NASAI MARINE P11 "CASABLANCA PILOTS"

Time for shift change. Captain Henry transferring from Pilot boat Texas City to Pilot boat Texas. Turn the sound up towards the end and hear those twin V12 Cummins sing.

Safehaven Marine, pilot boat specialist builders in Ireland have launched a new Interceptor 48 pilot boat for the Port of Coruna in Northern Spain. ‘Practicos Coruna Ochno’ is powered by a pair of Volvo D13 500hp continuously rated engines and ZF Gearboxes. Propulsion is by conventional sterngear turning 28” propellers giving her a 25kts continuous operational speed. Capable of carrying 7 pilots and crew all on shock mitigation seating comfortably in her spacious fully lined cabin with extremely low noise levels of 73db recorded.

Here’s a nice video of the rough weather sea trials of San Ciprian’s new Interceptor 42 Pilot boat ‘San Ciprano’. With the Covid-19 travel restrictions in place and the Guys from San Ciprian unable to fly here at present we’re having to do a remote ‘on-line handover’. So we made this video to give them every confidence that she is performing well, as she handled comfortably the stormy conditions prevailing on the South Coast of Ireland last Friday nicely, with winds of 50kts at the entrance...

Southern Engineering Co. Ltd (SECO) recently secured a contract from the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) to construct and deliver three pilot boats.

Associated British Ports (ABP) the UK’s largest and best-connected port operator, has commissioned a fleet of nine new state-of-the art pilot boats from Goodchild Marine Services, representing an investment of around £9 million to further enhance port operations across its network.

This video explores the question of why ships are so difficult to manoeuvre in reverse.

I am not a computer savvy. My knowledge in programming and robotics and those sort of things is nil. I get lost in the sea of social media and easily entangle myself in the web. All I have done for the last 25 years or so is to pilot ships through the Panama Canal. However, during the last couple of years I have done my best to catch up with technology, since it has enhanced our possibilities and improved safety in our field. But still, I have to admit that I am way behind the new guys in this important issue.

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

Explosions and major fire on Aframax crude oil tanker MT. JAG LEELA at Belawan, Indonesia. 10 May 3020