NCI Froward Point 2025 - 20th Anniversary Funding Appeal

The National Coastwatch Institution charity was formed in 1994 to fill the need for an organisation to provide a visual watch around the coast to look out for persons or vessels in distress as well as providing assistance to users of the popular coast path. Froward Point Station opened in 2005 and has around 60 unpaid volunteer watchkeepers who ensure the lookout is open 365 days a year.

Every year we do 1,500 individual watches and record on average 12,500 vessels. Over the past 20 years our watchkeepers have conducted 30,000 individual watches and recorded around 375,000 vessel movements.

National Coastwatch a national maritime safety charity and has no paid management or fundraising staff. The volunteer watchkeepers pay for their own uniforms and hold fundraising events with local businesses, organisations and individuals supportive in assisting to raise the £10k annual operating costs of the lookout. Every penny raised through donations & fundraising events is spent on direct operational costs.

Being in a remote isolated location our equipment and building faces extreme weather and we constantly have to repair or renew things to maintain our operational capability. On our 20th Anniversary we need to replace our broken radar, window shutter supports to our wartime grade 2 listed building and repair our private access road on top of our annual operating costs.

To achieve these challenging costs we have launched a 20th Anniversary Fund and are appealing to local businesses, organisations and individuals to assist us to raise the funds necessary to keep the lookout fit for operational duties in the future.

Thank you.