Helicopter rescue drill

Newsletter

OYT South bulletin 14th June 2013


In this Bulletin

Sections which have changed since last time marked *  


* MDL parties - come to a party, represent OYT South, and support our major sponsor!
As previously announced, OYT South is delighted to be the chosen charity of our sponsors Marina Developments Limited in their 40th anniversary year. Over the coming months, MDL will be holding parties for berth-holders in marinas around the country, where they will be taking collections on behalf of OYT South, and they have invited us to send a small number of people to each party. If you can talk about sailing with OYT South or about our work, hand out leaflets and chat to MDL’s berth-holders, then we are drawing up a rota of people to go to each party - email webmaster1@oytsouth.org and tell us which date(s) and location(s) you can manage (all 7-9pm). Ideally we might have an adult supporter, volunteer or member of sea staff at each party plus a young person who has enjoyed a voyage and can talk enthusiastically about the experience. We expect this to be informal chats - we haven’t been asked to find people who necessarily feel confident about standing up and making a speech!

Northney & Sparkes (Hayling Island, Hampshire) - 28th June
Torquay - 5th July
Cobb’s Quay (Hamworthy, Poole) - 13th July
Port Hamble - 19th July
Queen Anne’s Battery (Plymouth) - 20th July
Shamrock Quay (Southampton) - 20th July
Bray and Windsor - 3rd August
Brixham - 10th August
Woolverstone (Ipswich) - 17th August
Mercury (Hamble) - 23rd August

Back to index


* A Royal event!
The Southampton Master Mariners’ Club kindly invited OYT South to their Shipping Festival Service in Winchester Cathedral yesterday. Kerrin Koetsier, Carrie Potter, Richard Griffiths and Mark Todd represented us and had the honour of meeting the Princes Royal. They were able to update Her Royal Highness on the charity’s work since she presented us with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service two years ago!

Back to index


* Staff bosun news and job advertisement
OYT South’s Staff Bosun position is designed to be a two-year training programme - which means Dave will be coming to the end of his time with us in November this year. We’ll be very sorry to see him go but it is time to start the recruitment process for the next person!

Further information, job description and details of how to apply for the next two-year post (November 2013-November 2015) are available here.

Back to index


* Core refit team - winter volunteer positions available
If you are taking a gap year, not working over the winter, looking to build your skills, maybe hoping to move into a career in the marine industry - why not think about applying to join our full-time refit team next winter? Details here, including how to apply.

Back to index


* Thanks and farewell to Mollie!
Huge thanks to Mollie Crawford who has now finished her time on work experience in our office! She has been cheerful, hard-working, efficient and a great addition to the team - it’s only a shame she couldn’t stay longer. She’s doing a couple of voyages in John Laing over the summer and we hope she will keep in touch and stay involved with the charity.

Back to index


* Voyage news
Last weekend began with an adult day sail in glorious sunshine. We had a number of staff from schools and education centres who have been sending young people to us this year, to give them an insight into what their students do on board; and we also had a number of current and potential supporters and sponsors. A combination of perfect weather, lovely people and Sue Cheshire’s chocolate brownies made it an excellent day on the water! Many thanks to sea staff Mark, Ben, Andy V, Andy R, Brigid, Mike and Caz.

After that we moved the boat round to Gosport (a really lovely evening sail) and on Sunday we took part in Gosport Youth Afloat - a taster day to get people on the water in all sorts of ways, from kayaks upwards. John Laing did two half-day sails with different groups and also ran a stand ashore. Big thanks to everyone involved in organising the day, including the event managers for inviting us, ASTO for the loan of their tent for the shore stand, sea staff Mark, Ben, Andy V, Andy R, Brigid and Mike, and shore volunteers Sally, Sue, Jenny, Mollie and Caz.

Next we had two very busy days to get John Laing ready to leave the Solent, as we won’t be back in our home port until nearly the end of August. As ever, this involves buying and stowing all the dry and tinned food for the next two months, as well as a lot of maintenance and chart corrections. Big thanks to Andy, Ben W, Dave, Chris the engineer, Terry, Mollie, Katie, Mike, Val, Ben M and Sally.

