Pilot boat simulator — pilot transfers alongside a ship under way, in the browser

Putting a pilot on a ship's ladder is one of the finest pieces of boat handling at sea: a 24-tonne launch pressed against a laden tanker at 8 kn, in her lee, matched to her speed, steady enough for a man to step across. Nobody wants to meet the ship's suction at her quarter for the first time with a pilot on the rungs. Our simulator has a pilot boat of its own and a set of PILOT TRANSFER drills built round the real problem: the approach, the touch, station keeping at the ladder and the break-away. You can do it now in the browser, on your phone too.

What it trains

⚑ PILOT (beside ⚓ DOCK on /colreg-simulator) opens the drills: a briefing card, a run at TIME ×1 with no other traffic, a score out of 100 and a debrief.

• The approach on the lee side. The ship holds her course and speed and makes a lee for the ladder — the wind on her other bow. You come up from astern on her lee side, never across her bow.
• Matching her speed and the touch. The panel shows SPEED vs HER, the GAP to her side and the LADDER distance. In position means pressed on her hull at the ladder, within 0.6 kn of her speed and 0.4 kn across. Under half a knot sideways at the touch is the target; faster than 1 kn is a HARD CONTACT, faster than 2 kn fails the drill.
• Station keeping while the pilot crosses. Steady 2.5 s and the pilot steps across (or down to you). Boarding, you stay until he is 3 m up the ladder; disembarking, he waits on the bottom rung and steps down to your foredeck. Every bump while he crosses costs points.
• The break-away. Small helm, a little power, the angle opened slowly — helm away from the ship swings your stern into her side — and clear 30 m off.
• Reading HER PULL. The panel shows the ship's pull on your boat, IN or OFF, in kN. Near her bow she pushes you off; along her parallel body she draws you in gently; at her quarter she draws you in hard and turns your bow into her.
• Scoring with stars. Approach 20, contact 20, station keeping 30, break-away 20, seamanship 10. ★ for a completed transfer, ★★ at 75, ★★★ at 90; a failed run shows what it earned, no stars. Best scores stay in your browser.
• ▶ DEMO — watch it done first. A demo helmsman sails the same transfer. Every order goes through the real control, which lights up with an orange ring, and the DEMO bar says the order and why; a chase camera keeps both vessels in the picture. Touch a control and he offers TAKE OVER?; at the end, ▶ YOUR TURN.
• ┄ GUIDE — the textbook run as a line in the water. ROUND HER STERN, up the lane 15 m off her lee side at +3 kn, EASE TO +1.5 kn, IN AT 10° to the ladder, ALONGSIDE · HOLD, BREAK AWAY. It never changes a score.
• ▦ PLAN · ◩ 3-D. The coxswain's view, or a plan from straight above framing your boat, the ladder and the ship.

The drills

Six set transfers — the pilot aboard a laden tanker in a calm, off her again in a moderate sea, boarding a bulk carrier in a rough sea (22 kn of wind, Hs 1.7 m), boarding a container ship at 10 kn by a combination ladder, a night boarding of a tanker in ballast with 11.9 m of freeboard, and a night disembarkation in a fresh breeze — and a transfer of your own: any ship, boarding or disembarking, 6, 8 or 10 kn, either side, day or night, calm, moderate or rough. The ships' names are made up.

The idea

We built both sides of the transfer. The ship is not scenery: she holds her course and speed as a real ship does for a pilot boat, the wind 30–40° on her weather bow so that her lee — and the ladder — is where it should be. The ladder is built into her side in her parallel body: a plain pilot ladder for a climb up to 9 m, a combination with the accommodation ladder above that, a lifebuoy by its head and a light over it by night.

Then the water between the two hulls. A ship under way pushes water away at her bow and draws it in along her side, most at her quarter; the pilot boat feels the difference across her own beam, so the field also turns her. Close in it is strong, a beam away almost gone; faster, and in shallow water, much stronger. Astern of her is her wake and screw race. Left alone 10 m off her quarter, the boat is drawn in within 30–45 s and strikes at about 2.4 kn — which is exactly the lesson. The collar fender is a real fender too: what you see is what you touch. Her lee shelters you as well: the sea under you falls to about 45 % close in, while on her weather side it is confused — the panel's SEA tile says LEE or CONFUSED.

The vessels you do it on

The PILOT BOAT is a North-European pilot launch of our own design, 16.5 × 5.2 m, draught 1.4 m, about 24 t: an aluminium self-righting hull with a heavy rubber collar fender round her sheer, an orange wheelhouse, a transfer deck with rails forward of it where the pilot steps across. Two ~600 kW diesels on shafts with a rudder behind each, a lever for each engine, no thrusters — Q / E pivot her on her screws; 25 kn flat out, a crash stop from 20 kn in about 6 s and 33 m. On pilotage duty she shows white over red all round, her sidelights and stern light (Rule 29). Her bridge view is the coxswain's eye in the starboard seat.

The ships you go alongside are a 183 m product tanker (laden, or in ballast with 11.9 m of freeboard), a 190 m bulk carrier whose bluff bow pushes you off harder than the tanker's, and a 260 m container ship whose bow pushes harder still: what differs is the freeboard and so the ladder, the shape of the bow, and 6, 8 or 10 kn through the water.

