ICE PILOTS WITH IMO ADVANCED POLAR CODE CERTIFICATION COURSES 7.11 AND 7.12

SKUAPILOTS is a private Chilean company that offers the service of fully trained professionals with proven expertise to navigate on Antarctic waters. Our Ice Pilots goal is to give unparalleled, exclusive and personalized support and services required by shipping companies engaged in travels and visits to the Antarctic waters area, with passenger and scientific ships and yachts.

You can be assured that the services we deliver will be customized to your specific needs.

Our Mission

Provide high standard assistance in Antarctic navigation advisory with expert and experience Ice Pilots that will support passenger, scientific and logistic vessels and yachts venturing into the Antarctic waters south of the Cape Horn.

Our Vision

To be a highly qualified provider of well trained and skilled professionals to assist and deliver integral solutions that will satisfy the needs of our customers in their planning, navigation and exploration of the Antarctic routes, offering the most exclusive alternatives for the safety, comfort and efficiency of their operations. Our clients, ship owners or operators should enjoy a safe navigation and tourism in the Antarctic waters on passenger vessels (cruises), scientific vessels and yachts.

Skua Hice Pilots - Logo Completo Blanco

Our Ice Pilots

Our ice pilot´s main competencies are:

Retired Captains of the Chilean Navy or the National Merchant Marine with a vast experience on board and multiple expeditions in command or advising ships that have operated in Antarctica.

Many years as authorized maritime pilots by the Chilean government to pilot passenger, cargo, scientific ships and yachts along the extended Chilean channels area.

Approved courses in Operations on Antarctic waters, certified by Chilean Maritime Authority. In some cases, Instructor for those courses. IMO advanced Polar Code certified, courses 7.11 and 7.12

Experts in the norms of environmental protection and preservation of the Antarctic continent.

Fully familiarized with the different and specific supports that can be found in the area. Among all the countries in the world, Chile is the nearest to the Antarctic… we are “locals”.

Our Services

SKUAPILOTS will provide Ice Pilots and the necessary navigation advisory services to make your maritime journey to the Antarctic waters a wonderful, safe, unique and unforgettable life experience.

In addition, our professionals can also give you the support you may require in the following areas:

In summary, our presence and assistance during your voyage, both in the planning and in the daily activities, allows us to provide advice to a vessel captain, with a high level of competence, ensuring that SAFETY is our ruling principle, for the people, for the ship and for the environment, all of which will make your expedition to the Antarctica, an unforgettable adventure.

Our Tariffs

Our tariffs are on a daily basis, in US dollar currency, agreed in advance ―from case to case― between each client interested in taking the trip to the Antarctica and our Operations Management, depending on the project the ship intends to undertake and its dimensions.

Administrative area

Gerardo Covacevich

Founder and General Manager gcovac@skuapilots.com Phone: +56 9 99492720 Punta Arenas-born, Navy Officer (Ret) and retired authorized pilot with a 28-year experience in the Patagonian Fjords.

Eugenio Arellano

Operations Manager earellano@skuapilots.com Phone: +56 9 98206499 Valparaiso-born Navy Officer (Ret) who was the Head of the Pilotage Office of the Chilean Directorate General of the Maritime Territory for 12 years.

Gallery

NEWS

September 9-13, 2019: IMO appointed one of our Ice Pilots, Captain Roberto Garnham, as a Consultant to conduct a workshop at South American level, with support from the Canadian Government, to apply the Polar Code in Antarctic navigation.

January 27th 2020: SKUA Pilots was  invited to participate in the annual meeting of  Antarctic  Policy Council  at our country’s Chancellor’s Office on January 27th 2020 and was represented by two of our Ice Pilots. The event was chaired by the Chancellor Teodoro Ribera, and other authorities present were the Defense Minister Alberto Espina and the Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt. The Chief Commander of the Chilean Navy and the Director General of the Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine also attended the event.

March 6th, 2020: “The main tourism authority in Chile, Undersecretary Monica Zalaquett and her closest collaborators, received SKUAPILOTS, opportunity in which we presented them our  project and also offered to help in any instance our advice on Antarctic matters is required.”

Contact us now

Antarctica is the most hostile continent in the world. Navigating its waters present very particular difficulties and characteristics. To a geography made up of numerous archipelagos, islands, channels and fjords, large quantities of different types of ice are united. Some ice, permanently generated from the continent, give rise to glaciers, ice barriers or platforms and those characteristic floating masses called icebergs. Others, originated in the freezing of sea water and of quite different properties, form the dynamic "pack ice" that can reach two meters thick. All of the above show the indispensability of having a broad and deep knowledge of the scenario for a safe navigation in these peculiar waters.

Send us your request