The latest crew joined on Wednesday - a slightly older group than we have had recently, with a number of young people who have been accepted to join the merchant navy in September, plus someone who has been volunteering for another sail training organisation looking to extend her experience in different boats. It’s a slightly small crew but with plenty of enthusiasm, motivation and competence. They sailed to Cowes on the first night, and yesterday managed a very impressive manoeuvre to leave the berth under Andy’s leadership. They had strong winds but from the right direction so sailed across the Channel to Boulogne: 150 miles in 18 hours! They are having a rest before deciding where to go next, but working their way towards London. Big thanks to sea staff Dougie, Andy, Dave, Ben, Mike and Val.

Back to index


* London Open Days NEXT WEEK
John Laing has two Open Days in London next week: Wednesday 19th June and Thursday 20th June, in St Katharine’s dock near Tower Bridge. We have a team of volunteers already but anyone else who can help, do please contact us as there may be times when we need extra support. We could also find space for any young people who have sailed with us and would be able to talk to visitors about the experience. And anyone else who would just like to visit the boat or bring other people to introduce them to the charity’s work, do please let us know. The evenings are basically full now but afternoon visits (up to 5pm) should be possible, and perhaps morning visits by arrangement. Anyone who wants to come along for any reason, please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org.

Back to index


* Volunteer berths in 2013 - experienced sea staff needed to confirm autumn bookings
The full list of current vacancies is below. Please let me know if there's anything here you would like to do. NB voyage dates given are when young people are on board - except for weekends and the occasional short voyage, sea staff will normally be needed the afternoon or evening before. All Southampton or Gosport unless otherwise stated - sea staff pay own travel for overseas voyages.

We do really need to fill in some people where the list requests experienced sea staff - I have new volunteers waiting to have their berths confirmed but I can't do that until I'm sure we have enough people who really know the boat and our routines, so please don't leave it too long: I know it's a while before some of these voyages but there are people waiting for answers which I can''t give them until I have sorted other bookings! "Experienced" in this context means people who have done at least a voyage or two with young people on board John Laing, have some familiarity with our routines and know where things are on board!

21-27 Aug, Ipswich-Southampton - 2M or experienced 3M
2-6 Sept - 3M and experienced bosun (one must be female)
15-20 Sept - 2M or experienced 3M
20-22 Sept – 3M
2-6 Oct - female experienced 3M or 2M
8-13 Oct - experienced bosun and poss 3M (one must be female)
14-18 Oct - poss 3M, and experienced bosun (one must be female)
18-20 Oct - 2M or 3M
21-24 Oct - 2M and additional 3M or trainee mate - one must be female
25-29 Oct - 2M or additional experienced 3M - must be female

There may be other spaces as we hear back from people who have been offered different voyages; but if you can potentially fill any of these gaps, please email me now!

Back to index


* 2013 sailing programme - berths for young people and adults - bursary funding available!
We have a great programme for 2013 and we are taking bookings fast, so do have a look and think about when you would like to sail this year.

The full list of vacancies for the season is:

