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Before you, you see my third article on pilot boarding arrangements. After my two previous articles
(‘1000 ways to secure a pilot ladder’ and ‘1000 ladders around’, I have received a lot of feedback and
also questions to get deeper into the matter of combinations and embarkation platforms.

Jacobsen Pilot Service and Los Angeles Pilot Station published a notice to all ships to inspect pilot ladders before the pilot boards.

Reason is an incident happened at the port of long beach in July 2020. Pilot ladder rope broke while the pilot was on the ladder - luckily the pilot was able to hold on.

There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.

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

Big thanks to Geraldton Port Authority for allowing Bill and I to go out in one of their pilot boats and board a ship. It was a beautiful day for it.

Ideas from Nasir Khan, Port Pilot: "I would like to suggest that we try an experiment and make some modifications that will result in a better grip on the handrails of the ship's ladder and on the pilot ladder steps. Let's talk about it!"

Register your pilot or embarkation ladder today and receive a free 30 months mandatory load test, when the ladders been delivered to one of our factories in Rotterdam, Singapore, New Castle UK or Houston Texas.

Delivering the pilot to the Aurora Tanker in Brunei Darussalam.