Staff and volunteer refresher training

Newsletter

OYT South bulletin 11th June 2021

In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *


* Take one minute to help us win £1,000 - two days left to vote - PLEASE do it now!
PLEASE do this - it takes less than a minute and we could win £1,000! And then share the link with others...

Twice in recent years we have won £1,000 from the Ecclesiastical Movement for Good Awards based on a really successful drive to get as many people as possible to nominate us. Now we have a chance to do it again – can we ask everyone to vote, to encourage friends, family, colleagues and others to vote, and to share the link as widely as possible? It’s SO quick and easy to do.
 
Nominate here – the link automatically selects OYT South as your nominated charity, so all you have to do is put in your own details and submit. The whole thing can be done in seconds.
 
Which means your only remaining step is to share the link with others and ask them to do the same.
 
Closing date 13th June - this Sunday. PLEASE do it – it’s one of the easiest possible ways to make £1,000 for OYT South.

MFG

Back to index


* Wellbeing campaign - week 5: Give to others
 In previous issues we have written about the first four weeks of the five-week #SailToWellbeing campaign which we are running alongside other members of UK Sail Training. Based on research promoted by the NHS and MIND, it looks at five key steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing. Every one of these five steps is a natural part of a sail training voyage: you really can #SailToWellbeing.

The steps are:
1: Connect with other people.
2: Be physically active
3. Take notice and pay attention to the present moment
4: Learn new skills
5. Give to others

So this week we want to hear your stories about how sailing with us helped you to give to others, and how that made you feel; or how someone on a voyage gave something that helped you. We’ve already got some examples but we are looking for more. This is a campaign for young people, volunteers and staff; it’s for people who sailed with us in the 2010s but also those who were involved years ago – as far back as the 1960s. If you have been on a voyage and given or received something that made a positive difference to you, please tell us. You can respond to any of our social media posts, or if you prefer, you can email webmaster1@oytsouth.org and we can post something which won’t identify you. Maybe you have a photo which captures that experience, or maybe you have a story to tell?

We all know how hard Covid-19 has hit many people’s mental health and wellbeing. Sail training offers a positive way forward: anyone who has sailed with us will have seen the five steps in action on board. Please help us to demonstrate to those who haven’t yet tried sail training that they too might be able to #SailToWellbeing.

Here are some examples of #SailToWellbeing 5: Give to others, to get you started:

Research shows that giving to others – your time, your care, your attention, your skills - can also improve your mental wellbeing by:

  • creating positive feelings and a sense of reward
  • giving you a feeling of purpose and self-worth
  • helping you connect with other people

give

A voyage with Ocean Youth Trust South is a fantastic opportunity to give to others - whether that is a hot cup of tea during a cold night watch, an extra hand on a rope when they are struggling, a word of encouragement or praise if they are finding something difficult, a helping hand if you have already mastered a skill and they haven't but want to learn, a listening ear if they need to talk to someone. It is also a chance for other people to do the same for you.

The Ormiston Leading Lights Project brought together teenage girls plus highly successful women as mentors. It turned out to be a personal development experience for the mentors just as much as for the girls. One of the mentors, a lawyer, was very seasick on a passage down to Dartmouth and later wrote in her blog: “When a small voice appeared at my side and asked if I was going to go home I said immediately and without thinking, “yes”. But then I thought I heard a quiet sob followed by “It’s not fair Miss” and then louder, “I can’t go home. I never asked to be here. I have to stay on the boat and I don’t want to. My Dad can’t leave to get me and I really, really want to go home.” I felt dreadful. It struck me that I could not possibly go home. That no matter how bad it was, we had signed up for this together and I could not leave – I had to see it through. And I wanted to. I had signed up to this adventure to somehow give something back to those who are coming up behind us and will take over our roles as women in business and what would I be demonstrating if I chose to exit hastily, stage left? In that moment, I could and would be that person who stuck it out and showed that this too would pass and that all would be well. And how immensely grateful I am to that small voice who showed me the value of sharing difficult moments together and out loud and of being real to the difficulty of the moment and how, in acknowledging that adversity, we can most likely get through it."

Alfreton Park Community Special School works with pupils with multiple physical and learning difficulties: “The group really grew in confidence and worked well as a team. They began to look after one another, which is a great achievement for youngsters with these difficulties. The voyage also helped our teachers grow as they learned more about the children away from a school environment. The OYT South sea staff were absolutely brilliant and put in lots of effort to help our kids.” Rosemary Mackenzie, headteacher

A girl who was starting to rebuild her life after exceptionally traumatic early experiences was awarded funding to take part in the Tall Ships races: “I can honestly say that it’s been one of the most challenging experiences yet; however, I have taken so much from this trip and I will never forget it.I always as a child dreamt of doing things just like normal people did, but never thought it would happen. This was way beyond anything I could imagine and has touched my life in so many different aspects; and for that I cannot thank you enough. I feel that this is the start to many endless opportunities for my future.”

