Pilot boats now under construction in three U.S. regions are being designed around very different local conditions.

For New York Harbor, Snow & Company is building the 36-foot aluminum jet boat Scotland for the Sandy Hook Pilots Association, with delivery expected this month. On the lower Mississippi, Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding is building two Venice-class boats for Delta Launch Services, due in the first quarter of 2027. “There’s a lot of debris in the river… It’s like a big washing machine,” said Gladding-Hearn president Peter Duclos.

In Alaska, Bay Weld Boats is building a 90.5-foot, 3,200-hp aluminum pilot boat for Southwest Alaska Pilots with four Cummins diesels, waterjets and a Seakeeper gyrostabilizer. “It snows 600 inches in a year in Valdez… We need heated decks,” said Capt. Ron Ward.

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