In front of the Suomenlinna sea fortress lies Harmaja Island, whose lighthouse and pilot station bring vessels safely into Helsinki’s harbours.

The pilotage decree issued by Charles XI of Sweden in 1696 is considered to be the founding charter of Finland’s pilotage services.  It joined southern Finland to the rest of Sweden’s pilotage organisation. That was 328 years ago this year. The historical kingdom of Sweden–Finland was established in medieval times, and decrees on pilotage services had been in place since the 1200s.

“The concept of pilotage remains exactly the same today. Our process – of sailing a boat next to a ship and climbing aboard using pilot ladders – hasn’t changed in three hundred years,” says Mika Mäkinen, Ship Captain and Chief Pilot at the Pilot Dispatch Centre in Helsinki.

“Yet while the process is still the same, many other things have changed. Both pilot boats and ships have evolved, as have safety equipment, clothing and life jackets. For example, we now wear helmets when we board a ship,” he says.

Today’s ships are very different from when Mäkinen started at Harmaja several decades ago.

“Helsinki is a nice place to work, as our area includes Porkkala to the west, and we also do jobs at the Port of Sköldvik’s oil harbour. We work with a very broad spectrum of vessels, and both the mentality and expertise of their bridge crews also vary a lot.”

Harbour manoeuvres the best part of the job

When Mäkinen was working as a ship captain, the best part of his job was sailing his ship up to the quay and back out to sea, aka “harbour manoeuvres”.

“So it was a surprise to me how often captains want to leave that part to the pilot. It’s a routine job for us, of course, but it feels like we’re bringing more and more ships to the quay every year,” says Mäkinen.

There has been little ice at sea recently, as the last few winters have been quite mild.

“There was more ice last winter, which gave us pilots a good reminder of what to do in icy conditions and how to dock a ship when there’s ice between the ship and the quay.

The ships coming to Vuosaari are bigger than ever, and there can’t be any ice left between the ship and the quay, otherwise the cranes can’t reach the furthest containers. It’s an art in itself.”

More tugboats are required these days, as the size of the ships visiting Helsinki has increased and they have more wind surface area than before. Mäkinen says that it’s natural for pilots to provide guidance on the use of tugboats as well.

Kustaanmiekka Strait is the toughest spot

Mäkinen says that things are fairly easy for pilots working in Helsinki, as the ships visiting its harbours use the latest maritime industry technology.

“They help to keep us on the crest of the wave, and we know what kind of new equipment ships are getting. Learning about new technology has come naturally to us. Of course, we receive training as well, for example, when cruise ships adopted Azipod propeller systems, in which an electric motor drives the propeller.”

On their approach to the South Harbour, ships will encounter the toughest spot in the entire Helsinki region: the Kustaanmiekka Strait. Mäkinen says that 70 per cent of the cruise ships that stopped in Helsinki ten years ago came into the South Harbour from Kustaanmiekka Strait, while 30 per cent went to the West Harbour. Now the tables have turned, and most cruise ships come to the West Harbour. New pilots no longer get to build up the same Kustaanmiekka Strait expertise as their older counterparts. “However, we’re grateful that half of this summer’s cruise ships will be coming to the South Harbour, which means we’ll be able to sail through the Kustaanmiekka Strait again.”

Pilots must be qualified ship captains

The minimum qualification for becoming a pilot is to be a ship captain. The majority of pilots in the Helsinki region have actively worked as ship captains, but it’s not mandatory.

“I’m a fairly classic example myself. I worked as a ship captain for five years, and then for about another year after my son was born. But when my daughter announced her arrival, I started thinking that I could do something else than sail the seven seas. I asked an acquaintance what this job was like, and they convinced me that it would be the right move.”

The retirement age for pilots used to 55, and new pilots were continuously being hired. These days, pilots tend to be about ten years older when they retire.

“We haven’t recruited any new pilots recently, but people will be retiring over the coming years, so we’ll soon be in a position to start hiring again.”

Pilotage Act amended last year

The new Pilotage Act, which governs pilotage services, came into force on 1 September 2023 and has required pilots to internalise new things. The Act aims to promote maritime safety, improve fairway navigation expertise and prevent environmental damage caused by vessel traffic. The Pilotage Act introduced significant changes to a vessel’s obligation to use pilotage services and to personal permits and the grounds for their issue.

“The new Pilotage Act has had a huge impact on pilots’ work. It defines not only pilotage areas, but also borders for using pilotage services. A line has been drawn in front of each harbour to show by what point a pilot must be onboard vessels of a certain size. And also the earliest point at which a pilot may disembark from a ship that is leaving Helsinki. Although this has been a major change, it’s already routine for us now,” says Mäkinen.

Source: Miehet merellä, hetkiä luotsauksen historiasta (Men at Sea  – A History of Pilotage, John Nurminen Foundation).