The little known but vital rescue group

SO, there I was last Saturday morning on Exmouth seafront, in the pouring rain, halfway up a metal staircase with the Deputy Mayor Diane Conduit posing for pictures, as we cut the ribbon to declare the newly-refurbished NCI watch tower open.

- JUDI SPIERS

Doubtless there are a fair few of you scratching your bits and sucking your teeth wondering what NCI stands for... Well, it stands for National Coastwatch Institute and it's probably the most important search and rescue organisation you've never heard of.

Many moons ago the Coastguard had a large number of stations around the coast acting as its eyes and ears. But in came the 'new guard' who considered that technology could replace them, so many disappeared.

It didn't take long to find out that technology didn't have all the answers. Less than 24 hours after the Bass Point station closed at Cadgwith Bay off the Lizard in Cornwall, a fishing boat tragically sank, and its crew of two drowned. They drowned in the waters under the old coastguard station.