Branch Pilot - Trainee Programme

Spotted some Pilot Boats in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand and Melbourne & Fremantle Australia (Port codes: Auckland:NZ AKL ; Melbourne:AU MEL ; Fremantle:AU FRE).

In conjunction with the anniversary celebration, the Port has launched the “125 Years in 125 Seconds” video series. The videos will serve as an oral history of the Port featuring public officials, maritime partners, port workers and others to share the Port’s story from their perspective.

Pilot transfer arrangement is a sensitive topic to be discussed among the pilot’s fraternity. Although ships are designed and operated with compliance to the SOLAS requirements in all respects including the pilot transfer arrangements, there has been numerous deficiencies observed related to pilot transfer arrangements. The small deficiencies from the part of ships cause life threatening accidents for pilots and sometimes to the ship staff themselves. There are many instances of defective ladder and complacency in proper rigging of ladders has been reported almost every day in different parts of the world. Many pilots lost their life, severely injured for life and face many minor to major accidents. The latest incident being the Capt. Timothy Murray of Sandy hooks Pilot.

PSA Marine has awarded a contract to Lita Ocean to build 2 units of a new-generation, heavy-duty and high-speed pilot launch.

The pilot boys on the river Haven.

This video shows an introduction on the Pull-out Test-Manoeuvre and describes the procedure how to steer through this simple manoeuvre: Turning circle and then put the rudder amidships. The final rate of turn allows to identify stable and unstable conditions.

MAIB says: "This analysis indicates that 99.6% of pilot transfers while underway were completed safely and without incident or accident during 2022."

An authentic report by Marine Pilot Capt. Agha Umar Habib (Port of Sohar, Oman) about a dramatic incident on July 23, 2019.

Boluda Towage started towing services at the German port of Lubmin for the first installation of a floating LNG storage plant.

Continuing with the pilot-boarding series, here it is another day in paradise: Doing my normal routine, climbing towards the bridge, in order to start Master-Pilot Information Exchange for a safer berth operation
If you want to see the second part of this ship (From Vessel's Bridge to Pilot boat), go to https://youtu.be/jNvb6gXRHRc