Pilot Boat 68 Dardanelles

Alabama’s Mobile Bar Pilots has awarded Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding of Somerset, Massachusetts, a contract for a new 53-foot (16-metre) pilot boat.

Here’s a pretty cool video covering the recent sea trials we undertook with the La Coruna pilot boat. Some nice gale footage 20 miles offshore, and the fun we had trying to land the drone back down in high winds as well as alongside ship handling trials with the Taccola, operating out of Cork Harbour at present.

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.

Sometimes we’re lucky enough to launch two pilot boats around the same time, giving us the opportunity to undertake rough weather sea trials with them together, and capture some great drone footage of them running alongside. This time we flew two drones from the boat at the same time with both Kenny and my son Jack flying them, which was pretty cool and luckily they didn’t crash into each other!

Advertising film of the SWATH shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen on ships in SWATH design (2013)

Professor Patrick Hudson discusses safety culture and leadership.

This publication (2024) details the rules, regulations and procedures that should be followed when preparing for pilot embarkation and disembarkation. It includes relevant excerpts from SOLAS regulations and IMO resolutions.

Watch as a pilot boat approaches and picks up the pilot after escorting the carnival dream from the harbor in Freeport Bahamas

The Spring 2022 edition of our magazine The Master, Mate & Pilot is available online.

In this eye-opening episode of Sea Views, host Julia Gosling speaks with Captain Andrew Moll (Chief Inspector, UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch), Ari Palmers (Senior Maritime Pilot, Netherlands), and Adam Parnell (Director, CHIRP Maritime) to confront the serious dangers faced by maritime pilots — especially during pilot transfers, where fatality rates remain alarmingly high.