Richard Foulkes has been hosting the SESC Masterclass and Night Sail for several years and I never fail to attend. He is a fountain of knowledge and a fabulous instructor. This event is designed to allow club skippers to increase their knowledge and skill whatever your level and Richard always adds in a little surprise…
Last year, on a beautifully warm autumn day, after a few tricky ferry gliding manoeuvres around the pontoons we headed down the river Hamble to pick up a buoy close to Calshot Spit. The crew were a little perplexed as Richard then required us to pump up the dingy to row ashore for a cup of tea and piece of cake. I quickly pointed out that tea and cake was onboard and that sitting two inches above the late October waves was not going to enhance the experience for me! He ignored my pleas and said this was what he wished to do, so we squeezed into the dingy and washed ashore with the tide. Heading up the shingle beach towards the cafe, he suddenly veered off to the left and rang the doorbell at Calshot Tower!
He had secretly arranged for us to go to the top of the tower! We signed in and started our climb up the internal metal staircase. There are eight flights of steep step ladders which have to be climbed to reach the operations room, with only two soles allowed on each section at one time. When we reached the top we were greeted by two National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) volunteers and, with the weather we had, an incredible view.
The lookout viewing platform is approximately 100 feet above sea level and has a 360° view over Southampton Water and the Solent with a horizon distance of 11 nautical miles to the SE. In other directions the view extends to the shore line while the ESSO Oil Jetties partially obstruct the view of Southampton Water. A CCTV camera is used to view the inshore area which would be hidden by the large Sunderland Hangar.
There are 38 permanent buoys and marks visible from the tower, and another two-dozen landmark points that would be used in specifying a location for SAR purposes, and to a large extent this supersedes traditional Lat/Long or bearing and distance position fixing for immediate urgent direction of local rescue services such as the RNLI and independent Lifeboats.
The tower is owned by Associated British Ports and was built in 1973 as part of the Southampton VTS radar chain. It served as a Coastguard lookout from 1974 until the 1990s and was opened as an NCI station in July 2010.
The volunteers were excellent hosts and encouraged us to contact them for radio checks:
Name:
NCI Calshot Tower QAVS
VHF Ch65 Call sign:
Calshot NCI
They are also always looking for new volunteers.
When we had looked through the telescopes and asked questions about the operations of the tower we climbed back down the staircase and found the promised tea and cake at the cafe before climbing back into the dingy for a night sail to Portsmouth, full of praise for our skipper and elated at the experience we had been lucky enough to share.
