Newsletter
OYT South bulletin 10th September 2021
In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Voyage news
- * Remember A Charity Week
- * Watchleader, trainee watchleader or bosun needed 18-22 October
- * One place available on mates’ training weekend 15-17 October
- Articles about OYT South – can you take part?
- * A gift of books!
- Southampton Boat Show – discounted tickets
- Vessel tracking
- Chris Ellis Award– win £££s off the price of your next voyage!
- Core refit team needed
- Financial appeal
- Painting of Prolific - prints available to buy!
- Raise funds for OYT South if you're shopping online!
- OYT South social media - please get involved
- Branded clothing
- Raise And Sail - website for anyone looking to raise money to come sailing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Voyage news
Big thanks to Andy Brown for stepping in to skipper this voyage at very short notice as the original skipper had to drop out. This was a very special voyage as we had been conscious for some time that young people who had earned sea staff recommendations or been working towards sea staff qualifications pre-pandemic had missed so many opportunities. Many of them would have qualified last year but lost that chance when voyages were cancelled. They have also had fewer opportunities this year: where we have sailed with reduced numbers of staff (as well as crew) this year, we have obviously still needed all the qualified staff in official roles and that inevitably meant that many of the cuts fell on trainee sea staff. But these people are the future of the charity and many of them – we hope – will be involved with us for years. So we decided to invest in this group by setting aside a voyage for some of them (apologies that we were unable to fit in more of our promising future volunteers but some have sailed on other voyages this year and others should get a chance next year).
This crew joined on Thursday and had introductions and safety briefings on the first night before setting off next day. Andy the skipper wrote: “Our voyage took us from Ocean Village into Freshwater Bay (Isle of Wight) and on to Chichester Harbour (about 60 miles in all, right round the island). We had a night entry into the harbour to allow for a suitable amount of water over the sand bar. Lots of tidal calculations were completed and Prolific was helmed safely over the bar into a beautiful anchorage at East Head.
In light winds the following day, we sailed to Stokes Bay in the Solent, completing several man overboard drills with different people driving the vessel. Five times a bucket and fender was thrown overboard and successfully recovered by Sara in the drysuit and climbing harness.
Sails were hoisted and dropped numerous times, offering the chance for different crew members to take the lead, all excelling in the practice. We were escorted into Stokes Bay by friendly dolphins (we were not sure of the type as they seemed much larger than normal common dolphins).
During our passage to Stokes Bay we diverted briefly to see if we could be of assistance to a small yacht that had lost part of her mast but we were not needed and they managed to get underway back to the Hamble under their own engine escorted by another yacht.”
After an anchor watch overnight in Stokes Bay each watch completed a passage plan, and splitting the voyage in two each watch safely navigated Prolific back to Ocean Village on Sunday.
Unfortunately as a last-minute stand-in skipper, Andy was only available to stay until Sunday night. This meant that they couldn’t sail on Monday but rather than cut the voyage short, Sparky, Josh and Cathy stepped up and the day was spent on a lot of valuable training in harbour. People learned how to handle the dinghy under power as well as oars; they explored some of the boat’s essential kit which doesn’t come out on every voyage, such as the stretcher and medical supplies; and they looked at how our sea staff are expected to teach the syllabus for the RYA Start Yachting and Competent Crew certificates to young people. There were also engine checks sessions for those who hadn’t gone through them already, and more.
Andy’s conclusion was that “It has been a real privilege to sail with them all and I really hope that I can sail with each one of them again in the future.” Big congratulations to Jess Collingwood who completed her third mate’s assessment, while plenty of other people made huge progress towards either a bosun or a third mate qualification. Some comments from the crew: “My best bit was leading some sail hoists, dropping them too, learning how to put the anchor away”; “My best bit on the boat is getting confident with the boat again and feeling like that I can progress to the next level” and “My best bit was really all of the voyage, especially seeing the dolphins and doing the sail hoists, and seeing my development through that.”
Since the early days of the Ocean Youth Club and OYT South, this process of selecting keen and capable young crew members to come back and qualify as volunteers has been essential to the ethos of the charity. Around one in three of our sailing volunteers is under 25 and they are fantastic role models as they pass their skills and enthusiasm on to the next generation. And it doesn’t only benefit the charity: we have heard this year from other young volunteers such as Will Parker and Nathan Kelsall about how the skills and experience they had gained from their time with OYT South played a big role in successful job interviews.
We also had on board Tom Palmer who works on social media and marketing for the Association of Sail Training Organisations. It was great to have him along – and to give him a first experience of a proper residential sail training voyage. He did some great videos and regular Instagram posts during the voyage, and then put together some of the best bits into this video – big thanks to Tom for this!
