NSRI man to help at St Helena:

NSRI training officer Graeme Harding has been seconded to Gemini Marine for 7 weeks to assist in the establishing of a sea rescue service on the island of Saint Helena.Presently the ship, RMS Saint Helena, is the only transport between St Helena (in the mid South Atlantic, roughly between Angola and Brazil) and Cape Town.With the construction of an airport by Basil Read , which will be completed in early 2016, it is expected that the tourism industry will be boosted by up to 5 200 visitors annually. Part of the requirement for the new airport is a sea rescue capability for when the aeroplanes come in to land and as a secondary role as a sea rescue operation capable of assisting the locals.Gemini Marine supplied two 8,5 metre Airport Rescue RIBs, each equipped with 2 x 200HP Mercury outboard engines fitted with PIRS ( post immersion restart system ) never before seen in South Africa , state of the art marine and aviation communication systems and two fast deployable 50 man life rafts on each boat specially tailored for mass rescue operations. The two boats will be stationed on the island at Rupert’s Bay .Graeme, who has a background as a SAMSA accredited skipper trainer, Knysna NSRI station commander and national training officer for the NSRI, will spend seven weeks with the Saint Helena volunteers setting up a proficient sea rescue service from scratch.Graeme will leave Cape Town on the 3rd of July to firstly do a familiarisation course on the boats with the crew, thereafter a pre-induction to sea rescue training and establish procedures for the organisation and boathouse as well as training the volunteer crews for their specific tasksGemini Marine has also made a generous donation to the NSRI. Graeme Harding.