EDITORIAL

January 8th, 2008 by JCB
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In dealing with all the politics and
legislation of pilotage it is easy to lose sight
of the fact that ours is one of the few jobs
left where the basics have remained
relatively unchanged for centuries. Read the rest of this entry »

Captain Colin Vine

January 8th, 2008 by JCB
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CAPTAIN COLIN VINE DSC RD RNR FNI

Colin Frank VINE was born in November 1915 and died in May 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

EDITORIAL 08/07

August 10th, 2007 by JCB
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Editorial

I make no apologies for including another pilotage incident report as the feature this quarter because the very nature of our work means that we have a very high statistical chance of being involved in an incident. Read the rest of this entry »

Editorial 04/07

June 11th, 2007 by JCB
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For this month’s feature I have chosen the MAIB report into a collision, grounding and sinking on the Elbe at the entrance to Brunsbuttel locks which subsequently resulted in a further collision with the wreck of the earlier incident. Read the rest of this entry »

Editorial 10/06

October 15th, 2006 by JCB
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Editorial

I decided to make e-Navigation the feature for this quarter because I believe that the subject is going to become one of the key issues for debate in the near future and the outcome will inevitably impact on pilotage. Read the rest of this entry »

Editorial 07/06

July 15th, 2006 by JCB
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Editorial

This year has so far been a disastrous one for shipping accidents which has regrettably resulted in an enhancement of public image of shipping as a poorly run and dangerous industry. The run of disasters started on Christmas day 2005 with the grounding of the APL Panama on the beach at Ensenada in Mexico where she remained stubbornly in place until finally being refloated in March. In February, the tragic capsize and total loss of the Al Salam Boccaccio 98 ferry in the Red Sea with no survivors, coupled with deaths of seafarers in several other disasters has also served to make this one of the worst years for maritime fatalities. It may just be that I am receiving more press reports of incidents but there definitely seems to have been an alarming increase in collisions and groundings with several occurring around the UK. Despite the fact that pilotage waters are acknowledged as the most hazardous section of a vessels voyage, only a minimal number of these incidents have occurred with a pilot on board thus confirming the need to retain traditional pilot recruitment and training policies.

With no national newspaper or major media outlet having a shipping correspondent, the shipping industry is faced with an uphill battle to portray shipping in a positive light but IMPA are at least attempting to redress the balance. Building on the encouraging response to last year’s World Maritime Day, IMPA President, Geoff Taylor, has been establishing contacts within the general media to hold another event this autumn. Although the programme has yet to be finalised I know that Geoff is hoping to arrange an important international media event and also to get pilots to contact their local media and try to get someone out on a ship. It is in all our interests that we highlight the essential role that shipping plays in everyday life and although I know that Geoff’s catchphrase is “the sound of safety is silence” we should loudly trumpet the essential safety role that pilots play in ensuring that shelves of the retail outlets remain fully stocked. When details of the initiative are finalised, I urge you all to give it your full support.

Editorial 04/06

April 15th, 2006 by JCB
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Editorial

The good news this quarter is that the UKMPA is at last going to be represented within the group Port Skills and Safety Limited (PSSL). PSSL took over from the DfT funded British Ports Industry Training (BPIT) in 2002 and whereas the UKMPA had worked closely with BPIT to produce a comprehensive document detailing National Occupational Standards for Maritime pilots we were not invited to join the port led commercial body of PSSL. It has therefore taken four years of hard work by both Norman McKinney and Les Cate along with members of the Section Committee to finally achieve an invitation to participate on the group’s activities relevant to pilots. The reason that this is important is that PSSL, in conjunction with some nautical colleges, have produced a draft Foundation Degree for ports which will include pilotage and it is therefore essential that pilots are represented. The UKMPA has only one agenda within PSSL and that is safety and we will therefore be using our membership to convince those who may wish to reduce standards that it is in the interests of the whole ports sector that high standards of training and qualifications for pilots are maintained in the interests of ensuring the safety of ships, port infrastructure and reputations!

John Clandillon-Baker

Editorial 01/06

January 15th, 2006 by JCB
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EDITORIAL

It is a rare pleasure for me to open 2006 with some very good news for pilots. On the 18^th January the EU Ports Directive was finally defeated in the EU Parliament by an overwhelming vote by MEPs of 532 against, 120 for and 25 abstentions.

Although the defeat was a result of many different groups opposing it, the UKMPA through EMPA had undertaken a highly successful lobbying campaign which had played an important role in bringing about this final defeat of the proposed legislation.

