What does your organisation do?
National Coastwatch (NCI) watchkeepers provide eyes and ears along the coast and is a registered charity staffed and managed by volunteers whose mission is to help save lives at sea and around the UK coastline. If you, a family member or friend uses the coastal waters or the shoreline – maybe canoeing, fishing, boating or even walking on our beautiful but sometimes treacherous coastline – we are watching and keeping you safe.
How do volunteers support your work?
Being a volunteer watchkeeper with National Coastwatch means you can help save lives at sea and along our coastline! Our volunteer watchkeepers devote their time to keeping watch over our shores, inshore waters and coastal paths and cliffs, helping HM Coastguard, the RNLI and shore-based blue light services to save lives.
While technology undoubtedly helps, it can’t spot a drifting kayak, a paddle-boarder too exhausted to make it back to shore or a child on an inflatable toy drifting out to sea. That requires a human being, trained not only to observe the potential disaster but to take the correct action quickly and efficiently.
Our training doesn’t require any prior maritime knowledge or experience; it’s designed to take you, at your own pace, from whatever your previous life experience might be to understanding the weather, tides, how to use a maritime chart, how to make and receive VHF radio calls, and everything else required to work with our SAR partners to help save lives at sea and along our coastline.
What kinds of things do your volunteers do?
> Maintaining a visual and radio watch and, when identified, record and report emergencies to the Coastguard;
> Assisting with search & rescue by advising rescue authorities of a casualty’s exact position and the conditions on the scene;
> Informing mariners, walkers and others of the current local weather and sea conditions;
> Acting as an emergency contact point for walkers, climbers or microlight pilots;
> Co-operating with agencies involved in the protection of fisheries, wildlife and historic wrecks.
What difference do they make?
Being a National Coastwatch volunteer watchkeeper enables you to give back to your community, helping protect local residents and visitors; it gives you new skills, new friends, a sense of pride in yourself and your colleagues and a great sense of satisfaction should you be involved in an incident where lives and property are at risk.
How do volunteers make a difference to the people you support?
National Coastwatch is a part of UK Search and Rescue. We work alongside His Majesty’s Coastguard, the RNLI, other Independent Lifeboats and the ‘blue-light’ emergency services to assist in the protection and saving of life at sea and along the coastline of England and Wales.
Who benefits from their time and support?
In 1994, in Cadgwith Bay off the Lizard in Cornwall, a fishing boat unfortunately sank, and its two crew unfortunately perished. This happened soon after many Coastguard lookouts had been closed down, and such was the depth of local feeling following the tragedy, the local community decided to establish a volunteer watch over that section of the coastline, and the National Coastwatch Institution was established. National Coastwatch has gone on to establish 60+ lookout stations around England and Wales, from Fleetwood in the North West, through Wales, and around the English coastline to Filey, in the North East; and has over 2800 trained Watchkeepers.
In 2025:
- NCI Total Number of Incidents = 911
- Incidents initiated by NCI = 424
- Incidents NCI participated = 487
- NCI initiated Lifeboat Rescue = 132.