Big thanks to sea staff Andy, Sally, Sparky, Josh, Cathy, Muneerah and all the trainee sea staff who did so well!
* Remember A Charity Week
This week is Remember a Charity Week - a chance to discover how a gift in a will can help OYT South. As our populations age, yet the demand for our work increases, now is a good time for us all, or someone we know, to consider legacy giving. Remembering adventure under sail and remembering Ocean Youth Trust South with a legacy will make a long-term impact to give young people the skills they need to succeed in life.
More information about including OYT South in a will can be found here and if you know anyone who is thinking of making or updating a will and would like to understand more about the effect that a legacy to OYT South might have, they can find examples here and here. The charity has benefitted hugely from legacies over the years – for example, legacies played a huge part in making the purchase and refit of Prolific possible.
See here for advice on making or updating a will and remembering a charity - including a film from the Wombles!
* Watchleader, trainee watchleader or bosun needed 18-22 October
We’ve now got a space for a watchleader, trainee watchleader or bosun on a voyage 18-22 October, starting and finishing in Southampton. Sea staff will need to join on the evening of Sunday 17th October. The crew is a pupil referral unit for young people excluded from or unable to attend mainstream school. Email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help.
* One place available on mates’ training weekend 15-17 October
Our mates’ training weekend in October has largely been filled by people who should have sailed last year but saw their voyages cancelled – but there is one space left.
The weekend runs from 8pm on Friday 15th October to 5pm on Sunday 17th October out of Southampton and costs £205 per person. It is for adults aged 18+ and the place is open to adults new to the charity who want to come and find out more and maybe earn a recommendation to come back as a volunteer; or to people who have already earned a sea staff recommendation or are current sea staff wanting to brush up their skills. Email webmaster1@oytsouth.org to apply.
Articles about OYT South – can you take part?
You may be aware that we have had fantastic support in recent years from P66, a company whose staff have taken part in all sorts of activities to raise funds for us, and who have given us expert help and advice as well. Recently they have introduced us to someone who has offered to help us with PR in publications where we haven’t previously had any connections – we have great links in the marine world but this would take us into other areas and perhaps help us build new sources of funds and support. They are interested in all sorts of things such as articles about the skills learned on board, or the ways in which people might change and develop through sailing with us.
We are looking for people who might be interested in being featured in an article – it might be someone who has volunteered with us for years and who has used your experience with the charity to help you build a successful career; but equally it might be a young person who has done one voyage and feels that it has made a real difference to you. If you might be interested in taking part, please send a quick email (a paragraph or two will do) explaining the key points of your story, and including a phone number, and we will arrange a chat on the phone with any that look suitable for an article. We will of course apply appropriate safeguarding precautions to under-18s or vulnerable adults who are interested in taking part and can change names and leave out confidential details if someone has a great story to tell but doesn’t want to be identified.
* A gift of books!
Huge thanks to Rachel Banks from P66 for a generous gift of books for the boat – these will be on board for staff, volunteers and crew members to read:
Southampton Boat Show – discounted tickets
Regular readers will know that for many years, John Goode kindly arranged for OYT South members to have discounted tickets for the Southampton Boat Show; but you may have also seen in this newsletter in May that John has very sadly died.
In John’s memory the show says “We’d like to extend John’s ticket offer to you again this year and we hope that both you and your members can join us this September for the 52nd edition of Southampton International Boat Show (10-19 September).”
Buy between 1 and 3 tickets at £21.00 each and get a FREE ticket with each purchased ticket
Details are in the email version of this newsletter which goes to our members and supporters.
Vessel tracking
Don’t forget you can always have a look and see where Prolific is sailing.
Just for the moment we can’t welcome visitors on board due to Covid protocols but if you discover that Prolific is in a harbour somewhere near you, please go and say hello from a safe distance. And sometimes you may be just what we need if you have local information or a bit of time to spare to help with something, or a car for running a quick errand!
Big thanks to the Graham High Charity who sponsor our vessel tracking.
Chris Ellis Award – win £££s off the price of your next voyage!
Now open for 2021 entries.
If you enjoy a voyage with OYT South and want to come again (and are aged 11-25), please think about entering for this award. You can win up to £500 off the price of another voyage, by sending in an account of a voyage you have already done with us. It can be a logbook, diary, story, pictures, video - anything which gives the judges an idea of why you had a good time and would like to come again. The prize is judged at the end of each season and the award can be spent on a voyage the following year. Entries should be emailed to webmaster1@oytsouth.org or posted to the office. See here for more details of this award, which was set up in memory of the charity's founder. You can also see some previous winning entries.
There were no 2020 winners because we were unable to sail, so it would be great to see an excellent crop of entries for 2021!
