SeaSafe - Marine pilot falling off a ships ladder with his integrated life jacket coat

Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) and other individual MOB devices have been available for some years now and have evolved to incorporate a variety of different alerting methods and combinations. However, usage of these additional enhancements within UK Pilotage is still in its infancy.

In our new new section “Five questions for ..." Marine-Pilots.com introduces pilots and other market players to our readers in short interviews.

Today we have talked to Douglas Vincett, Industrial & Technical Sales at Spinlock.

"Rope Ladders" by PTR Holland

Approche d'un navire gros colis par mauvais temps en 2014. Pilotone Troenn de Lorient

Editor's note: The pilot boarding seems a bit improvised and unsafe to me, but that's certainly business as usual, isn't it?

Like many seafarers I have long been a keen follower of The Nautical Institute’s MARS programme, and along with many other members I listened to the recent webinar on that topic. One theme which was repeated more than once was that it is better to learn from someone else’s misfortune rather than have it happen to you. Having personally been involved in two near misses resulting from unsafe pilot transfer arrangements in a relatively short space of time, I asked how experiences and knowledge specifically about pilot ladder safety could best be promulgated to avoid repeating common accidents or near misses.

Professor Patrick Hudson discusses safety culture and leadership.

Footage showing what the simulators look like and how they can be used to simulate ship movement in various ports.