Opinion Bow Truster Effect on Ship's Headway

by Capt. Hugues Cauvier - published on 14 July 2022

When the bow thruster has been in operation for a while, pilots often notice that the ship not only turns but also gains speed. But why is this? Opinion by Capt. Hugues Cauvier.

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Opinion A Corrected Version on Positioning of Pivot Point

by Capt. Santosha K. Nayak - published on 18 November 2020

Understanding the fundamentals of the pivot point is highly required for understanding the alteration of the courses. Pivot point is an imaginary point on the vessel which turns on a circular path on the perimeter of vessel’s turning circle when the vessel makes a turn. The knowledge about the position of the pivot point in a manoeuvring situation provides the ship handler with the information on the geometry of motion of the ship.

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Opinion Scientific Fact: The ‘traditional’ understanding of the ship’s pivot point is wrong!

by Tim Cummins, Harbour Pilot, Portsmouth International Port - published on 9 July 2020

In fact, the pivot point that we “see” is a trick of the eye, it looks like the ship is rotating about this point but in fact it is elsewhere, a point that you cannot see.

Related content

Video Bow thruster effect on ship's headway 1

by Capt. Hugues Cauvier - published on 14 July 2022

What is causing the forward motion of a stopped vessel using continous bow thruster action?
by Capt. H. Cauvier

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Video Hugues Cauvier: Understanding the ship's pivot point (complete video)

by Capt. Hugues Cauvier - published on 3 September 2024

This video has been recut and edited by the creator Hugues Cauvier. Previously there were three episodes, which have now been combined into one.

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Video How to Launch a Pilot Boat–Behind the Scenes at Point Hope Shipyard

published on 20 June 2025

Welcome to Point Hope Shipyard in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In this video, I follow the float off of the Pacific Navigator, a hardworking pilot boat that serves the Port of Victoria and Ogden Point. We watch as the vessel is pulled along the marine railway, rotated on the turntable, and positioned onto the cradle. Once secured, the cradle lowers to float-off depth, and the Pacific Navigator fires up her engines for a short harbour spin before returning to duty. Some segments,...

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Video Wind Balance on straight track with theory

published on 24 November 2020

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.

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Article How many Navy vessels are compliant to SOLAS ch.V reg23?

by Arie Palmers - published on 25 April 2022

A 1,000 Navy Vessels around... Quite often those vessels have the tendency of presenting themselves with a pilot transfer arrangement which is non-compliant.

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Video Know your Pilot Ladder in less than eight minutes

published on 13 November 2020

As part of Maritime Skill Enhancer Platform created by Navguide solutions, we give you a comprehensive inspection of your Pilot ladder, keeping you compliant, safe and ready for any inspection.
All this - in less than eight minutes!
Maritime Skill Enhancer is going to be the most practical platform to learn your day to day Maritime Skills, in matter of minutes. We are coming soon.
Subscribe to this channel and stay updated.

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Video Wind drift making headway - practical experiments for voyage planning and Rule of Thumb

published on 7 April 2021

Another good explaining video from Knud Benedict, ISSIMS

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Video Operation of POD Ships - Discussion on Efficiency comparing Conventional and IN-OUT POD strategy

published on 8 June 2022

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...

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Article Port of Townsville expands pilot boat fleet with Hart Marine´s ORC 173

published on 7 December 2021

Port of Townsville latest Mantaray HM ORC 173, along with all Port of Townsville’s pilot boat fleet is defined by the Pantocarene designed beak bow vessels that are the forefront of pilot vessel desingn worldwide.

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Video Hong Kong / Camarc Design

published on 29 October 2021

The collaboration between Coast Guard Hong Kong and Camarc Design, a fiberglass double-sided hull with auto-righting function, enhances the safety index in bad weather conditions. Length 17.3 meters. Two Cat c18 diesel engines drive 670 hp each

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