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 will arrive from Rame Head on July 8 and on the morning of Tuesday July 9 at around 1015 local time the flag will be carried aboard one of Britannia Royal Naval College’s 15m Vahanna transport boats; two of these vessels will then accompany the flag on its journey to Dartmouth for handover to the next station, NCI Froward Point. You are most welcome to join us for a short ceremony at Whitestrand – details to be announced in the next newsletter.
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.
Information for the Prawle Point event on July 9
Why not come and join us in Salcombe as we send the 30th Anniversary NCI flag along its way via our friends at Britannia Royal Naval College. We will gather at 10am at Whitestrand where the specially designed embroidered flag, bearing the names of all 60 National Coastwatch stations, will be presented to the Navy for transport to Dartmouth on two of their Vahanna class vessels. If you have a boat we’d love it and would like to accompany the Vahanna either to the mouth of the estuary or, if you have a faster boat, all the way to Dartmouth.
As the flag passes Prawle Point we will dip our flags in honour of 30 years of service helping to save lives at sea and along our piece of coastline (yes, we look out for walkers as well).
