Nigel Sweeny MBE

I first joined RNLI Jersey in 1977 and crewed the various inshore lifeboats for 22 1/2 years, including 14 as senior helm. Age dictated my stepping down but in 2000 I was appointed as the Lifeboat Operations Manager for St Catherine's. In 2014, through the UK system, I was honoured with an MBE for services to maritime safety and during 2017, I was appointed as LOM for the operational management of St Helier Station thereby connecting both lifeboat stations into what is RNLI Jersey. In this role, I am responsible for all operational aspects of both stations, including authorising launches, recruitment, implementing and communicating directives from RNLI Support Centre, managing operations and protocols with Jersey Coastguard, as well as having oversight of the stations’ finances, social and fund-raising demands. I have fantastic support from my long suffering family and in my spare time I run a chartered surveying practice! There have been many memorable events over the years but a special one was a shout to St Ouen's Bay after a plane spotted an upturned boat following a (needle in a haystack sort of) search, running into darkness, we (St Catherine's Lifeboat) found and retrieved a young ten year old boy in the middle of St Ouen's Bay tied to a pot market by his dad who had swum for help after they capsized but who sadly succumbed before reaching shore. Our searchlight beam picked out this little face in the water where he had been alone in darkness for four hours - a miraculous result and a happy ending to a tragic event; meeting him and his mother a few weeks later was incredibly heart-warming.