Virginia Pilot Boat News

The Virginia Pilot Boat Corporation has ordered a Chesapeake Class MKII launch from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding. The MKII, a new generation of the shipyard’s popular, smaller class of pilot boats, is the Virginia pilots’ eighth Gladding-Hearn pilot boat. Delivery is scheduled for 2018. Since the Chesapeake Class pilot boat was introduced by the Somerset, Mass., shipyard in 2003, 17 have been delivered to pilot associations throughout the U.S. The latest improvements incorporate the performance benefits of Volvo Penta’s IPS 3 pod system, which provides for higher speed, lower fuel consumption, and more comfort, explained Peter Duclos, the shipyard’s president. With a deep-V hull designed by C.

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, The Duclos Corporation, is building a new class of pilot boats. The Virginia, Maryland, and Tampa pilots will be the first to operate the shipyard’s new Chesapeake class of 53-ft. launches. The first two boats will be delivered to the Virginia Pilot Boat Corporation and Association of Maryland Pilots next October. The Tampa Pilots’ boat and a sister ship for the Maryland pilots will be delivered in 2003. The Chesapeake class represents some subtle changes to the hull of the shipyard’s popular “St. Johns” class of pilot boats, said Winn Willard of C. Raymond Hunt Associates, the designer. The new all-aluminum boat measures approximately 52.5 ft., with a 17-ft. beam and a 4.8-ft. draft. It is six inches longer, and wider on deck than the St. Johns class.

Gladding Hearn, Duclos Corporation, has delivered Maryland pilot boat to Virginia Pilot Boat Corporation. It is the Virginia Pilots’ sixth Gladding-Hearn launch, but the associations’ first of the new Chesapeake class. The new all-aluminum boat measures 52.5 ft., with a 17-ft. beam and a 4.8 ft. draft. It is powered by twin Detroit Diesel Series 60-D-DEC engines, each developing 600 bhp at 2100 rpm, with top speeds of 25 knots.