Video NG Shipyards Launching Pilot Vessel MHPA
published on 10 December 2025
Video Sea Shepherd - Pilot Boat - Port of Aberdeen - Best Viewed From Above
published on 15 October 2026
Commissioned by the Aberdeen Harbour Board the Sea Shepherd was built by the renowned Macduff Shipyards in Aberdeenshire. The vessel was designed by Murray Cormack, evolving from their highly successful "NorthBay 17" hull design. The primary design prompt called for an exceptionally rugged craft capable of handling the severe, choppy sea conditions found just outside the Aberdeen breakwater. To meet this requirement, Murray Cormack developed a single-chine displacement hull specifically...
Video Sea Shepherd - Pilot Boat - Port of Aberdeen
published on 20 October 2026
Commissioned by the Aberdeen Harbour Board the Sea Shepherd was built by the renowned Macduff Shipyards in Aberdeenshire. The vessel was designed by Murray Cormack, evolving from their highly successful "NorthBay 17" hull design. The primary design prompt called for an exceptionally rugged craft capable of handling the severe, choppy sea conditions found just outside the Aberdeen breakwater. To meet this requirement, Murray Cormack developed a single-chine displacement hull specifically...
Video Berthing "Champion Ebony" in Palm Oil Jetty Bintulu Port
published on 1 August 2020
Article Best practice on rigging pilot ladders (UK MAIB)
published on 7 July 2022
Video Luke Pollard tests out the new pilot boat
published on 31 January 2022
Video Thousands of Miles at Sea – Why Are the Last Few Miles Through the Panama Canal So Difficult?
published on 6 October 2026
Thousands of miles across the open ocean can seem like the easy part of a ship's journey. The real challenge begins when a massive vessel reaches the final few dozen miles, where open water gives way to narrow channels, strict traffic controls, powerful tugboats, and enormous locks. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Panama Canal, where ships must be carefully guided through a complex system designed to move them between two oceans. So how can the last few miles of a journey become...
Video The Port of Seville has new maritime navigation aids for the pilotage service.
published on 27 November 2021
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...
Video The complex and dangerous Centre Lead Forward Tug Manoeuvre, Port Kembla, Australia
published on 4 July 2019
(Please note: Anthony F Hoy has CASA Operational Certification for UAV Aerial Photography & Aerial Survey).
The Svitzer Marloo, a Z-Tech 2800 ASD Tug, is one of the few vessels in the world to regularly use the complex and potentially dangerous Centre Lead Forward manoeuvre to assist inbound and outbound bulk carriers in the execution of a 110 degree turn on entering and leaving Port Kembla. Tug Master Phil Jones explains how a dangerous maritime exercise, if properly executed, can deliver...