Welcome to Pilotage Week!

By Neil Baird - April 14, 2020.

PILOTAGE WEEK

This week we look again at the global market for pilot boats. While many mariners wonder, in this age of precise electronic navigation and endless computer accessible information, why we need pilots, they are still around.

Local knowledge, it seems, is still important enough for ship owners to be prepared to pay for it.

While that situation prevails, marine pilots will still require safe, fast and economical boats or helicopters to enable them to embark and disembark from the ships that they guide. Obviously, helicopters are hardly economical, so pilot boats are still required in most circumstances.

As with most of the boats we present on Baird Maritime, pilot boats are continually improving. They are safer, more economical, more durable and more comfortable than ever. Our articles that will follow over the next week will fully describe that welcome trend.

Vessel Reviews & Previews:

Maskulin – All-weather, Irish-built pilot boat for Bergen, Norway

Pilot 16 and Pilot 17 – Sri Lankan-built pilot boat pair for local port authority

Mira – The Dutch Pilotage Service takes on first pilot boat in a five-boat series

Features and Opinion:

REMINISCENCES | A disaster waiting to happen? – Pilotage in the Port of Townsville

– “The Moksong sailed the next day for Korea with a full load of sugar, and the captain seemed quite normal and never said a thing about the incident.”

– Alex Lang

News and Gear:

Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!

Call for content!

Any news or views about the global pilotage industry? Send it through to [email protected] ASAP (between now and April 17), so we can add it to this current edition of Pilotage Week!

We are after:

Vessels – Orders, new deliveries, under construction
Gear – Latest innovations and technology in the pilot boat sector
Interviews – Owners, operators, port authorities, marine pilotage associations etc.
Reminiscences – Do you have any exciting, amusing or downright dangerous anecdotes from your time in the marine pilotage world? (example here)
Other – Any other relevant news

Stay updated on future Pilotage Weeks

Neil Baird

Co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of Baird Maritime and Work Boat World magazine, Neil has travelled the length and breadth of this planet in over 40 years in the business. He knows the global work boat industry better than anyone.