21-28 June 2013, London to Cuxhaven, Germany, 7 nights, £550pp plus travel - 2 or 3 places available. Age 18+.
29 June - 6 July 2013, Cuxhaven, Germany to Aarhus, Denmark (Tall Ships festival), 7 nights, £550pp plus travel - 4 places available. Age 18+.
6 -19 July 2013, Aarhus, Denmark to Helsinki, Finland - Tall Ships Race 1, 13 nights, £995pp plus travel - 2 places available. Age 15-25.
5-12 Aug 2013, Szczecin, Poland (Tall Ships festival) to Cuxhaven, Germany, 7 nights, £550 pp plus travel, age 15-25. 6 berths left.
13-19 Aug 2013, Cuxhaven, Germany to Ipswich - complete a North Sea crossing! 6 nights, £465pp plus travel - 6 places available. Age 12-25.
2-6 Sept 2013, Southampton, 4 nights, £340pp - 12 places available. Age 12-25.
6-8 Sept 2013, Southampton, 2 nights, £190pp. Age 18+, adult voyage, suitable for training / selection for new volunteers.
23-27 Sept 2013, Southampton, 4 nights, £335pp - 4 places available tbc. Age 12-25.
8-13 Oct 2013, Gosport to Southampton, 5 nights, £415pp - 12 places available. Age 12-25.
14-18 Oct 2013, Southampton, 4 nights, £335pp - 6 places available. Age 12-25.
25-29 Oct 2013, Southampton, 4 nights, £340pp - 5 places available. Age 12-25.

If you are interested in one of the overseas voyages, see here for more details.

Updated voyage availability can also be found here.

Email me to reserve your berth!

Anyone who would like to sail on any of the voyages above but cannot afford it should contact us to discuss bursary funding: please tell us the MAXIMUM you can afford to pay (after covering travel costs to and from the boat), and any special circumstances affecting you or your family which might help to explain why you can't afford the full price. In some cases we may be able to help with bursary funding; in other cases we might advise you on how to raise money for yourself; or we may be able to come to some arrangement where you help us (perhaps with boat maintenance, or publicising available voyages in your school, college, club etc.), in exchange for a discount off your own voyage fee.

Don’t forget our website full of fundraising ideas for your voyage.

Back to index


Student discounts on summer voyages
Are you a student aged 18+? Would you like to sail on one of these voyages but just can't afford it?:

21-28 June 2013, London to Cuxhaven, Germany - complete a North Sea crossing! 7 nights, £550pp - 2 or 3 places available. Age 18+.
29 June - 6 July 2013, Cuxhaven, Germany to Aarhus, Denmark - through the Kiel Canal and take part in the first Tall Ships festival of the series! 7 nights, £550pp - 4 places available. Age 18+.
5-12 Aug 2013, Szczecin, Poland to Cuxhaven, Germany - see the final Tall Ships festival of the year before cruising through the Baltic and the Kiel Canal. 7 nights, £550 per person, age 15-25. 6 berths left.
13-19 Aug 2013, Cuxhaven, Germany to Ipswich - complete a North Sea crossing! 6 nights, £465pp - 6 places available. Age 12-25.

We have bursary funding available to help people join  any of these voyages. What you need to do is email webmaster1@oytsouth.org and tell us which voyage(s) you are interested in, the MAXIMUM you could afford to pay for a voyage after covering your own travel costs (even if that is well short of the official advertised price), and also if there are any special circumstances for you or family which explain why that is all you can afford. Then we will decide how many places we can offer. Another option is that we want one "local champion" in any university or college, who will spread the word among other students - emailing people, putting up flyers, spreading the word via facebook etc. - and we will give £50 credit towards their own voyage to the local champion for every extra booking we get from your college or university from someone who tells us they heard about it from you - so the more you help us with publicity, the cheaper your own voyage could be. Again, email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you want to get involved.

We might also be prepared to discuss some bursaries or "local champion" places on other voyages this year (see below for availability) - it is always worth asking! And don’t forget our website full of fundraising ideas for your voyage..

Back to index


* Warsash Maritime Academy Open Day
Warsash Maritime Academy has asked us to pass on a message to any young people who have enjoyed sailing with us and might think about a career at sea! The Academy is a faculty of Southampton Solent University and provides training to the international shipping industry. They have a Careers Open Day on Friday 28th June and anyone who wants to know more about a career in the shipping industry is all about might like to go along. The campus is open from 10am to 3pm, and visitors have an opportunity to have a look around, try the training facilities - including the Bridge and Engine Room Simulators – and watch fire-fighting and safety at sea demonstrations. Shipping company representatives and cadets currently in training will be on hand to give a genuine insight into the career opportunities available. Lecturers and staff from the Student Support Office can speak with prospective cadets and their parents about the courses, and the support available to them on campus and during their sea time. Warsash Maritime Academy’s courses cover navigation (deck), engineering and electro-technical officer training, with training programmes leading to HND, Foundation Degree, BSc and BEng degrees. Course fees are paid whilst training through sponsorship. To find out more and if you would like to attend, simply register online: http://www.warsashacademy.co.uk/news-events/events/careers-open-days.aspx or email wma@solent.co.uk. Please contact the academy and not OYT South if you are interested!

