Geneviève Béchard | The Digital Transformation of Canadian Hydrographic Offices

Before you, you see my third article on pilot boarding arrangements. After my two previous articles ‘1000 ways to secure a pilot ladder’ and ‘1000 ladders around’, I have received a lot of feedback and also questions to get deeper into the matter of combinations and embarkation platforms.

This video complements the earlier demonstration of wind effect on straight track and shows now wind effect on turning circles. It can be seen that during a turn under strong wind the ship reduces turning when it comes close to equilibrium on straight track - if the Wind-to-ship speed ratio is big enough then the ship even goes straight instead of turning. This is shown for three samples for Head, Stern wind and Beam wind. The turning can be increased if the ratio of Wind speed-to-ship...

Understanding the fundamentals of the pivot point is highly required for understanding the alteration of the courses. Pivot point is an imaginary point on the vessel which turns on a circular path on the perimeter of vessel’s turning circle when the vessel makes a turn. The knowledge about the position of the pivot point in a manoeuvring situation provides the ship handler with the information on the geometry of motion of the ship.

This article was first published back in September 2021: Pilotage operations require close interaction between human and machines. This complex sociotechnical system is necessary to safely and efficiently maneuver a vessel in constrained waters.

Manoeuvring large ships at close quarters and on shallow water is one of the most difficult aspects of shiphandling because of the complex hydraulic interactions depending on the ships' speeds, on the water depth and on lateral restrictions like in canals. Training is conducted both on meeting and on overtaking ships in shallow waters. This video shows how overtaking in a canal can easily fail.
More information: http://www.portrevel.com/3781-shiphan...

IMPA President makes a statement to IMO on January 17th regarding the passing of Captain Dennis Sherwood. A letter to IMO was published via Twitter today.

The construction and commissioning of a new pilot boat for Jacobsen Pilot Service in great pictures.

New pilot vessel, the TRENT, has joined ABP Humber’s fleet at the port of Grimsby. An investment of £1.2 million, the TRENT is the second in class, Orc design 171, to be delivered to the Humber as part of ABP’s pilot boat replacement programme.

Good news for pilot safety: As one of the leading shipping companies, MAERSK is now targeting the notorious "trapdoor arrangements". A corresponding notification to all the company's ships concerned was made public in the last few days.