Looking back over this year, Boscastle NCI has been involved in seven incidents. An incident is when the Coastguard or one of the other blue light emergency services has been alerted by Boscastle NCI, or they have directly requested our assistance.
On two occasions vessels have had engine failures and were potentially in danger of grounding. An additional vessel grounded and required support. We were asked to search for missing paddleboarders and a missing yacht. We’ve spotted fluorescent floating objects and kayak paddles, had the lifeboat rescue a stranded family at high tide and provided shelter in a violent storm for Coast Path walkers in distress.
These incidents are typical of the work we do up at the lookout but a common theme for all of them was our intervention came early enough to prevent a situation escalating and potentially becoming a threat to life or vessel.
We use a variety of tools to help in our work; radar, VHF radio, AIS, binoculars and good old fashioned common sense to determine whether a vulnerable person or vessel needs our assistance. But this is all backed up by a thorough training program which covers topics like tides, weather, charts and maps. Our primary task is to Spot, Plot and Report.
Spot means seeing a person or vessel in distress (and keeping your eyes on them). Plot means identify their position (firstly a bearing and range, later a chart position) and then report to the Coastguard who will coordinate a response.
We are a great team of approximately 30, living locally or prepared to drive up to 30-40 min to Boscastle. All volunteers, providing 365 days of operations, in summer from 8am to 8pm and winter 8am to 4pm.
If this interests you we would love to hear from you. We have two levels of qualification (Assistant and Certified Watchkeeper, depending how far you wish to take the training). Full training is provided by a dedicated trainer over a time frame to suit each individual. Maritime experience is not necessary and most of our watchkeepers started with none. We would expect 4 hours of your time per week, plus an additional 4 hours per month in summer to cover the evening watches.
If you are interested to find out more, please drop an email to boscastle@nci.org.uk or give our Station Manager, Chris Evans, a call on 01566 781449. We look forward to hearing from you.
