Helier De Veulle, a member of the St Catherine’s crew, said that the walk-out of the St Helier crew last year had allowed the RNLI to restructure its operations in the Island, paving the way for closer relations between the stations at St Helier and St Catherine.
With a new crew for the St Helier station undergoing training, Mr De Veulle said that RNLI staff from the UK are currently flying over to man St Helier’s all-weather lifeboat George Sullivan when necessary.
‘We are effectively up and running at the moment. We are keeping an eye on the weather forecasts and if there are high-strength winds forecast we will bring over a coxswain, mechanic and navigators from the UK,’ he said.
‘This is at no cost to Jersey – the RNLI is paying for this, which demonstrates the commitment the RNLI has to Jersey.
‘We want to get to a stage where we have a totally locally-based crew but it is difficult to say at this time when this will happen. I wouldn’t want to speculate.’
He added that the closer working relations between St Catherine and St Helier would allow volunteers from each crew to provide cover for each other, if necessary.
‘We have brought the teams together under one management under the leadership of Nigel Sweeney and it has allowed us to redesign,’ he said.
‘This will allow us to share our years of experience and move crew around between the two lifeboat stations, if there’s a shortage at one of them.’
Mr De Veulle said that the RNLI was still looking for volunteers to man their St Helier station.
‘In order to apply you don’t necessarily need any seafaring experience, although it is preferable,’ he said.
‘You just need to understand the commitment of being a volunteer. The families of volunteers are also important as they need to understand the support that is required.’