Back to index


John Laing maintenance days
Maintenance days for this year are as follows:

Tues 20th August - Ipswich
Mon 7th October - Royal Clarence, Gosport

Please come and help! Lots of jobs available, both skilled and unskilled - just call the boat (07990 518915) a few days beforehand to book yourself in, so the skipper can plan jobs and make sure there is food for everyone who is coming.

Back to index


* NEW OYT South clothing range - including jackets
We are delighted to announce that we are launching a new range of OYT South clothing - hoodies, t-shirts, polo shirts, fleeces, caps, ties and more. It will all be available through this webpage. A donation will be made to OYT South for every item they sell. The Slam jackets (which you may have seen sea staff wearing) are also available but there needs to be a minimum order of ten, so they aren’t on the webpage just now - if you wanted to order one (£121.50), email benwhinnett@oytsouth.org and once he has ten people he can open the ordering process.

Back to index


Annual Report
OYT South’s Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 31st October 2012 are now available! There is a copy on the website but if you need hard copies, pleased contact the office. As well as the financial statements, the report also includes an account of our year and lots of interesting stories, facts and figures - do have a look! These are ideal for giving to anyone who is interested in the charity and might consider supporting us, so do help us spread it around.

Back to index


Recycle print cartridges and mobile phones for OYT South!
OYT South has signed up to a recycling scheme that means money is donated to us for any printer cartridges (excepting Epson in general) or mobile phones which are recycled.

You can bring small numbers of cartridges to the boat or the office; but if you know of a company that may be willing to recycle for OYT South then please get in touch! It's really very low effort on your / the company's behalf: Essentially, all we need is an address and an approximate amount of recycling per month and a recycling box will be delivered directly to the company. Once the recycling bin is full, call the number on the box and it's collected for you. More details here.

Back to index


Adult voyage vacancies - including new volunteer training / selection
The remaining adult training voyage this year is:

6-8 Sept 2013, Southampton, 2 nights, £190

For those who decide they are interested in joining our volunteer team, adult training weeks or weekends can work as selection voyages: the skipper will decide who to invite back as volunteers. This can be about sailing experience, or youthwork skills; but we can also take on a certain number of people who may need quite a lot of training but who are potential assets to our team in terms of personality, willingness to learn, enthusiasm, commitment and interest in working with young people from all backgrounds. But the voyages are also open to other adults who just want to come for a sail or to see what we do.

Either of the following voyages is also open to adults - either for prospective volunteers or just an enjoyable sailing experience and a way to support the charity! Anyone over 25 (our normal upper limit) will require a CRB/DBS check before sailing on these voyages:

21-28 June 2013, London to Cuxhaven, Germany - complete a North Sea crossing! 7 nights, £550pp
29 June - 6 July 2013, Cuxhaven, Germany to Aarhus, Denmark - through the Kiel Canal and take part in the first Tall Ships festival of the series! 7 nights, £550pp

Bursary funding may be available for people who wish to sail on one of these voyages but cannot afford the full price.

Email me to book, or for more information.

Back to index


* Does anyone have an A3 printer you could donate to us?
Would anyone kindly be able to donate an A3 printer for our office? The old one has died and we really need one that can also copy!

Contact benwhinnett@oytsouth.org if you can help!

