Baltic Workboats AS in Estonia was awarded the contract to build the approximately 18 metre long vessel, which will be named "Hamburg Pilot 1", following a Europe-wide tender.

Captain Kevin Vallance awarded the Merchant Navy Medal for services to Maritime Safety.

The pilot boat will be christened Paga after the Paga Hill which overlooks the Fairfax Harbour where PNG Ports operates from in Port Moresby.

Required tug power and number of tugs needed in variable conditions of wind, current and waves isin most cases an assessment made by pilots based on their professional experience. However, assessments will raise questions by lawyers if something goes wrong. They will use tools to calculate what really is needed with respect to tug power and number of tugs. They have furthermore the advantage of time.

This pilot course is the first of the capacity-building efforts of the three-year project on enhancing regional research, capacity building and convening of stakeholders towards a safer maritime domain in the Gulf of Guinea.

The L-type is the compact and fully-electric solution for transferring crews from small, non-DP vessels onto fixed or floating structures. With its continuous flow of personnel, it can transfer 50 people in five minutes. More from Ampelmann Operations: Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ampelman... Website: https://www.ampelmann.nl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmpelmannOpe... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ampe...

Going down the accommodation ladder with neither lifevest nor safety line must have been based on similar, past, successful operations, which may have never been challenged on board. This ‘slippage’ in safety is a pernicious and common phenomenon.

PTR Holland - TV Rijnmond 2003

M/V PILOT 68 (CHEOY LEE shipyards 17m Self-righting Pilot Boat)

Pilot boat launch in Youghal on July 2012.