Newsletter
OYT South bulletin 30th April 2021
In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Prolific news – including sea trials
- * Peta’s leaving present – prints available to buy!
- * Update on plans for the season
- * In this week in previous years
- * The history of the charity – episode 3: the 1960s
- * Financial appeal
- Trans Awareness – zoom session
- Online training courses for volunteers - safeguarding and more
- Passports – be prepared
- 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
* Prolific news – including sea trials!
Big thanks to Holly, Josh, Georgia and guest stars Ollie and Peta who worked really hard on the boat so that we were actually able to go to sea last week! We had a small team on board (big thanks to all those involved) and we were able to make sure all the sails could be hoisted and the reefing lines worked; we dropped the anchor and tested the windlass; we had the compass swung; we had plenty of parking practice and lots of man overboard recovery drills – and we got all the way to Cowes (more than once)! We had glorious weather – big thanks to Willoughby who spotted us in Cowes and took these pictures:
And here we are goose-winging up Southampton Water:
If you haven’t seen them, there are also some videos on Facebook including messages from Mark, Holly and Caz; a quick hoist for the ORC; and a speedy warp from one berth to another.
Since we got back from sea trials, Georgia has been servicing all the jammers and winches, and sanding the pinrail while Josh has been replacing the bow thruster batteries and working with BD Marine on the windlass, while Holly has been deep in paperwork.
Special thanks this week to Chris from Wescom Signal & Rescue for supplying Prolific's flares and keeping our stock in date. Safety is obviously the top priority for a sail training vessel taking young people to sea and while we hope we will never have to use our flares, it is essential to have them on board for an emergency. As a commercial vessel we carry a wide range of different means to issue a distress message if needed, but we still have flares to hand and we also aim to keep a good lookout for anyone else who might be in trouble at sea, sending up a flare and needing our help.
* Peta’s leaving present – prints available to buy!
The sea trials gave us the opportunity to see former Staff Skipper Peta for the first time since she moved on, so we were finally able to hand over her leaving present – to which so many people contributed. We gave her a magnificent original painting by our friend, Gosport-based marine artist Colin Baxter. This is Prolific in one of Peta’s favourite places with details correct down to Peta herself in her distinctive yellow jumper.
Now that Peta has the original, we are delighted to be able to offer smaller prints for sale (unframed).
The 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.
* Update on plans for the season
After all these months, it really is beginning to seem as though there is light at the end of the tunnel, as we put ourselves in a position to ensure that we can get back to running voyages again as soon as we can do so safely and within the guidelines.
Now that the sea trials are complete, the next stage will be refresher training for staff and volunteers. We are running these with small groups on board so places were very limited – we had to draw names from a hat because we couldn’t fit in all the people who were interested. The lucky winners should have already had confirmation of their places, and we’re just very sorry that there wasn’t room for everyone. We’re now in the process of finalising the staff and volunteer rota for voyages for the rest of the season.
We’ve also been contacting all clients and young people and adults whose voyages were cancelled last year to try to agree dates for replacement voyages.
* In this week in previous years
While the charity is unable to sail, 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 at the end of April, you can find it here and 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!
* The history of the charity – episode 3: the 1960s
You can read episode 1 and episode 2 in previous newsletters, covering the idea that became the Ocean Youth Club and the stories of the founding vessels, Theodora and Duet. This week: the 1960s.
Thanks as ever to Emma Ellis for all the research from the 50th anniversary brochure.
After the initial voyages in 1960, by 1961 there was a more extensive programme of voyages and Duet took 120 young people to sea while Theodora took 187. At that time everybody paid £1 a day to sail and this was nearly enough to cover food and running expenses. The first year ran at an operational loss of £158.15 but with donations it carried forward a balance of £841.16! Based mainly from East coast ports, Duet made five foreign-going trips and Theodora made six.
By 1962 the Club was operating from Camper & Nicholson’s yard, Gosport - crews arrived there and were ferried to the yachts at their moorings. A third vessel - Equinoxe - was purchased, made possible by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
We have heard some memories of Equinoxe over the last few months when Tony Whiting sent in this photo of himself on the bow in the 1970 Old Gaffers race, from the cover of Yachting and Boating:
And John Hepburn sent in this photo by Roger M Smith of Cowes from the 1973 Old Gaffers' Race:
However, back in 1961, Jim Drewett was employed as skipper of Equinoxe. Sadly we have heard very recently from Jan Drewett that Jim died a few months ago. Jim and Jan met through the OYC, and they came to our 50th anniversary event in 2010. Jan said she always read our newsletters out to Jim.
