NCI Lee-on-the-Solent
KAVS History
NCI History
During a rationalisation and modernisation programme in the 1990s, HM Coastguard closed a significant number of their visual watch stations. Soon after the closure of the Bass Point Station in Cornwall, two local fishermen drowned near the recently closed Station. This led, in November 1994, to a new voluntary organisation re-establishing a visual watch over the sea at Bass Point. This was the birth of the NCI. The Institution has now grown to 60 stations and has a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and a more recent MoU with HM Border Force.
Lee-on-the-Solent NCI (Lee NCI) History.
Lee NCI was originally entitled Solent NCI to become the thirty ninth station to be formed. The first watch was undertaken by Sandy Powell in the Spring of 2007 on the beach in front of Number 2 Battery, Gosport. His total assets were a pair of binoculars, a table, a mobile phone, a large car boot and a lot of enthusiasm. By September that year the organisation had grown significantly, and it moved to the unused First Aid building in Beach Road carpark, Lee-on-the-Solent. Lee NCI was the forerunner of three further NCI stations covering the Solent and its surrounds, with watchkeepers from Lee NCI starting those stations
In 2021/22 the watch station underwent enlargement and a major refurbishment to enable the station better to perform its duties. This station was officially opened by the head of the HM Coastguard.
Lee NCI’s defined role is to work closely with HM Coastguard [HMCG] Solent Coastguard, local lifeboats [GAFIRS & Hamble Solent Rescue being our nearest] and the local emergency services to safeguard the users of the local waters and beaches. Our designated area is on an arc from Ryde to Calshot and covers 120Sq. miles of water and some 2 miles of beach.
At Lee NCI in 2022, we logged over 10,000 different vessels and did over 7,500 hours of watchkeeping. We were involved in 13 incidents involving The Coastguard.
On the 14th November 2024 Lee NCI was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS).
https://ncilivinghistory.org.uk/stations/nci-lee-solent
Our Watchkeepers attend the Remembrance Service annually