We will propose a series of reports to better understand life on the port of Saint-Florent.
2nd series: the agents of the fairing area
- Nathalie Santucci et
- Eric Ventre
1- Can you explain your role within the maintenance area, also known as the refit area?
We are in charge of the organization of the launching, the grounding and the departures on trailers of the ships relying on a planning between the private ones and the professionals.
We are also in charge of the management of the micro-waste collection plant, which collects different types of waste such as used oils or fuels, but also flares.
We manage the equipment for the maintenance of port facilities (docks, pontoons, electrical terminals, etc.). During the winter period, we also maintain the premises and equipment (crane and cushioning parts).
The port has anti-pollution equipment, including an absorbent dam and a containment dam, and we ensure that they are kept in good condition and ready to deploy quickly if needed, as was the case recently when a boat caught fire in the harbour.
2 – If I understand correctly, the environmental part is at the heart of your concerns?
Indeed, the preservation of the environment is an important issue that concerns all of our daily activities. We ensure that products used by users on the fairing area are biodegradable.
We collect grey and black water by pumping. There is a runoff treatment unit in the buried fairing area, where all the products from the maintenance of the boats are collected. These flows are collected in a 30m33 tank via a filtration system.
By practicing all these gestures, we obtained the blue flag label and more recently the clean port certification.
3 – What are the different challenges you face?
The most difficult is to reconcile the organization and the expectations of the users, from the arrival of the beautiful days everyone rushes to put his boat in the water.
Manoeuvring the gantry also requires a lot of concentration because the activity is dense, there is a movement activity on the fairing area due to the traffic of pedestrians and vehicles.
4 – What are the highlights of your activity?
Our activity starts from March to peak in May, June, July.
Boaters all want to get their boats back in the water quickly after their refits, at the same time in early spring.
The area has between 15 and 20 places according to the dimensions of the ships and we carry out approximately 800 grubbing per year.
5 – What is your activity during the winter?
We maintain the crane (emptying, lubrication, hydraulic circuit control etc…).
The infrastructure is maintained by us (the painting, the repairs, the redevelopment of the premises and the fairing area) in order to improve the functioning of our work of grubbing and to prepare upstream the season that arrives very quickly.