Core refit team needed
Obviously our winter plans are all dependent on what we can do in a Covid-safe manner, but all being well, we will be looking for a core team of volunteers to come and help us this winter from November to March. This is something we've been doing since at least 2002: a small full-time team offers continuity alongside all the other volunteers who come for odd days or weekends. We provide free food and accommodation for the core team as well as great experience in boat maintenance and a chance to make a real difference to a good cause while enjoying a sociable winter in the team. Many previous core team members are still great friends of the charity - some still sailing with us, others using the experience to help develop their careers. If you want to follow in the footsteps of Jake, Oran and Ian from the last full-time core team, and all the others who have gone before them, please see here for details and how to apply.
Financial appeal
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 (pdf) we can claim back tax on your donation.
Painting of Prolific – prints available to buy!
Our friend, Gosport-based marine artist Colin Baxter, has prints taken from an original painting of Prolific available for you to buy.
The unframed prints will measure 370mm x 230mm plus border. They will be numbered and signed, and will cost £45 if you can pick yours up in Gosport, and £50 if you need it posted (they will probably come rolled in a cardboard tube). Order here:
Anyone outside the UK wanting to order a copy, please email us.
Raise funds for OYT South if you're shopping online!
"What a fool I was!" says Mark Todd.
"For ages I've seen in the bulletin that Easyfundraising is a good way to raise money for charity, but I never got round to doing anything about it, and when Caz told me how easy it was, I didn't listen.
I thought it might be a hassle, or that I'd have to remember to do something when I bought stuff online, or that it probably wasn't really worthwhile.
This week I finally got round to it and it turns out it's a REALLY EASY way to raise money for the charity I care about ... and I definitely should have done it sooner.
It takes a minute or two to sign up; you can do it on a desktop, tablet and/or phone, and you can install a widget that flags up when a donation is available. Once that's done, imagine you're looking to buy - say - a rainbow unicorn: just put "rainbow unicorn" in your usual search box, and the list of results shows you which sites come with donations, and how much. It's up to you what to pick and whether to accept the donation from the site, but a huge choice of sites will offer a donation - and it doesn't cost you a penny.
I don't know why I didn't do it sooner ... but if there's anyone else who has been like me and just not got round to it, PLEASE click the link now and sign up!"
OYT South is also registered with Amazon Smile which makes donations to us when people shop - Amazon will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price on eligible purchases. If you ever shop with Amazon, do have a look - once you pick Ocean Youth Trust South as your chosen charity and start using https://smile.amazon.co.uk, you don't need to do anything further, and all your other Amazon account settings remain unchanged.
OYT South social media – please get involved
One of the simplest ways you can help us while we can’t sail is to keep looking at our social media pages and share, retweet or like as many posts as possible. This all helps to make sure other people hear about us too – and the more we can keep alive the interest in our charitable work, the more people might help us now or start to think about sailing with us in future. Maybe you’ve got a community group, a local page, even a street WhatsApp where members might like to know that you are involved with a charity that could be of interest to them?
We are on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/oytsouth - please do give us a Like! If you were friends with John Laing on our old page (https://www.facebook.com/johnlaingsailing please do move to the new page now.
We are also on Twitter @oytsouth so please follow us!
And Instagram @oyt_south
And LinkedIn Ocean Youth Trust South
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, or vulnerable adults. Crew members can use the sites to stay in touch with the boat and with each other, but not with individual staff and volunteers.
Branded clothing
OYT South branded clothing available - please see here. You can buy hoodies (in a wide range of colours), fleeces, short- and long-sleeved t-shirts, baseball caps, beanie hats, polo shirts and more, all with OYT South's logo!
Raise And Sail - website for anyone looking to raise money to come sailing
Raise And Sail is a section of this 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.
New readers' welcome and introduction
If you have recently registered your interest in OYT South, welcome to our newsletter, which is sent out almost every week, normally on a Friday, and is also copied onto the website.
If you have just started receiving this newsletter by email, it is because we believe you have signed up and consented to receive it - perhaps by emailing us to ask for it, completing a form on our website, or adding your email address to the book on board where people can sign up to receive news, as well as leaving comments. If this was a mistake or you simply decide you want to stop receiving the newsletter, just press “reply” to the email and write UNSUBSCRIBE at the top, or email webmaster1@oytsouth.org asking to unsubscribe.
Each week the newsletter 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. 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 - sometimes 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 engineer, 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, 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.
Receiving this newsletter by email
Many thanks to all those who have given consent to receiving this newsletter by email. If you are not currently getting it by email and would like to, please just click here Newsletter Subscribe and press "send", or email webmaster1@oytsouth.org.
