Ship Mate New, safer boat helps get pilots aboard tankers and other vessels to guide them up Penobscot Bay

It sounds like a stunt for TV’s “Fear Factor”: Climb from a moving boat onto a rope ladder hanging from a moving oil tanker in the dead of night while seas and winds rage.

For the crew of the Belfast-based Penobscot Bay and River Pilots Association, that’s business as usual – though the business of boat-to-ship transfer just got a little bit easier. In May, the pilots received delivery of a new 48-foot vessel designed especially for boat-to-ship transfers.

But it’s still scary.

By state and federal law, captains of incoming shipping vessels bound for port in Searsport, Bucksport and Bangor, as well as cruise ships headed to Bar Harbor, turn over their wheels at the southern tip of Penobscot Bay to trained pilots. This includes 500-foot-long oil tankers, huge barges and seagoing tugs.

The pilots have intimate knowledge of the waters of Penobscot Bay, and they are responsible for safely bringing the vessels to dock.

The new 48-footer, docked in Rockland, cost the pilots close to $500,000, said David Gelinas, who founded the business in 1996 with three other pilots. It replaces a converted 36-foot sport fishing boat.

“That boat served us well,” he said of the vessel the pilots are selling. But with low interest rates and the prospect of increased shipping business when a new pier goes into service at Mack Point in Searsport in August, the time seemed right to buy a new boat, he said.

The new vessel, a fiberglass craft built by Liberty Yachts in Riviera Beach, Fla., is bigger, faster and safer, Gelinas said.

Among its custom features: a 7-inch-thick foam “collar” that is molded into the hull to better absorb the inevitable bumps and collisions that occur when the boat rides up against the hull of a tanker.

Its two six-cylinder Cummins diesel engines produce a total of 430 horsepower to the propeller-driven vessel, said Capt. Jane Ryan. And its specially configured propeller “takes a big bite out of the water,” she said.

Ryan said the boat is kept in Rockland so it can easily meet ships as they near the to the bay’s shipping lanes – one southwest of Matinicus Island, the other just east of Matinicus. Depending on weather, she plans on about 90 minutes of travel time once the boat is in motion.

The new boat has a watertight cabin and three watertight bulkheads that create four watertight compartments, making the boat safer, Gelinas said.

The boat can travel at 30 knots per hour, but Ryan doesn’t like to push the limits of the engine, or pound the pilots on the trip out to the mouth of the bay. The deck and superstructure have a foam core, making everything lighter and presumably faster.

Ryan says she takes a pilot to a ship 15 to 20 times a month.

The pilot might nap during the trip out, especially if the rendezvous is late at night. Ryan establishes radio contact with the incoming vessel, and the ship’s whereabouts are monitored by radar so the two meet at the designated spot at the right time.

Ryan said she and the ship’s captain talk by radio, “and we arrange for which side the pilot’s going to get on.” As the pilot boat approaches, the ship will turn to create a “lee,” blocking the wind and waves, she said.

Ryan then eases her boat against the hull of the ship. It’s ironic, she said, that after years of training to avoid other vessels, she has had to learn to run her boat against another.

“For years, you’ve been staying away from ships,” Ryan said. “You do touch, but you try not to hit hard.”

Both vessels continue moving – at a speed of about 9 knots – because the ship will lose steering control if it stops.

The ship’s crew then tosses a Jacob’s ladder over the side, which is a rope ladder with wooden slats. The pilot grabs it and scrambles aboard.

The new boat features a wide bow deck surfaced with a nonskid material and strategically located rails on which the pilot can keep steady.

“It’s a much more secure platform from which to work,” said Gelinas of the new boat’s bow. Once aboard, pilots use electronic tools such as the global positioning system and their knowledge of the bay. But the human element remains essential.

And there’s always the just-in-case factor, which forces pilots to wear flotation suits if by chance they fall. At night, spotlights on the boat illuminate the whole operation.