People who sail for pleasure tend to support the Lifeboats, whose well equipped craft are stationed at strategic points around our shores, and are famously supported entirely by voluntary contributions. But the Royal National Lifeboat Institution could not operate without the Coastguard service, who co-ordinate the response by sea and air to mariners in peril. Unlike the RNLI, the Coastguards are provided by the state, so perhaps that is why we tend to take them too much for granted in their lonely lookouts, perched on cliff tops overlooking the sea. We should do so no longer. All commercial craft, and the majority of yachts, now carry VHF radios, if not also EPIRBs, and it has long been assumed that the normal medium for distress messages is the air waves, not the rocket or the hand held flare. The Coastguard are retreating to centralised stations, to listen on the radio for Pan Pan or Mayday messages on Channel 16, and to monitor the GMDSS system that is shortly to replace them. The old visual Coastguard stations are closing, and in the last month the last manned lighthouse was automated. Over long lonely stretches of the coastline there is no longer anyone to keep watch.

Like many cruising dinghies, my little Baggywrinkle carries no VHF, and although she carries a good collection of day and night flares, increasingly I wonder if they were ever used in anger, whether there is anyone left to see them. So it is heart-warming to learn that the first three of the National Coastwatch Institution’s Watch Stations have just been granted ‘Declared Facility Status’, denoting that they are fully integrated into the UK’s Search and Rescue system. The National Coastwatch Institution was set up to take over and to reopen abandoned Coastguard lookouts, manning them with volunteers, and like the RNLI, it is supported entirely by voluntary contributions. There are now 22 NCI Watch Stations, keeping a full time visual and radio watch during daylight hours over the coastal waters of the UK.

If any members are interested in supporting the work of The National Coastwatch Institution, or if you just want to know more about them, ring (01726) 833190.