THE fleet of Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) ports and harbours has been further boosted with the acquisition of a new pilot launch, named “Kakabelly”, which arrived in Guyana on December 1, 2012. According to Senior Coxswain Vibert Gibson, the pilot launch, Kakabelly, is used to take pilots aboard vessels to bring them into the Demerara Ship’sChannel, then to the harbour at Port Georgetown.

The name of the pilot launch was originally “Tactful”, but that was changed to “Kakabelly” after it started to operate at MARAD.

The vessel came from the United Kingdom, and is in good working order. It has been complemented by a computerised system, goes to about 23 knots, and is deemed a very fast vessel, Mr. Gibson said.

He added that the Kakabelly is fibreglass and is manned by professionals, and that at any given time, the vessel is operated by a coxswain, a sailor, an engineer and a supervisor on board.

Meanwhile, Chief Engineer Edgar Harris said that MARAD was in dire need of such a vessel to boost performance of the department, and after applying, MARAD has been able to acquire the ‘Kakabelly’. When the vessel arrived in Guyana, it docked at the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) wharf.

Harris said the vessel is very useful, in that it is very fast at sea and is capable of doing the work intended in reasonable time and with less fuel. He noted that the Kakabelly certainly complemented the MARAD fleet of pilot launches – “ML Thompson” and “ML Alan Younge”.

He pointed out that MARAD operates on a 24-hour basis, and the ‘Kakabelly’ is also capable of performing at nights. He admitted that the Kakabelly is faster than the other vessels, and that the work is completed easier now, since the vessel went into operation.

The Kakabelly operates out of the MARAD wharf at Stabroek, Georgetown.