Port of Waterford new pilot launch vessel "Port Láirge", handed over at Dunmore East November 2021

The Port of Waterford is to invest almost €1m in a new pilot boat to be named Port Láirge, which as Irish for Waterford is a name long associated with a steam-powered dredger that served Waterford for more than 70 years until the 1980s.

Vessel Review by BairdMaritime.com. The Pilot boat was build by Safehaven Marine.

The entrance to Cork Harbour situated on the South coast of Ireland can produce some pretty extreme sea states during the winter storm months. There are two main factors that influence the sea state at the entrance, the first being the ebbing tide, the second being shoaling waters over the Harbour Rock, this is situated at the entrance to the Harbour off Roches Point lighthouse, right in the middle between the Western and Eastern channel entrances.

Following in a long line of ever more refined and very seaworthy vessels, this small example of a Safehaven pilot boat has been chosen for operations on and around Scotland’s Cromarty Firth.

Southwest Alaska Pilots Association’s new Gladding and Hearn built, C Raymond Hunt designed pilot boat disembarks Capt. Ron Ward at Bligh Reef Pilot Station in Prince William Sound, Alaska March 2020

How an aluminium boat is built.

Compilation video of the best rough weather sea trial moments from 2009-2013 by Safehaven Marine

THE 15-metre-long ‘Port Láirge’, the Port of Waterford’s new Pilot Boat, was received by crew at the Dunmore East pontoon this (Friday) morning, two years after her commissioning.