Accommodation Ladder Load Testing

Watch and learn how a pilot boards a container ship before entering port.
In this video, a container ship bound for Houston, Texas is boarded by a Houston Pilot before entering the Houston Ship Channel.
#maritime #HoustonPilots #houstonshipchannel

Over the course of 4 days this August, I was afforded the opportunity and privilege of riding with the Savannah Bar Pilots for an article I was writing for a major maritime magazine. The pilots are given the responsibility of boarding a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean and safely navigating the vessel up the Tybee Road 9 (a name for the shipping lane that leads into the Savannah River), into the Savannah River, and into the Port of Savannah. The same is done in reverse when a ship is outbound...

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.

An investigation into actual strength of ladders and intermediate securing methods used.
Capt. and Marine Pilot Troy Evans (New Zealand) decided to look into pilot ladder strength and intermediate securing arrangements after MNZ put out what he felt was a confusing and unclear document about securing of pilot ladders.

This notice reminds shipowners, operators, masters, crews, recognised organisations, marine pilots and pilotage providers of the obligation to provide safe pilot transfer arrangements.

On the occasion of the Maritime Safety Week (July 4-10), UK MAIB’s inspector Bill Evans refers to the issue of unsafe pilot ladders, a concern that has been regularly voiced by the industry.

The latest summary from PTR Holland on the subject of pilot ladders. Here is the most important information on maintenance, use and replacement & insepection record book.

From deck 13, we can see the harbor pilot jump from the ship to his little boat after navigating us out of Lyttleton

In July 2021 DACOMA launched a new EU project: AMCOSTAR. Amcostar is a Eurostars/Eureka Network funded Eurostars project on Adaptive Control of Airkeel vessel stabilizer systems. The consortium partners, DACOMA ApS in Svendborg (DK), Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg (DK), and Automasjon & Data AS in Stavanger (NOR) and Tuco Marine ApS - ProZero Workboats (DK) in Faaborg, will optimize, test, and demonstrate an adaptively controlled Airkeel stabilizer on a...