Maritime Pilot•Haluan Kapal

Brisbane Marine Pilots - The only choice for pilotage in Brisbane.
Brisbane Marine Pilots was established as an independent organisation in 1989. Since then we have been systematically capturing the local knowledge, skills and methodologies that were historically passed between pilots.
We are proud to live by our organisation’s pillars of excellence: Safety, Service Excellence, Collaboration, Sustainability and Integrity. We hold a strong commitment to innovation and are determined to...

Since October, pilots from Kiel have been unable to use their offshore transfer station. Long detours and limited rest periods have complicated their workdays, with no end in sight.

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.

In fact, the pivot point that we “see” is a trick of the eye, it looks like the ship is rotating about this point but in fact it is elsewhere, a point that you cannot see.

Here’s a video of recent Sea trials during ‘Storm Bram’ aboard the ‘all weather’ Interceptor 48 ‘Northeast Pilot III’ we built for the North East pilots at Newport, Rhode Island in the USA. With winds of Storm Force 11 and heavy breaking waves conditions were pretty wild, and proved a good test for her seakeeping abilities, especially her stability where she recovered nicely from a hard 90 degree knock down. Also respect to the seamanship of the captain aboard Fokko Ukena whom we filmed and...

Here’s a nice video of the ‘Independent Vision’ having her pilot embarked offshore by the Cork pilot boat ‘Failte’ an Interceptor 48 before she enters Cork Harbour. We also undertook some alongside handling trials at the same time with ‘San Cibrao’ before she is shipped to Spain. Sure was interesting trying to land the drone back on the boat in the 40kt winds offshore!

Shortly after 5 a.m. local time the vessel “Else” had a collision in the Kiel-Holtenau lock to the Kiel Canal.
The "Else" subject to pilotage passed the pilot's boarding position without taking a sea pilot on board and collided from the outside into the closed gate of the new north lock. The bow bored into the metal construction and the ship was stuck for about six hours.
For more information about this accident see related content below (articles).

Delaware River Pilot Boat Overfalls Working the Delaware River - Paulsboro, NJ - March 18, 2025