Of course, all of this should have been unnecessary since the MEPs had already thrown the directive out before in November 2003 and it is a sad reflection on the democratic process in the EU that following the initial rejection, the Spanish Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, in a parting gesture of defiance

before she left the Commission, decided to re-present the directive. This resulted in the Commission deciding to ignore the MEP’s vote of rejection and return it to the legislative process. The last two years have therefore seen all the opponents waste much time and resources in re-submitting all their arguments for a second time. Has it gone away for good? Probably not, but the indications are that ports will now be covered by a wider transport directive and it is to be hoped that the lessons of the overwhelming defeat of the Ports Directive will have been noted and the controversial issues of competition in pilotage and self handling will result in these being dropped.  Needless to say, the UKMPA and EMPA are monitoring events very closely.

Remaining in Europe, the other good news is that the ESMARALDA project mentioned in my October 2005 editorial has also been abandoned. The UKMPA are hoping that such good news will be supplemented by a successful resolution of the Belfast dispute, Kristian Pederson’s dismissal appeal and the on-going Humber issue.

Editorial 10/05

October 15th, 2005 by JCB
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Editorial

The summer holiday period should be a time to unwind in preparation for the long autumn and winter. Unfortunately attacks on our profession continue with relentless monotony regardless of the season. With the EU Commissioners ignoring the widespread opposition to the Ports Directive, the UKMPA have supported EMPA in producing amendments to remove pilotage from the directive in case it is not rejected by the vote in December.  On the home front work has been ongoing in supporting Kristian Pedersen in his claim for unfair dismissal and the Belfast pilots who are fighting dramatic changes to their working agreement. Work on the PMSC and the incorporation of NOS for pilots is proceeding, but slower than had been hoped as a result of a deferment of the October meeting.

Just in case all this wasn’t providing enough areas to monitor, a new EU project has appeared. This project seems to be promoting an argument that pilots should be removed from ships because of the cost of delays to shipping incurred by ships having to reduce speed to pick the pilot up!  As yet this is an embryonic project picked up by EMPA and it would be nice to dismiss it as nonsense or an out of season April fool’s joke but sadly it is not beyond the realms of possibility of the anti- pilot lobby to dream up such a project and then to secure funding to promote it!

To conclude on a more cheerful note, The Congress of the Canadian Marine Pilots Association generated some good positive press for pilots as did an IMPA initiative by Geoff Taylor for pilots to take a journalist on a pilotage passage in support of the IMO World Maritime Day.

This resulted in my spending a very pleasant day with Michael Grey on the Thames and Gareth Rees with Richard Clayton from Fairplay magazine on the Solent. Whilst it is proving difficult to generate interest from the mainstream media, Richard Clayton concluded his article with “No news means professionalism at work: that’s good news.” It is the responsibility of all pilots to fight to keep it that way.

Editorial 07/05

July 15th, 2005 by JCB
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EDITORIAL

At the time of writing this editorial the EU is in turmoil following the rejection of the proposed constitution. Having been over in France at the time the electorate decided “Non” it was interesting to note that almost immediately the unelected and unaccountable Commissioners decided that because the vote had not gone as anticipated then it should be ignored and that ratification should continue regardless! This arrogant attitude reveals the detachment of the Commissioners from the reality of the situation that many of the arguments that convinced the French and Dutch to vote against the constitution were based on concerns that the Commissioners were becoming too powerful and ignoring fundamental democratic principles.

For pilots such rejection of democracy has been in evidence since the MEPs and

the EU Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the Ports Directive and the

Commissioners decided to ignore the reasoning and re-introduce it again virtually unchanged as PP2 in anticipation that they would be able to force it through with the votes from the new member States. Fortunately the “No” vote has resulted in such antics being exposed to greater scrutiny and there are signs that in the face of potentially damaging headlines over threatened strike action in EU ports, when the Directive was re-submitted on the 15^th June, the Commissioners decided that the imperative need for this directive may not be so pressing after all and have accepted in principle that member states are best placed to decide their ports’ policy!

The UKMPA as part of the EMPA lobby group were present in Brussels and the safety arguments against PP2 have been coherently presented and should this directive be finally buried then your subscriptions will have helped to defeat the greatest threat to pilots’ livelihoods since the 1987 Pilotage Act.

John Clandillon-Baker

Following my April 2005 editorial, I received some feedback questioning the validity and accuracy of my statement regarding the out of court settlement between Milford Haven and the International Oil Protection Compensation Fund 1971. Although I

am a volunteer editor with a zero research budget (cue for sympathetic violins!) I do try to ensure accuracy and in this case the source of the information was a press release from the IOPCF which can be read (and is well worth reading!) in full at the

following web address:

www.iopcfund.org/pr-pdf/sea_empress.pdf