most suitable age of retirement for Korean pilots. The debate has focused on the extension of retirement age of pilots from 65 to 68 and whether this will affect the probability of marine accidents.