This is the Ben Madigan pilot boat, one of the hard working fleet of Belfast Harbout pilot boats. ( I'm not sure but I believe this might be a Redbay Stormforce, built by Redbay boat builders at Cushendll. )
These fast, sturdy, boats have to ferry Belfast pilots out to large vessels coming in to Belfast harbour. Piloted vessels range from large tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, ferries and cruise liners, right down to barges and fishing boats. Not only this, Belfast Harbour pilots...

What a great pleasure to meet these guys at the harbour - they could not have been more helpful and forthright about their work. At first glance, the glide of these orange powerboats up and down Belfast Lough seems an almost effortless task, but close up this is a very skilled trade and constant management of risk 24/7 in high and low seas, jumping from ship to boat to land taking safe control of the great volume of steel vessel coming in and out of this busy port. Though a hub of...

The Hibernia joins the Belfast Harbour operational marine fleet.

The plug-in diesel hybrid pilot boat's hull is be based on the established ‘ORC’ design, a unique ‘beak’ bow design, which gives it unmatched all weather capability and typically uses 40% less diesel per nautical mile than convention hulls.

Pilot disembarking the cruise ship

Artemis Technologies, a pioneering leader in the development of innovative maritime technologies, is proud to unveil the design of its ground-breaking Artemis EF-12 Pilot.

Baltic Workboats 16m ice going diesel electric pilot boat

A small video tutorial showing some useful tips for pilotage using Transas Pilot PRO application for iPad

Recently Capt. Troy Evans did a research into the breaking strength of various securing methods. To quantify the problem of unsafe practices, now is time to have a survey into the number of the various securing methods used worldwide.