Back to index


Raise And Sail - website for anyone looking to raise money to come sailing
OYT South has recently launched Raise And Sail, a new website full of ideas, information and support for young people who would like to raise money in order to come sailing with us. Huge thanks to Fiona Keen and Emma Burrows for putting Raise And Sail together. We hope you will find it useful - let us know how you get on as we can add success stories and new ideas to the site in due course.

Back to index


Leaflet to publicise OYT South
Following a networking event attended by one of our Trustees, John Millican, we were asked to put together a general leaflet on OYT South to send to participants. We felt it might be useful to others too so there is now a copy available on this website - do please print it out, give it to people, stick it on noticeboards etc.

Back to index


Child Protection training - compulsory for all our volunteers
OYT South wants all our volunteers to sign up for Child Protection training. This really is VITAL - there are some donors who will not support us unless all our volunteers are trained, so it will become compulsory during 2013 for all sea staff to have done some formal Child Protection training. If you haven't yet done any, we recommend NSPCC Child Protection Awareness in Sport and Active Leisure which you can do very cheaply online and in your own time. It's not complicated or time-consuming - you should be able to complete it in a couple of hours and some people are getting through it much faster.

The online training page not only gives OYT South members access to child protection training at the bargain price of £10: that single one-off payment gives you access to a range of recommended courses. We would very much like all sea staff to do the food hygiene course; and there are several other courses you will find interesting and relevant. The system is very straightforward - each course is broken into a number of short modules and you just have to read each module and then answer some questions about it. You can save a course at any point and come back later to where you left off. They are all recognised courses and you will get a certificate for each one you complete successfully. We can see at a glance who has signed up and who has completed a course.

If you have done alternative child protection training in the last three years, please email us with the name of the course, the awarding body, and the date of the training, and we'll add that to your records.

Please do get on and do your Child Protection training NOW - sea staff bookings for 2013 will give priority to people who have done some training so if you leave it too long you risk finding that other people have taken all the more interesting voyages!

Back to index


Online navigation training for volunteers and young people
For some time now OYT South has been offering basic navigation training through the RYA's Essential Navigation & Seamanship course. Now for those of you who want something a little more advanced, one of our relief skippers, Simon Jinks, is offering online distance learning systems for the theory courses for Day Skipper, Coastal/Yachtmaster and Yachtmaster Ocean. Simon is a great sailor and a top instructor so this is very highly recommended. He is very generously offering a 15% discount for OYT South members and volunteers, so do mention your role with us if you get in touch. Details here. He is also offering a one-day Weather for Sailors course. Please note that Simon's website also includes Essential Navigation and the PPI course, both of which OYT South can offer in-house.

Simon has also very kindly offered one course a year as a prize for a promising member of sea staff who genuinely can't afford to get their next qualification. If you are really keen to climb the sea staff ladder and hoping to do lots of sailing with us, email us or talk to the skipper on your next voyage to see if you can enter for this prize.

With our own courses and Simon's we now have navigation courses to suit everyone from total beginners right up to the most advanced level - please give it a go and do ask for advice if you are not sure which course is right for you.

Back to index


Children's hospices - voyage funding
Regular readers may remember that we started working with various children's hospices a decade ago, offering voyages for brothers and sisters of life limited children and of children who have died. These voyages are hugely important, allowing young people to have a break while making friends with others who are going through similar experiences. In recent years, we have had one major donor supporting the children's hospice voyages, but that fund is now exhausted and we are looking for new sponsors who can help us keep this project going in the long term. £3,000 supports 24 places each year; £125 (or £10 a month) supports one place. It is really important that we keep the project going, and anyone who hears the stories these young people have to tell couldn't help being moved - if you can help them in the coming years it would be a certain way to feel good about yourself. Email me if you can help.

Back to index


Legacy leaflets
OYT South has printed some leaflets describing how people can support our charitable work through legacies. If you might want to remember OYT South in your will, please ask the office for a copy. We would also like to ask solicitors, accountants etc. to take a few leaflets - if you could give some leaflets to offices in your local area, contact the OYT South office for copies.

