Port-Revel_Marine-marchande

Training at Port Revel
The Shiphandling Training Centre
Françoise Massard

Greetings to the week’s students


Rowan from Sydney (at the bow) and Richard from Los Angeles (at the stern), on board the GRENOBLE		Gennady (with long hair) and Vadim, both from Novoship, on board the BERLIN


Mark (at the stern) and Wally (at the bow), both from Galveston, on board the BEN FRANKLIN		Our two instructors keep a watchful eye on the exercises on the Suez canal

Our instructors

Michel Sabatier began sailing in 1963 as a cadet on an oil tanker belonging to Total, then moved to Messageries Maritimes, before joining the Sète pilotage station at the age of 32. He worked there as a pilot until he retired a few years ago... A former Port Revel student himself, things have gone full circle for him.
Jean-François Masson grew up on Molène island (Brittany) and first went to sea at the age of 17 as a ship’s boy in the Merchant Navy. He went on to become an ocean-going captain, and then a pilot at Brest from 1976 to 1999. And also a poet:

SORTIE DE NUIT

Le Pilote, en cirés, disparaît dans la nuit
Rejoignant d'un pas vif, à son appontement,
Sa robuste vedette amarrée sous le vent
De la forte tempête qui maintenant rugit.

Dès qu'il franchit le bord on largue les amarres
Et le bateau pilote, mouvante silhouette,
Cingle vers l'océan, mêlant aux cris des mouettes
De ses puissants moteurs l'incessant tintamarre.

Bravant les éléments de la mer en furie,
Secouée violemment aux tangage et roulis,
La vedette progresse cependant vers le lieu
Où au loin apparaissent, embués dans les grains,
Les feux d'un gros navire qui attend, silencieux,
L'arrivée du pilote qui le prendra en mains.

JF Masson (28/01/96)

Michel Vallette, vwho came to Port Revel for a day to operate a remote-controlled escort tug, is a former tug captain at Marseilles.

The other Port Revel instructors are:

Bernard Giland, a former pilot at Dunkirk
Jean-Paul Jeanjean, a former pilot at Sète
Jean-Marie Trousselard, a former pilot at Marseilles and Nice
Jean-Claude Serrière, pilot at Nouméa and former pilot at Casablanca
Michel Renson, former pilot at Marseilles
Marc Barthélémy, former tug captain at Marseilles.

Places to visit in the Chambaran region

Here are a few places to visit in the “Antonine area”, on the borders of the Dauphiné and Drôme regions, named after the Antonine hospital order of monks who built the Abbey of Saint-Antoine and made it a major shrine for the Catholic church in Europe for seven centuries.


A trip (and pilotage...) on the river Isère on board the Royans-Vercors	Water garden with petrifying fountains (La Sône)	Chatte railway garden (30 miniature trains - 1 km of track)	Choranche caves with their… olm salamanders


Bressieux castle (photo. A. de Graauw)	Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye: town hall and 13th century abbey church

Centre de Port Revel 38870 Saint-Pierre de Bressieux (France) – www.portrevel.com
Tél. 33 (0)4 74 20 02 40 – Fax 33 (0)4 74 20 12 29 – port.revel@sogreah.fr

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