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Displaying items by tag: Digital Pilot

The first ports group in Europe, Associated British Ports (ABP) is to use a new digital Master Pilot Exchange programme developed by Ports of Auckland, eMPX, simplifying the current process.

Already in use at ports in Australia and New Zealand, ABP’s 21 ports across the UK (among them Ayr, Barrow and Cardiff) will become the first European-based ports to roll out and use the software. After a successful trial completed in 2021, eMPX will assist all ABP marine pilots in helping to guide ships of all shapes and sizes into safe harbours.

eMPX, the new global standard for master-pilot exchange, is designed with cutting-edge technology, and provides pilots with an entirely digital experience, eliminating the need for paper-based processes.

Using an iPad, pilots will be able to plan ahead of a vessel’s arrival at port, before sharing the plans and port data with ships’ masters, with the ability to update the plan if a ship is delayed. Data can also be stored, with all data then stored in the cloud, readily available for future reference.

The use of eMPX at ABP’s ports is part of its long-term vision for digitalisation. Already in use amongst marine pilots in Southampton, ABP plans to roll out eMPX with pilots in its other 20 ports by the end of 2022.

Published in Ports & Shipping

New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs,  Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.