Pilot boat Velsen-Noord

Unless you were paying attention on your last cruise, you might have missed the pilot boat bringing the pilot out to your cruise ship.

Sanmar Shipyards has signed six vessel contracts together totalling US$33.46 million with the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) in Pakistan for four high-performance state-of-the-art tugboats and two pilot boats. The tugs are scheduled to be delivered in 12 months and the pilot boats in 10.

One of our clients in Europe is looking for a small Pilot Boat (35-36 ft.) to buy.

Safehaven Marine of Ireland will soon deliver a new pilot boat to Williams Shipping based in Southampton, UK.

Watch Orion, one of the two new boats of Jacobsen Pilot Service in Long Beach, Calif. in action. Designed by Tim Nolan Marine Design of Port Townsend, Wash., these boats with waterjet propulsion were built from composite materials at Nordlund Boat Company in Tacoma, Wash. Video courtesy of John Harris.

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and other individual MOB devices have been available for some years now and have evolved to incorporate a variety of different alerting methods and combinations. However, usage of these additional enhancements within UK Pilotage is still in its infancy.

What happens when GNSS fails? In maritime navigation, this isn’t a hypothetical scenario – it’s a growing risk. Spoofing, jamming, and GNSS outages are increasing, especially in the Baltic Sea region. A failure can cripple navigation systems – with potentially serious consequences.

The US Coast Guard has now issued "Marine Safety Information Bulletin 21-20" which repeats the recommendation for pilot transfer agreements.

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.

Training video V on the correct use of the pilot ladder