Welcome to Point Hope Shipyard in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In this video, I follow the float off of the Pacific Navigator, a hardworking pilot boat that serves the Port of Victoria and Ogden Point. We watch as the vessel is pulled along the marine railway, rotated on the turntable, and positioned onto the cradle. Once secured, the cradle lowers to float-off depth, and the Pacific Navigator fires up her engines for a short harbour spin before returning to duty. Some segments,...

The Pacific Guardian pilot boat is first seen in Victoria Harbour near Ogden Point before making her way to Point Hope Maritime Shipyard for a full refit. This video captures the entire move process, from the cradle lowering into the harbour, to the careful docking of the vessel, to her move across the turntable and onto the spur line. Some of the footage has been sped up, since the cradle lowering and lifting are slow, deliberate operations where every movement is checked and rechecked....

Another worthful video by Knud Benedict, Germany

In fact, the pivot point that we “see” is a trick of the eye, it looks like the ship is rotating about this point but in fact it is elsewhere, a point that you cannot see.

Online survey among maritime pilots in Germany: job-related stress and strain and the effects on their work ability.

To minimize the risk of a vessel allision with a terminal gantry crane, the American Harbor and Docking Pilots Association recommends that all terminal operators with gantry cranes adopt the following Best Practices.

The term Automatic Identification System (AIS) refers to a radio system that improves the safety and guidance of vessel traffic by exchanging navigation and other vessel data.

From that moment on I have been keeping a tally of the non compliant boarding arrangements I see in front of me on a daily base, and off course I participate in the annual safety campaign, conducted by IMPA each october.

Baird maritime awards: Southerly Designs & Dongara Marine

Like many seafarers I have long been a keen follower of The Nautical Institute’s MARS programme, and along with many other members I listened to the recent webinar on that topic. One theme which was repeated more than once was that it is better to learn from someone else’s misfortune rather than have it happen to you. Having personally been involved in two near misses resulting from unsafe pilot transfer arrangements in a relatively short space of time, I asked how experiences and knowledge specifically about pilot ladder safety could best be promulgated to avoid repeating common accidents or near misses.