Back to index


* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to the Quilter Foundation whose latest very generous donation has reached us although we shall be thanking them formally in London next week! Also to Jez Snead and Emma Burrows for very kind contributions.

We need a regular flow of funds to cover at least three major areas: bursaries for young people who could not otherwise afford to sail; vessel maintenance and equipment; and staff salaries - please help, or pass on our details to anyone you come across who might make a grant, large or small.

See here  for how to make a donation - you can contribute by cheque, phone or PayPal, but please do something if you possibly can. Don't forget that if you complete and return a Gift Aid form we can claim back tax on your donation.

Back to index


 New Boat appeal - including YouTube video
Check out the video of our new boat design on YouTube!

Those who attended our 50th anniversary celebrations in 2010 will have heard the talk by renowned yacht designer Merf Owen about our plans for the long-term replacement of John Laing - a new boat for a new generation. Details can be found on the website here - along with a form for making donations. This is a tremendously exciting project and regular readers will be hearing a good deal more about it in the months and years to come - we are just getting started but this is the place where our members and supporters can keep in touch with progress!

Back to index


Keep in touch with other John Laing people
We have tried a number of social networking websites to allow crew members to keep in touch with the boat and with each other - Facebook is by far the most active and popular, so that’s the one that now gets updated regularly. People can swap stories, post photos and more. For some overseas voyages, we will even set up online groups well in advance, restricted only to people who will actually be sailing on that particular voyage, so that people can compare travel plans and arrange to travel together. See here for how to join.

Please note that OYT South has a policy that our adult staff and volunteers should not make or accept individual online friend requests with crew members aged under 18. Young crew members can use the sites to stay in touch with the boat and with each other, but not with individual adults.

Back to index


Survey - tell us what you think
If you have recently completed a voyage, please help us by filling in our web-based survey. It really helps - we use the data to keep improving our voyages, and to help us raise funds!

Back to index


New readers' welcome and introduction
If you have recently registered your interest in OYT South, welcome to our e-newsletter, which is sent out almost every week, normally on a Friday. It includes a wide range of news from the boat and from the charity, including details of voyages available for young people; adult voyages; opportunities for adult volunteers both ashore and afloat, and much more. We find that while some people read the bulletin almost every week, many others dip in and out, and read it when it's convenient - which is why some items are repeated. The new items are marked with an asterisk * so that if you did read it last week, you can see which sections you can safely skip.

Please feel free to join in any OYT South activities - nothing here is restricted to long-standing members or people who already know one another. New people are always very welcome!

If you need an introduction to the work of OYT South, you should find a lot of useful information on our website. But essentially, we are a registered charity (no. 1079959) which exists to offer adventure under sail as a personal development opportunity for young people aged 12-25, from the widest possible range of backgrounds. A high proportion of our young crew members are disadvantaged or deserving in some way: many of these sail in groups organised by other charities, youth clubs, special schools and so on, and will fill the bulk of our term-time voyages. But those from more fortunate backgrounds are also welcome to sail, either in groups or by coming as individuals on a mixed voyage. Every year we run a variety of shorter local voyages plus longer adventure trips - including Tall Ships races during the summer holidays. If you are aged 12-25 and hoping to sail as a crew member, take a look here - and this section is also useful for adults who are thinking of organising a voyage for a young person. Adults planning to organise a full group voyage should also see here. Adults who want to sail themselves should see here.

We have a professional staff skipper and bosun, but our watch leaders are normally all volunteers, who combine sailing skills with an interest in working with young people. You can find more information here - how the system works, how to join, and profiles of existing staff and volunteers.  

To volunteer for OYT South ashore, please see here. To help with the vessel's annual refit, or with maintenance days spread throughout the year, see here.

It is a very expensive business maintaining a boat, running an office and employing staff. If you want to help us, please become a member of OYT South. Or see here for information on making a donation.

If you have any questions, please do email - or contact the office.

Back to index





“To be honest I never wanted to come, but I'm glad I did because I have learnt and seen so much!" Charlotte