Deputy Harbour Master

My background Why does a ship need a marine pilot How did we get here b.w.o training and qualification? Background history of Reef Pilots Info on different pilot stations within the Great Barrier Reef Torres Straits with its complex tides Our commute to work - boat & helicopter videos Different types of ships, cargoes and nationalities trading within the Great Barrier Reef Work life onboard.... the good, the bad and the ugly Some trivia and fun facts about mariners’ life at sea

Pilotage

UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has published grounding and recovery of a container feeder vessel and a tug in the approaches to the Humber Estuary in storm force conditions on 15 December 2018.

In the second of our series focusing on ‘Our people at ports’, we catch up with Pierre Chays, our Marine Safety Manager and Pilot who gives us a behind the scenes look at what our Harbours Team is doing during these difficult times in supporting the movement of essential freight services in and out of the Island. For him, it is very much ‘business as usual’ – and outside of his working hours he’s getting used to having another baby around the house.

Drone visuals of a bridge passage of a remotely controlled barge on the Plassendale Canal (Ostend). The vessel is controlled by a captain in the Seafar Control Center in Antwerp (100km away). All operations are approved by the Flemish Waterway Authorities. Want to know more? www.seafar.eu info@seafar.eu

Boat builder Metal Shark has delivered a 55’ x 17’ welded aluminum pilot boat to the Pascagoula Bar Pilots Association in Mississippi.

Take a look at the first UK 'hybrid' pilot boat built in the UK by Goodchild Marine for the Port of London Authority. Video from 2019.

Some pilots have already lost their lives because of this non-compliant construction. We don't want to see such an arrangement again. Here is a latest video from the Middle East.

This video shows the startup procedure of the TRENZ Pilot Plug.
Please visit https://trenz-pilotplug.com/ for more information.

This expert article is based on a presentation given by Capt. Pilot Sven Stemmler at the MCN's (Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland e. V. ) event ‘On the Future of the Pilot Profession’ at Fraunhofer CML in Hamburg on 9 September 2025.