The tender can now quickly reduce its height on the surface by a metre, on either one or both sides, and can easily transfer pilots onto and off ships with freeboards of two metres and less, when weather conditions allow. Tanks are flooded in a maximum of five minutes and vented in three.

Officials said one big advantage was that the 25.2m long, 20 knot Dose could now handle several ships in one operation without having to stop where ships had low freeboards and call in the motor boat on the 49.9m long pilot mother ship Elbe. Until now the mother ship has had to heave to and launch its motor boat to reach ships with low freeboards.

Another positive result of the new ballast system was in sea rescue operations, LBV chief Schoon explained. The rescue lift could now be lowered a metre below the surface and recover people in a horizontal position, even when a sea was running and inside just two minutes.

The LBV has now decided to have the new fast ballast system fitted on sister tender Duhnen .Both SWATH vessels, which are much more stable than conventional pilot ships, were delivered by Abeking & Rasmussen in 1999 and have performed good service in the German Bight, one of the busiest shipping areas in the world.

A third SWATH tender is currently being built by Abeking & Rasmussen for delivery in Autumn 2004. It will incorporate the new fast ballast system.