Sail training creates many opportunities for you to give to others - and for them to give to you. And as well as the small acts of giving to others which can happen on any voyage, Ocean Youth Trust South couldn't function without our amazing volunteers - people who give up their time to come on our voyages and make it possible for young crew members to sail, stay safe and have fun. Many of our volunteers are young people who did their first voyage as an ordinary crew member, made a great impression on the skipper - and were invited back for volunteer training and lots of free sailing!

Give to others:
make a positive contribution to those around you
- and let them do the same for you.

Please tell us how sail training has created opportunities for you to give to others or for others to give to you.

give

Back to index


* Nightwatch revisited – a short story by Jo Clark
Many people have been enjoying the short stories which Jo has written to accompany each week of our #SailToWellbeing campaign. If you haven’t been keeping up with all of them, you can find them in the last few issues of the newsletter. If you missed week 1 or can’t remember the story, we strongly recommend that you have a look at it before reading this week’s linked new story on the theme, "Give to Others".

Please do share your own stories - true or fiction!

Back to index


* Trans Awareness – zoom session NEXT WEEK – all welcome!
 On the evening of Wednesday 16th June at 1830, we will have a zoom session called Trans Awareness: The Basics, delivered by the charity Gendered Intelligence. This arises out of discussions at the volunteers' training weekend in February where a number of people said this was an area where they would be keen to learn more.

Increasing our knowledge of and language around gender will help us support young people (and each other) better and more confidently whenever this topic arises, importantly leading us to be a more trans-inclusive organisation.

The session will be 1hr45m long, with opportunities to ask questions too. If you haven’t already registered your interest, please email hollyvint@oytsouth.org.In recognition of the lack of voyage income for more than a year, we would encourage those who can afford it to make a voluntary donation toward the cost of the event using this link.

The session will:

  • Explain what ‘trans’ means and describe the diversity of those who might use the term.
  • Introduce key concepts crucial to understanding trans people
  • List the main legislation relating to trans identities
  • Outline ways an organisation can work towards being trans-inclusive
  • Provide links to further resources and help 

Gendered Intelligence says: “We are a trans led charity working directly with some 500 young trans and gender questioning people from diverse backgrounds across the course of a year, primarily through our youth groups and 1:1 mentoring services.  Their experiences inform our wider work. All our trainers are professional trainers/facilitators who are also trans identified, and who have extensive grassroots trans-community experience.”

This session is open to all our volunteers and also to any other OYT South supporters who would be interested – there is effectively no limit on places.

If you have already registered, you'll get an email with the zoom link in plenty of time before the session.

Back to index


* Kevin Jenkins of Ambition Aspire Achieve
We were very sad to learn this week of the death of Kevin Jenkins, one of our very longstanding clients. We have worked with him for almost twenty years, running voyages for two charities he founded in east London – first Community Links, and more recently Ambition Aspire Achieve. Both organisations do outstanding work with all sorts of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in Newham and surrounding boroughs, and AAA’s website says: “Kevin was an outstanding fundraiser, full of new ideas and initiatives every day, to raise support for the vulnerable and those in need - he dedicated his life to making life better for others. He has left us all heartbroken, but we must hold on to the legacy he built during his amazing life. He always believed that children can achieve anything despite their background or circumstances. He was a people person who everyone loved and admired, always putting others before himself. He was a truly selfless man who touched the lives of so many.”

OYT South very much enjoyed working with Kevin over two decades and he will be much missed. The partnership between OYT South and AAA will live on, but for the moment we can look back on many years of special voyages which grew out of Kevin’s drive and determination – including a voyage in 2017 when a group of young Londoners brought Prolific round from the Solent and sailed her up the Thames into the heart of their home city:

AAA

Back to index


* Prolific news - includng staff and volunteer refresher training!
We’ve done two more refresher training sessions with staff and volunteers since the last newsletter – both epic voyages from Southampton to Cowes and back over a couple of days, via the western Solent on one voyage and the eastern Solent on the other. A lot of sails went up and down, there were man overboard recovery drills, anchoring, boat refresher tours and much more. There was also some glorious weather: but above all, the feedback we are getting is all about the sheer joy of being back together again and out on the water, with a fantastic social atmosphere on board – and everyone longing to get back to our core role of working with young people. You can see a video by Patrick and Cathy here!

Huge thanks to all involved for making these training voyages such a success.

