Vessel coming from West, picking up Pilot at PEBGB

Bulk Carrier "CSSC He Mei" docking in Gladstone Lock Liverpool with the assistance of 3 Svitzer tugs

On August 16, the first domestic fully electric tugboat "Yungang Electric Tug No. 1" independently built by Lianyungang Port Holding Group was delivered for trial operation in Lianyungang, Jiangsu.

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 expert article is based on a presentation given by Capt. Pilot Sven Stemmler at the MCN's (Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland e. V. ) event ‘On the Future of the Pilot Profession’ at Fraunhofer CML in Hamburg on 9 September 2025.

This is a video designed to educate people about pilots and their work. It consists of an animated version and a live action version.

A handy and simple tool to determine in a minimum time what is really needed as tug assistance, is the Bollard Pull Calculator which calculates in an approximate way the total required tug power for ships in various conditions of wind and current. This tool can be loaded as an app on the smart phone.