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Video How to Launch a Pilot Boat–Behind the Scenes at Point Hope Shipyard
published on 20 June 2025
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,...
Video You Won’t Believe How A Pilot Boat Is Hauled Out for Refit
published on 24 September 2025
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....
Video Pivot Point Specials 2 - position for ship moving ahead or astern
published on 12 May 2022
Video SWATH vs. Mono Hull
published on 21 December 2019
Opinion How OpenBridge seeks to improve maritime workplaces
by Prof. Kjetil Nordby Institute of Design - The Oslo School of Architecture and Design - published on 6 May 2020
Lack of standard user interfaces across bridge equipment is a major concern for maritime safety. Pilots are in a unique position, as they are constantly exposed to new and differing bridge working environments, equipment, interface designs and combinations of systems. As pilots face this problem throughout every shift they need to put in considerable effort to adjust their work to the many user interfaces they meet.
Video Wind Impact on Ships Turning Motion
published on 20 January 2021
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...
Article Combinations Ladders: "1,000 combinations around" (by Arie Palmers)
by Arie Palmers, Netherlands - published on 13 July 2020
Video How AIS Works - Operation of AIS
published on 30 June 2020
This section should give a short introduction to: Operational aspects of AIS Functions and features Human aspects Key Points The AIS transponder unit. Automatic communication. SOLAS requirements. AIS Information sent by ships. Static information update. MMSI Dynamic information update. Voyage related information update. Checking AIS data. BIIT Display Of AIS data. Recommended AIS symbols. Sleeping target symbol. Activated target symbol. Selected target symbol. Dangerous target...