Pilot

pilot boat handoff from the carnival breeze September 17th 2019

Lack of standard user interfaces across bridge equipment is a major concern for maritime safety. Pilots are in a unique position, as they are constantly exposed to new and differing bridge working environments, equipment, interface designs and combinations of systems. As pilots face this problem throughout every shift they need to put in considerable effort to adjust their work to the many user interfaces they meet.

The use of augmented reality (AR), i.e. the addition of computer-generated information to real images, has become established in various areas:

The Port of Seville has new maritime navigation aids. #PPUs (Portable Pilot Units) offer pilots accurate real-time data on the position, course and speed of a vessel on the Eurovía del Guadalquivir. This information is very useful for pilotage and for docking and undocking manoeuvres.

#PPUs have two elements: on the one hand, autonomous, wireless sensors that the pilot places on the ailerons of the vessel’s bridge to obtain data about the vessel’s movement; and on the other hand, a...

The pilot boat next to the ship after dropping off the Harbour Pilot

The Galveston-Texas City Pilots has taken delivery of its fourth pilot boat from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation. The new launch is equipped with a Seakeeper 30HD stabilizing gyro, which, according to shipyard officials, will reduce up to 80% the vessel’s roll.

A 35-year-old male sea pilot of the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) fell into the sea from a crude oil tanker near the N Shed Wharf in the port of Durban. A rope of the pilot ladder is said to have snapped for an undetermined reason when the man disembarked while leaving the crude oil tanker which was leaving the port of Durban.

High water is necessary for salvage - 1 p.m. is the earliest possible start for the next salvage attempt of the 400-metre-long vessel.

One hundred and sixty-seven years ago, what was once a pilots’ association became Pernambuco Pilot Station. On February 28th of 1854, Pilot Station 9 first appeared in the port of Recife, and was to assume the current configuration with the development of the Suape port complex, in the Ipojuca municipality, 40 kilometers away. In the fourth article of the series on Brazilian ZPs of this edition, Rumos Práticos reveals the main challenges met in the state of Pernambuco by the pilot station, which today joins in implementing new operations and overcoming infrastructure bottlenecks.