ANNE Channing as always loved mucking about in boats -– in fact anything to do with the sea: canoing, sailing, fishing, she's tried them all.

Now, as a manager of the National Coastwatch Institution in Teignmouth, she has translated her love of the sea into a way of helping others.

One of 40 volunteers who man the old coastguard station, Anne who lives at Ashley Mount, is also the only female NCI manager nationally.

With her husband, Peter, she was a founder member. She says proudly that in two-and-a-half years they have only missed two days, and that was because of a burglary in January.

'We had such a response from local people at the way we had been treated, everyone rallied round,' she said. The volunteers keep their binoculars trained on the sea, noting every boat movement and weather change.

They also monitor the Mayday radio channel, so that they can act as a back-up in case the Brixham coastguard misses anything. From their watch tower in Eastcliff Walk they can see anything up to 5.7 miles away, two miles for identification purposes.

'We have been very useful over the time we've been up and running,' said Anne, 59. Thanks for them, a lifeboat was launched recently to rescue the occupants of a speed boat which had broken down and was drifting onto rocks. The emergency services also had to be called after a girl was spotted having injured herself falling off a jet ski.

The currents round the mouth of the river are tricky and they often visitors wanting to walk out to Spratt Sands, to make sure they dont' get cut off by swift incoming tides.

She said that more and more activities once carried out by statutory services are now being undertaken by volunteers 'If I was out in a boat and in difficulty I would like to think there was someone looking out for me,' she said.

The vein of public service runs deep in her family. Anne's mother was heavily involved in Dogs for the Blind. Anne is also a former Commissioner of the Girl Guides. She has even been on duty on Christmas Day, but she said it did mean she was let off cooking the turkey.