MARIGOT--Vice-Admiral Thierry Niogret, the Inspector-General responsible for seventy Société National Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM) stations in the North Sea, English Channel and Overseas Territories areas paid a visit to the St. Martin sea rescue station on March 23 and 24, the last stop on a two-week stay in the French Antilles.
A press release from SNSM indicated President Ingenu Magras and Vice-President Paul Piron from the SNSM station in St. Barths came to St. Martin at midday March 23 to meet him at his hotel along with Head of Maritime Affairs for St. Martin and St. Barths, Michael Wery, St. Martin SNSM President René-Jean Duret, Vice-President Jean-Claude van Rymenant, and Coxswain Gilles Dubroca.
The Vice-Admiral was given a tour of the island by land and sea in the afternoon, for the latter in SNSM’s rigid inflatable boat (RIB) Rescue Star. He participated in the unscheduled towing of a sailboat that ran aground in the Simpson Bay Lagoon due to the absence of a marker showing where draft is too shallow in places. In the evening he was present for the weekly meeting of volunteers to get to know them and answer their questions.
At the gathering he reassured volunteers that repairs to the SNSM 129 lifeboat badly damaged during Hurricane Gonzalo are continuing and the repair work is more serious than previously thought. However, SNSM 129 is still on schedule to be returned to St. Martin in the summer of 2016 following validation of the repair work by Bureau Veritas and the ship safety commission CSN.
The Vice-Admiral emphasised the importance of training for volunteers to be more proficient and qualified in their work while expressing hope more volunteers can be recruited. He praised the volunteer team in St. Martin for their “dynamism, selfless dedication and positive spirit.”
In the morning of March 24, Vice-Admiral Niogret paid a visit to President of the Territorial Council Aline Hanson, Préfète Anne Laubies and Director of the Port, Albéric Ellis, before taking the return flight to Paris.