The tanker and the 260 m cruise ship are also vessels you can drive yourself in Free Mode. The ASD tug and the push tug have their ⛓ TOWING exercises, the PSV and CTV their ⛽ OFFSHORE drills — the same family: a briefing, live steps, a score, a debrief.

The sea is real

The pilot transfers run in Free Mode in the Gulf of Riga, on a boarding ground in the Riga approaches in deep water. The drill sets its own wind and sea; outside it the pilot boat sails the same sea as every other vessel. Free Mode starts off the Daugava mouth, and the whole Baltic is yours — the Gulf of Riga in full detail, the rest to the Danish straits on the radar, the chart and through the bridge window; AREA opens a picker with about 2,000 Baltic harbours to start from. The weather is the real forecast from MET Norway — cloud, rain, snow, fog and the visibility they leave — and the sun, moon and stars stand where they really stand over you now. Radar and AIS are fused on one screen as on a modern bridge, and the COLREG traffic AI gives way as the rules require.

Shared sea — other real people on the water

Logged in, SHARED SEA is on by default — one live sea for everyone at ×1 — and you can switch it off. In Free Mode you meet other skippers' boats and they see yours — the pilot boat's model and her Rule 29 lights included. A drill keeps the AI traffic away while it runs; the other skippers' boats stay in sight.

Classroom and the scenario builder

An instructor builds an exercise in ✎ SCENARIO BUILDER: the place (any Gulf of Riga or Baltic harbour, or any point on the chart), the own vessel, other vessels with AIS names and types — a pilot vessel among them, with her lights and her place in Rule 18 — on a course, a route, at anchor or moored; areas and triggers; dawn to night; wind, visibility, the sea state. ⇗ MAKE A LINK packs the whole scenario into the link, ready to ▶ RUN.

🎓 CLASSROOM puts a class on one private sea. The instructor opens TEACH and chooses what it sails — FREE SAILING, a SCENARIO, a DOCKING LESSON or a DRILL, pilot transfers among them. OPEN THE CLASS gives a code and a link; up to 30 students join from any browser. The instructor view shows every boat with her track and a CPA ring, the roll with scores and contacts; the instructor can PAUSE ALL, inject 🌫 FOG, 🌬 WIND or ⚙ ENGINE FAILURE, and print or export a SUMMARY.

The regatta next door

The same sea carries ⛵ REGATTA. THE BALTIC LAP is a lap round the whole Baltic in identical ELEONORAs — 30 ft one-design cruiser, one design, no handicap — in real time with the real forecast wind, every boat sailed on the server by your orders while you are away. It is the first lap; the next will be somewhere else in the world. The race tells you about every place you pass — each mark is a real port or cape, and the mark cards in the race panel give you its story as you round it.

Who it is for

Professional and leisure alike. The cadet before the first watch, the deck officer, the pilot, the tug, offshore or survey crew, the training centre that wants a situation every student can repeat — and, on the same sea, the leisure skipper who is curious how the working boats are handled and what the ship on the horizon can and cannot do. The vessel, the sea and the rules are the same for everyone; only the exercises are the professional's.

How to start

Free Mode is open to everyone — no account needed — with the 15 m motor yacht and the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO at up to TIME ×10. Every other vessel, the pilot boat and her drills among them, the docking, sailing and ECDIS units, the scenario builder and Classroom TEACH come with the simulator subscription; students join shared scenarios free. SHARED SEA and the regatta need a free SkipperCheck login. A deep link puts you straight on her bridge: /colreg-simulator?scenario=familiarization&area=gulf-of-riga&vessel=pilot. Our main product is the VHF course (€199, /vhf-course) — "Charter Ready": the VHF certificate plus simulator practice.

FAQ

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in the browser — a laptop, a Chromebook, an iPad or a phone. A game controller works too.

Which side of the ship do I go to?

Her lee side, where the ladder is; the ship keeps the wind on her other bow for you. On her weather side she sends you round.

What fails the drill?

A touch faster than 2 kn; lying alongside under her bow flare or at her quarter; close under her stern in her screw race; crossing ahead of her bow; the ladder struck with the pilot on it; 25 minutes without finishing.

Can I watch it done before I try?

Yes. ▶ DEMO sails the transfer with every order on the real control and a bar saying why; then ▶ YOUR TURN gives you the same situation.

Can a school run this for a class?

Yes. 🎓 CLASSROOM lets an instructor open a DRILL class on pilot transfers for up to 30 students; students take part free.

Try the pilot transfer drills

Open /colreg-simulator, choose the PILOT BOAT under VESSEL and press ⚑ PILOT. Watch the ▶ DEMO once, then put the pilot aboard the laden tanker yourself.

Related reading

• Tug simulator — towing, escort and push-pull with real towlines, in the browser
• Ship bridge simulator — handle a 183 m tanker and a 260 m cruise ship from a live bridge, in the browser
• Offshore simulator — PSV dynamic positioning at a platform and CTV push-on transfers at a wind turbine, in the browser
• Pilot boat simulator — pilot transfers at sea, in the browser
• Tanker simulator — ship handling on a 183 m product tanker, in the browser
• All articles · Open the simulator

Boat types are described generically; SkipperCheck is not affiliated with any boat builder or class association.