HIGH up on the cliffs above Prawle Point sits a National Coastwatch Instituion lookout, manned entirely by volunteers who maintain a watchful eye on the coast every day of the year.

Prawle Point was originally a coastguard station, but was closed down in 1994. Regular watchkeeping resumed in August 1997 and the station was formally reopened in April 1998. There are now more than 60 fully trained volunteers who turn out in all conditions to keep the station open 365 days a year.

Station manager Andy Thomson explained the main roles the lookout performs: ‘There are two levels of service we provide: search and rescue and a wide range of non search and rescue activities such as dolphin sightings.

On Sunday, March 15, NCI Prawle Point completed their annual assessment to maintain their ‘declared facility status’ - part of which involved an exercise with Salcombe RNLI.

The exercise involved both Salcombe lifeboats - the all-weather vessel, Baltic Exchange III and the inshore lifeboat, Joan Bate. The lifeboats took it in turns to drop a ‘casualty’ - a buoy with a flag - and the watchkeepers at Prawle Point then had to provide the bearing and distance to direct the other lifeboat successfully to the ‘casualty’.

Andy explained: ‘Every year we declare our visual, radar, radio, automatic identification system and daytime watch - today is our annual OFSTED report if you like.

‘An assessor comes along, inspects the lookout and discusses and talks to the watchkeepers. The point of the RNLI exercise is to ensure that we’re fit for purpose and to check that we make a suitable and effective contribution locally.

‘We’re very lucky today, the winds are fairly light and visibility is acceptable.’

Patricia Beauchamp, training officer said: ‘I think the exercise went very well, although sometimes it was a bit nerve-wracking!

‘It is essential that we practice this with the RNLI and get their feedback on how it went from their side. It’s a question of dialogue – our objective is to help them get to the casualty as quickly as possible.’

Andy continued: ‘It was good practice for everybody. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, we want to get it right.

‘I think it’s been a very successful morning. We changed the procedures last year to take better advantage of the electronic systems that the lifeboats have - that worked very well and it seems to be working well this year.

Andy explained that more volunteers are needed to maintain the service they provide at Prawle Point: ‘We do need to increase our head count. The lookout has been here since 1997 and a lot of the watchkeepers who joined at that time are beginning to run through to retiring, so we have a constant need for new watchkeepers.

‘We’d like to take on, if we could, nine or ten this year to try and actually increase rather than maintain our headcount.

‘We also have some big projects coming up - firstly to replace our radar in 2017 and that’s quite expensive - it’ll cost about £8,000. So we’re looking for sponsors and people who are willing to help us fund that.

‘Following on from that, I think the next big project will be to refurbish the visitor centre, which by the time we get around to it will be ten years old and in need of an update - that too will be expensive.

‘What I suspect will happen is that we’ll replace the radar in 2017 and then aim for a 2019 programme of refurbishing the visitor centre. Both the lookout and visitors centre are normally open to the public and we welcome visitors.’

Anyone interested in volunteering at NCI Prawle Point is asked to call the lookout on 01548 511259, or email [email protected].