The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) celebrated its 20th Anniversary at a lunch at the Royal Naval Air Station, Culdrose on Saturday 28th June. The event was organised by Peter Clements, Station Manager of NCI Bass Point on the Lizard, the first station to be established.
Some 40 past and present members of the NCI, led by their Chairman, Alan Richards, were joined by the Chairman of Cornwall Council, members of HM Coastguard Falmouth, HM Coastguard Cliff Rescue Teams from Mullion and Porthoustock, the UK Border Force and the Cadgwith Fishing Fleet together with their wives and partners. Daphne Skinnard, Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall, was the Guest of Honour.
The Celebration began with a Service of Thanksgiving, in the Naval Chapel of Peter and Paul, led by the Revd Brian Swabey and the Revd Tim Wilkinson RN. Lunch was taken in the Wardroom of HMS Seahawk.
At the lunch, long service certificates were awarded to several NCI Members, including Jon Gifford OBE, Honorary President of the NCI. Robbie Wilson from Ruan Minor was awarded the first ever 20-year certificate being the only original member left from those who started at Bass Point in 1994.
In his welcoming address, NCI Chairman Alan Richards said:"Happy Birthday Bass Point and Happy Birthday National Coastwatch Institution.
"It is particularly appropriate for us to meet here today because it is Armed Forces Day and we are able to recognise and thank the men and women of our armed services and remember those who have been injured or given their lives in the service of this country.
"I am ... delighted to see that other family members are here today. Her Majesty's Coastguard, the RNLI, the Royal Navy Search and Rescue teams and the UK Border Force. You are all very welcome and we, as an organisation, are proud to be a supportive part of the national Search and Rescue Organisation.
"NCI was borne out of tragedy twenty years ago when two fishermen lost their lives in an accident which occurred not far from an old, abandoned, Coastguard Station at Bass Point here on the Lizard peninsula.
"A few local people determined to re-equip and re-open the station and NCI was born.
"Two of those founding members are here with us today and one of them is still a serving member of NCI.
"I wonder if they and the other committed founder members even gave a thought to the fact that twenty years on their numbers would have swollen to more than two thousand one hundred volunteers keeping watch over a significant stretch of the UK's coastline and inshore waters.
"Over the years ...the fundamental task has remained, and will remain, the same – to “Spot, Plot and Report”. These may seem to be, and indeed are, quite ordinary things. Our success has come from doing these quite ordinary things extraordinarily well.
"The success of the past twenty years leaves us, today, with an obligation to build on the foundation which has been laid. This is not our NCI, we hold it in trust for future generations and it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we do all that we can to hand on an organisation even more fit for purpose than it is today.
"We have every chance of meeting our goal of becoming a truly national Coastwatch. We start from good foundations and we have the skills to create the conditions which will allow us to draw even nearer to our full potential.
"Twenty years ago a small determined group had the courage and conviction to step into the unknown and give birth to NCI. We have nothing to fear from planned change, but everything to lose from failure to recognise the need for change. I believe that we, the present members of NCI, have the courage to step across the threshold of the present and into the future.
"So, once again Happy Birthday to us all and thank you Bass Point for inviting us."
Note:
This is an abridged version of Alan Richards' address. To read the full text please click here.