Marine Pilot

The first ship equipped with the technology of future fairway services was directed from the Port of Kokkola to the fairway on Wednesday. At the same time, the suitability of the technical arrangements for remote piloting was tested. The systems were used in parallel with normal pilotage.

Maritime Education

As a part of the ISTLAB project the impact of external factors on pilots’ activities in a remote pilotage situation has been examined in Rauma.

Article originally published in SWZ|Maritime September 2022

Through the years, the Dutch Pilots have developed a system of selection, initial education and continual professional training. What is the current state of affairs?

Wind Balance on straight track - using SAMMON to learn the theory and the effect of rudder and drift to reach the balance in steady state equilibrium conditions on straight track. Limits of steerability will be shown and how turn under strong wind.

A new 1:25 cruise ship manned model, the "Voyager", was added to our fleet in 2014. She is 311 m long and is fitted with 2 azimuthing pods (and one Fixipod) and powerful bow thrusters. Training is conducted in emergency conditions like engine failures, crash stops, tight turns ...

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) - streaming their 20th anniversary conference

In this movie the efficiency of two different pod operation strategies is compared: With azimuth propeller ships the Pods can be used in two ways to control the speed, e.g. for speed reduction: 1. by adjusting the engine orders, e.g. by reducing the RPMs to get lower speed - this means to drive the ship in the same conventional way as for twin screw vessels, 2. by turning both pods either in- or outward (TOE-IN or TOE-OUT) to reduce the forward thrust and therefore reducing the speed – the...

Floating pilot transfer station for the provision of pilots in the Weser estuary / German Bight sets sail again after a stay of several hours for supplies at Willy Brandt Platz on the Weser. The ship is approx. 61 metres long, 25 metres wide and has a draught of approx. 6.4 metres. It was completed at the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard in 2010. The catamaran-style hull construction is striking. Slight distortions in the picture are due to the stabilisation in Google Photos.
Original sound...

The operators of Egypt's Suez Canal say technical or human error could have caused a huge container ship to run aground. Engineers are working round the clock to refloat the Ever Given. The vessel has been blocking one of the world's busiest shipping lanes for the last five days. The chairman of the canal authority hopes a dredging operation will free the ship in the next few days.