Pendennis headland was crowded with people on Sunday afternoon to see Falmouth Harbour’s new £1.6m pilot boat Atlantic arrive from the builders, Holyhead Marine in North Wales.

This vessel is a state of the art vessel built to the latest specifications and Coding for pilot boats.

Escorted by the pilot boat Arrow, both vessels sped into the harbour entrance at 20 knots making an impressive entry - history in the making!

The building of Atlantic, which took 18 months to complete, is one of the biggest investments by the Trust Port for almost 20 years. All around the UK ports are investing in new pilot boats ahead of the new regulations soon to be introduced.

“This long-awaited and incredibly important investment represents a very exciting time for us and a statement about our confidence in the future of commercial shipping in our Harbour,” said Miles Carden, CEO of Falmouth Harbour.

 Atlantic under construction. Image: Falmouth Harbour, Camarc/Holyhead Marine ServiceThe port now has two very capable pilot vessels, Arrow and Atlantic, to maintain the 24-hour Pilotage Service in all weathers. With more than 1,000 boarding and landings of pilots in a year, and with trade increasing very slowly, the port needs such craft to carry out future pilotage work.

“Atlantic’s construction is a significant step forward in technology, fuel efficiency and sustainability which will modernise Falmouth Harbour’s Pilotage service, securing safe and efficient operations for the future benefit of the Port and its many stakeholders.

"It will help make us absolutely fit for purpose to realise future opportunities around technologies such as Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW),” said Miles.

Atlantic replaces the 46-year-old LK Mitchell, which left the port in September surrounded by a flotilla of well-wishers, bound for a gentler commercial role on the West Coast of Scotland in Campbeltown.

LK Mitchell  leaving port escorted by  pilot boat Arrow and launch James Dalton. Image: David BarnicoatHolyhead Marine won a competitive tender process of top vessel builders around the UK, with a remit to make full use of modern advances in fuel-saving technology, safety and crew welfare and to have the new 16.6m dedicated coded pilot vessel operational in 2024.

“Our Pilot boat crews work throughout the year, in all weathers and conditions, to keep our harbour open and safe to shipping, and they deserve the best equipment we can buy,” said Miles. “We are very excited to welcome Atlantic into our pilot fleet - she will be an incredible asset for the next 20 to 30 years.

“She will be one of the few Tier 3 compliant pilot vessels operating in the country - with features which help Falmouth Harbour meet our sustainability targets - and will run on HVO fuel as soon as her trials are complete."

Atlantic has the Camarc Design refined 16.6m pilot boat hull form, which has been developed to improve efficiency, comfort, reduce fuel consumption and enhance seakeeping capability.

The vessel is in dedicated Pilot vessel configuration with aft wheelhouse and forward engine room. This gives her a design speed of over 22knots, a range of over 250 nautical miles, and 30% more efficient than her predecessor the LK Mitchell.

For the technically minded, additional specifications include:

  1. The new vessel will run off hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO). It was decided that the only way to rapidly reduce emissions associated with diesel powered vessels was to replace diesel with HVO, which is up to 90% less carbon intensive. This allows Falmouth Harbour to reduce current Scope 1 emissions from 139 tones (based on 2022 fuel use) to around 13.9 tonnes per year.
  2. The vessel is fitted with twin 6 cylinder turbocharged 600hp Scania 13 l diesel 4 stroke IMO complaint Tier III engines, giving drastically reduced emissions with up to a 74 per cent cut in NOx emissions and when run on HVO co2 emissions can be reduced up to 90 per cent.
  3. Emissions are reduced via a Tier III SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, this works by injecting a reducing (AdBlue/urea) into the exhaust system. This injection causes a reaction between the NOx and the agent creating nitrogen and water.
  4.  Wheelhouse: the vessel has a resilient mounted wheelhouse, that reduces noise levels and increases comfort with modern forward raking bonded windows for added visibility.
  5. Camarc “Popsure” fender system protects the structure against impact loads. This gives the benefit of no through hull fasteners and reduced stress on the hull. The outer tube takes any abrasion while the modular foam outer spreads any loads over a large area. The modular nature of the fender allows any damaged sections to be easily replaced.
  6. Future-proofed design allows Falmouth Harbour to consider future propulsion and fuels: the spacious engine compartment gives plenty of working space around the machinery for ease of maintenance and a large removable engine hatch enables the engines to be lifted out of the vessel with minimum effort.

Atlantic replaces the 46-year-old the LK Mitchell, a 17.5m Nelson 56 pilot vessel built in 1978, and is now working alongside Arrow, a 16.7m Halmatic built modern pilot vessel built in 2006.

Falmouth Harbour’s pilot boat operation run by Falmouth Pilot Services has two, coded, all-weather vessels working in rotation, which is essential to ensure complete coverage of the area and allow for vessel downtime and maintenance.