NCI 30th Anniversary Celebration
In 1994 two Cornish fishermen lost their lives within sight of the recently closed Coastguard Lookout at Bass Point. A group of concerned local people decided that keeping a visual watch along the coast would significantly contribute to marine safety. And so the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) was born.
This summer will see a 2,000+ mile journey of a specially commissioned flag (pictured above) celebrating 30 years of NCI. The 1.5m x 1m flag bears the names of all NCI stations in order of longevity (so Prawle Point appears in the first column, as the 12th station to open and the first beyond the Tamar).
Locally, the flag arrived from Rame Head on July 8 and on the morning of Tuesday July 9 the flag was duly carried aboard one of Britannia Royal Naval College’s Vahanna transport boats; this boat along with an escort vessel carried the flag on its journey to Dartmouth for handover to the next station, NCI Froward Point. Many thanks to all those who attended the brief handover ceremony on what was a most un-summer like day with murky conditions and the odd bit of mizzle.
The 30th Anniversary celebration has been sponsored by Sirius Insight. After the completion of the flag’s journey (NCI Filey, August 25) it will be received by HRH The Princess Royal and then exhibited at Trinity House in London. Media enquiries to Richard Povall.
