The Pilots’ Association of the Bay and River Delaware has taken delivery of a new pilot boat from Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation. It’s the pilots’ association’s fourth Chesapeake Class launch and 11th pilot boat built by the Somerset, Mass., shipyard since 1957.
With a deep-V hull designed by Ray Hunt Design, the new all-aluminum launch Pennsylvania measures 53.6’ overall, with a 17.8’ beam, 4.9’ draft and 690 gal. fuel capacity.
Gladding-Hearn laid the keel for the new vessel in Sept. 2023 and launched the boat in Dec. 2024. Pennsylvania was officially handed over to the pilots on Jan. 10, 2025.
The boat is powered by twin Volvo Penta D16 diesel engines, each rated for 651 hp at 1,800 rpm. Top speed is over 25 knots. The engines turn five-blade Bruntons propellers via ZF 500-1-A reverse/reduction gear boxes with a ratio of 1.767:1
Pennsylvania’s wheelhouse, with a small trunk, is amidships on a flush deck. It has electrically-heated forward-leaning front and side windows for deicing and four tinted windows on the roof. The wheelhouse has the helm station on center with the Volvo Penta EVC electronic control system and Furuno Nav/Comm. Aft of the helm station are four Stidd reclining seats and a luggage rack. The forecastle includes an upholstered settee and a hanging locker for exposure suits. The vessel also features a FLIR M364 thermal camera system.
The decks and exterior handrails are heated to minimize ice formation from flying spray. A three-zone hydronic cabin, deck, and handrail heating system circulates heated water through tubes fastened below the main deck, handrails and through three fan-coil units, two in the wheelhouse and one in the forecastle. Treated water is heated by a 120,000 Btu Espar Hydronic 35 diesel-fired “boiler” and main engine waste heat. An auxiliary A.C. heater in the wheelhouse heats the vessel while on shore power.
A control station is located at the transom. A rotating pipe davit is welded to the deck at the forward end of the rescue stairs recessed in the boat’s transom. A self-tailing, two-speed manual winch mounted on the davit, along with a Naiad-Dynamics Mate-Saver rescue noose, aids in retrieving a pilot.
The Pilots' Association for the Bay and River Delaware is responsible for the navigation of commercial vessels on the Delaware River and Bay and its tributaries, the Schuylkill and Salem Rivers and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, from the Atlantic Ocean to the head of navigation in Trenton, N.J.