IMPA receives the 2022 SAFETY4SEA Initiative Award

IMPA received the 2022 SAFETY4SEA Initiative Award for conducting annually its ‘Pilot Ladder Safety Campaign’ with the objective of reporting pilots’ experiences of ladders and boarding equipment to the IMO and the wider shipping community.

The Seminar aims to inform Member States, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with IMO about the societal value of maritime pilots and pilotage as a public service. The IMO Secretary-General has recognised maritime pilots as having always been vital to ensuring the safety of navigation in key ports and shipping lanes globally and playing a crucial role in sustaining the global supply chain using specialized knowledge and expertise....

There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.

The US Coast Guard has now issued "Marine Safety Information Bulletin 21-20" which repeats the recommendation for pilot transfer agreements.

Clint Winegar, Presiding Officer, Houston Pilots, discusses the organization in the round, explaining how the Houston operation remains one of three in the country that still utilizes station boat.

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

In this issue:
- Feauture Article - Performance Standards for Marine Simulation
- Presidents Report
- The Changes in Piloting over 18 years
- Facts & Furphies about Portable Pilot Units

VESSEL REVIEW - by Baird Maritime
Seattle, Washington-based boatbuilder Snow and Company has handed over a new all-aluminium monohull pilot boat to the San Francisco Bar Pilots of California.

Chapter 3 from the book "Crossing the Bar, The Adventures of a San Francisco Bay Bar Pilot" by Captain Paul Lobo, available on Amazon (link below)

They look like toy boats, but they serve a serious purpose. An outsider at this facility near Grenoble, France, may see grown men riding arounda lake in miniature ships. But these are pilots of the world's largest ships, and they're practicing navigation with meticulously engineered 1:25 scale models of real cruisers, tankers, and containerships. Port Revel Shiphandling Training Centre, in operation since 1967, has had more than 6,000 maritime pilots and merchant ship officers from all over...