eNEWS:

Captain Don Cockrill MBE CMMar FNI - Secretary General, UK Maritime Pilots Association

Following eighteen years of a commercial seafaring career during which he progressed from cadet to master specialising in petro-chemicals, he joined the Port of London Authority as a pilot in 1991, from where he retired in December 2019.

Currently and throughout almost all of his pilotage career he has been involved one way or another in the administration and work of the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots’ Association, most recently in the role of Secretary General.

He represents the International Maritime Pilots’ Association in a number of PIANC working groups and as IMPA’s partnership representative on PIANC’s Navigating a Changing Climate coalition committee.

A Chartered Master Mariner and a younger brother of Trinity House, Don was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours for voluntary services to Maritime Pilotage and the Port Industry.

He is passionate about the promotion of safety issues and the maintenance of the highest professional standards. His significant lifelong experience and associated expertise in maritime operations within the ports and shipping industries is widely sought after. Most recently that involves implications for port shipping navigation arising from the development of autonomous vessels (MASS) and also the inevitable effects of climate change on port operations.

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Commercial Time Pressures and the Increased Speed of Workboats in All Conditions

For millennia, man has devised innovative designs of craft for working afloat. Inevitably the designs have had to accommodate the demands of market forces. Speed has become a governing factor to reduce travel time from point to point and arguably increasing the cost efficiency of operations.

In this presentation the consequences of these developments will be discussed with particular respect to personnel, the overall safety of operations and whether perhaps there are unintended consequences affecting operational efficiency.

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