EDITORIAL JULY 2008

September 6th, 2008 by JCB
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The 120^th UKMPA Conference was held in Harrogate in May and the excellent attendance by 49 delegates and pilots actually represents 10% of the total UKMPA membership. For those who didn’t attend this issue contains a brief resume of the proceedings and the notes from day 1 reveal the vast maritime spectrum that your elected representatives are involved in. On day two we were honoured to have Michael Grey from Lloyd’s List provide the opening speech and then to receive presentations from Stephen MEyer (Chief investigator MAIB) James Weeden (Head of Ports division DfT), Geoff Stokes ( Port Liaison Policy Leader, MCA) and Kevin Austen (ex HPL pilot & Solicitor, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert). A special bravery award should be granted to Andy Kirkham of the International Group of P&I clubs who took considerable flack from the floor over the P&I Clubs’ use of the term “pilot error”. The very positive outcome from this session was that delegates came away with a greater understanding of the work of the P&I Clubs and Andy agreed that the aims of the UKMPA and the P&I clubs were the same by acknowledging that high standards in pilotage reduce incidents and therefore claims. By the time you read this the full minutes should be available on the UKMPA website and I would urge all members to take the time to read them because no pilot can afford to remain ignorant of what is going on outside his district, regardless of how far removed the national and international issues in which the UKMPA are involved may seem. With respect to this, Liverpool pilot and Section Committee member, Dave Williamson, has written an excellent article on page 8 which eloquently analyses some of the key issues to emerge during the conference. The fundamental message is clear; pilots cannot afford to be complacent and Joe Wilson summed it up neatly at the close of the conference with the words “watch what you are doing”!