In California, pilotage for vessels sized 750gt and over is mandatory, so the San Francisco Bar Pilots (SFBP) must accompany nearly 8,000 ships in and out of the state’s ports each year, writes Stevie Knight. The pilot vessels are required by law to stand ‘on station’ outside the Golden Gate Bridge, roughly 12nm away from […]
Standardised hullforms mean many workboats came to look a lot like each other. However, times are changing, mostly driven by the need to reduce the marine sector’s carbon footprint, alongside a growing understanding that alternative fuels will only provide, at best, a partial answer, writes Stevie Knight. Therefore, Seawork 2024, hosted in June, saw a […]
Whatever happened to the tidal energy sector? Given the relatively muted press coverage, compared to the column inches devoted to offshore wind farms, you’d be forgiven for thinking that tidal energy capture projects had tailed off somewhat in the past few years – though this is far from being the case. Perhaps wave turbines are […]
Vision Electric Boats, the boatbuilding division set up by Canadian electric outboard manufacturer Vision Marine Technologies, unveiled its new “unsinkable” polyethylene boat, the Phantom, at the 2024 Miami International Boat Show. The bright blue boat was produced using rotational moulding (aka rotomoulding): a technique used to create large, one-piece, complex shapes, typically with uniform wall […]
Incat Tasmania has taken inspiration from the skies, having unveiled plans to “do for short sea-sea ferry services what Boeing did for the aviation industry” with a new range of electric ferries. And, just as Boeing reduced its development and manufacturing costs by incorporating standardised components and processes, so Incat predicts that the new e-ferry […]
Decarbonisation of the ferry sector continues to gain pace, with naval architect and designer BMT recently providing a preview of its forthcoming EF-500 all-electric passenger vessel concept. Developed to meet international demand for low- and zero-emission ferry services, the EF-500 concept was unveiled at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans, hosted between November-December 2023, […]