About Us

The Prawle Point Watchstation has a 240° arc of visibility over the sea off the southern tip of Devon – and this sea area includes the entrance to the attractive and popular Salcombe harbour. You can pan through the full view from the watchstation by using the scroll bar beneath the picture on the left.

On a clear day (such as when the picture was taken) the hard horizon is just over 16 nautical miles distant. Thus we watch over 500 square nautical miles of sea.

A team of around 60 trained and qualified volunteer watchkeepers share daylight watches operating every day of the year. The station is equipped with telescopes, radar, radio and telephone as well as up to date charts. Through close cooperation with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), NCI at Prawle Point earned its "Declared Facility Status" in 2000, enabling us to become an integral part of the National Search and Rescue structure.

Watchkeepers are the eyes and ears along the coast, keeping a visual watch, monitoring radio channels, using radar and providing a listening watch in poor visibility. A log is maintained of all identified vessels, noting bearing, distance and heading. The work is mainly routine but watchkeepers are trained to act in an emergency, report to the MCA and if required co-ordinate with the search and rescue services.

In addition to incidents at sea, this includes potential emergencies involving the many walkers who use the coast path which passes close to the Station.