At sea

At sea

At sea

At sea

Also this week we heard from Tom Sparrow, whose son is due to sail with us this summer, to say that he was looking through some photos he had taken back in 2018 while crossing to Brownsea Island – and realised that one of the boats he had been admiring was Prolific! Many thanks to Tom for sharing his photos:

Prolific (Tom Sparrow)

Prolific (Tom Sparrow)

Back to index


* Mark’s sail training podcast
OYT South’s Chief Executive Mark Todd is also Chair of the Association of Sail Training Organisations and in that capacity he did an interview a few weeks ago with Radio Solent which has now been released as a short radio edit and a longer podcast – enjoy!

Back to index


* Update on plans for the season
We are just waiting to see what the government announces about the proposed lifting of restrictions after 21st June, or whether there will be any delay and if so what might happen next.

At present voyages are allowed for small “bubble” groups, such as a school group; or for mixed groups but only with very limited numbers. For many of our voyages we have a small core booking plus a waiting list of people who will sail if we are allowed to increase the numbers.

The following voyages are all open to individual bookings and places in the initial small core group have all been filled but if you would like a place on the waiting list for a young person on one of these voyages, please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org:

18-23 July, 5 nights, starting and finishing Brixham, £505 per person
1-7 August, 6 nights, starting and finishing Brixham, £595 per person
8-14 August, 6 nights, Brixham to Southampton, £595 per person
21-26 August, 5 nights, Dartmouth to Poole, £505 per person
27 -31 August, 4 nights, Poole to Southampton, £405 per person
2-7 Sept, 5 nights, starting and finishing Southampton, £505 per person (age 16-25)
23-26 October, 3 nights, starting and finishing Southampton, £310 per person

The age range for our voyages is 11-25 unless otherwise specified; but in practice we don’t generally have 11-year-olds and 25-year-olds sailing together so when you apply for a particular voyage we can tell you the age range of those already booked and check whether it is suitable for you.

Please bear in mind that the decision on how many people we might be able to take from the waiting list may come at short notice and is dependent on government announcements. We really don’t know what decisions might be made, or when.

Back to index


* In this week in previous years
While the charity is waiting to return to normal voyages with young people, it is good to keep reminding ourselves about the value of our charitable work, the life-changing experiences and fantastic fun and friendship on our voyages and at our vessel refits and other activities. If you have a treasured memory of sailing, working or volunteering with us, or a tale of a voyage you will never forget, or a funny story, please send it to webmaster1@oytsouth.org and we'll publish the best in future editions of this newsletter.

We have now completed a full twelve months of round-ups on what we would be doing this week in a normal year, so if you want to see what we are usually doing in the second week of June, you can find it here. It’s a great reminder of how much effort so many people have put in over the years to ensure that we can keep helping young people develop the skills to succeed in life!

Back to index


Financial appeal
Big thanks to all our supporters and friends who have responded with such kindness and generosity to our appeal over the last year. We are not thanking everyone individually in the bulletin only because quite a few people have asked to remain anonymous; but we are truly grateful to all of you. Everyone who has contributed and is still contributing is playing a huge part in getting us through this long period with no voyage income, and ensuring that the charity will be strong enough to do important work with young people who will need us more than ever, as soon as we can safely sail again.

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.

Back to index


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.

Painting

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:

Postage / collection options

Anyone outside the UK wanting to order a copy, please email us.

Back to index


Online training courses for volunteers – safeguarding and more
If you know you have certificates which will expire this year (or have already expired), we have new EduCare licences available – if you would like one to complete your courses, either pay through the website link or get in touch with the office and we’ll talk you through what’s needed -  we can tell you what’s expired and what’s still valid, and what dates apply. If would be great if everyone can get on and ensure all qualifications are up to date so we don’t have to chase people for important pieces of paper at the last minute!

See previous issues of this newsletter for details of online RYA training which may be of interest.

Back to index


Passports – be prepared
Since 1st January 2021, British passport holders travelling to the EU will need to ensure that on the day you travel, your passport has at least 6 months left, and it must also be less than 10 years old (even if it has 6 months or more left). If you’re planning to sail with us once we get up and running again, do make sure your passport is in order in case your voyage might be able to sail to France. We won’t be sailing outside the UK until the situation with Covid seems more secure, but it would be a shame to get to that point and then find a long wait as everyone else is suddenly needing to renew their passports too: you might find it convenient to get it renewed while travel isn’t possible so that you don’t have to send it off for renewal later on!

Back to index


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!"

Easyfundraising

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.

Back to index


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.

Back to index


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!

Back to index


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.

Back to index


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 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.

Back to index


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.

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