On 21 November 1962, the OYC became a company limited by guarantee, which required establishing a Board of Governors and a Committee. The first Governors (involved with the formal establishment and fundraising) were Jasper Knight, Ted Playne, Chris Ellis, Lady R A Butler, Rev Chris Courtauld, the bishops of Norwich and Bath & Wells, J Newsom, Frank Carr and Jo Habens (secretary). The Committee (for more day-to-day and practical concerns) were Ted Playne (Chair), Chris Ellis, Derek Gray (accountant), T H Bull (solicitor), Rev Chris Courtauld, Dr David Harrison (Eton College), Kit Power, Bishop of Norwich, T Brocklebank, David Tonkin and Jo Habens (secretary).
In 1973, the OYC moved to Marvins Yard, Cowes, better known as Shamblers Yard. Another vessel, Ocean Pelican, was under construction, and the first issue of the Club magazine, Spunyarns, was published.
In 1964 Billy Bray, a Looe Lugger, was loaned by Gordon James:
Ocean Pelican was launched and named by Lady R A Butler, Chris Courtauld’s mother.
In 1965 the OYC left Shamblers Yard. The Club was split into three areas, with one Eastern and two Southern components. Jim Drewett moved the vessels Equinoxe, Billy Bray and Mazurka (used to give command experience to Mates) to Camper & Nicholson's yard on the Itchen in Southampton. Ian Black joined OYC as a professional skipper for Ocean Pelican in the South West Area, based in Plymouth; and Roger Hodgkinson moved to Brightlingsea with Theodora and Duet. Gradually over time, independent organisations were being developed in each of these areas with their own personnel and bookings. Jenny Habens became the OYC’s first Secretary at Gosport where a Central Office was established.
Pip Masters wrote these memories of the early 1960s: “We painted Theo’s topsides in a snow-storm (it all came off again 3 weeks later), we took our refreshments in The Castle Tavern round the corner, swinging round the lamp post on the way back. Nosh Dawes consumed an entire Swiss Roll to earn his name. Three of us in a Bubble car, all that grown up stuff.... I guess in the first few years it was bring your own oilskins or get wet, so we sailed In Donkey Jackets or Duffel Coats or whatever we could find in dad’s wardrobe! I think it must have been during the early part of ’65 that the Shiny Black Plastic Jackets arrived on board Theodora, which I understood had come from Heathrow (then London Airport). These were OK during the day and meant that you only got wet legs (I had wet legs for 50+ hours that Easter) but at night the crew became invisible. This may have been the reason why they were surplus to the Airport’s requirements! I think that the other boats probably had them too and that they only lasted one season. The problem of walking round the deck prodding dark spaces to see if they might contain a lurking watch member or tripping over a semi-recumbent one in the process was too spooky to be much fun!”
In 1966 Equinoxe and Duet entered the Tall Ships Race from Falmouth to Denmark and Duet came second in class. The OYC officially said farewell to Jo ‘Gubbins’ Habens and Spunyarns recorded "Jo's enormous contribution in building up the Club to what it is today....his magnetic enthusiasm, his own unique vocabulary, and his ability to get one doing most extraordinary things simply because it was ‘good kit'....”
In 1967 Theodora cruised for four weeks to Northern Spain. The old Customs House in Brightlingsea was purchased as a base for the Eastern area. Here is Duet on the old pier at Brightlingsea:
The Governors adopted a paper on a National Scheme for the OYC with suggestions of expansion to bases in the Tyne, Firth of Forth, and Holyhead. And OYC had a stand for the first time at the Earl's Court International Boat Show in the Youth Afloat section.
In 1968 Geoffrey Williams was appointed Director of Development after winning the 1968 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. He loaned his yacht Sir Thomas Lipton, in which he had won the race, to the OYC. Meanwhile an Appeal was launched for a fleet of new Robert Clark-designed vessels, with a target of 12 new vessels, five shore bases and a yard for building and major overhauls: total cost approximately £400,000. Annual sailing membership at this time cost 10 shillings, or 50p.
In 1969, Sir Thomas Lipton served in the North West as a pilot scheme for a new base, with Polly Purkiss as skipper. Later in the year, Sir Thomas Lipton set off across the Atlantic to winter in the Caribbean and a film of the voyage was made by Fred Dovaston (below, far left).
The 1960s had seen huge developments from the initial inspiration and the loan of two vessels through to a much wider organisation with grand plans for further expansion. The official Articles of the Association were also being developed.
At first they read: “To provide facilities for yachting and boat-sailing at sea and for seamanship and navigation generally as a recreation or leisure time occupation to improve the conditions of life of youth from all parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Later they said: “To give young people between the ages of 15 and 21 the opportunity to go to sea offshore, under sail; to foster the spirit of adventure latent in young people; to inculcate a sense of responsibility among young people both for themselves and for others; and to encourage a wider outlook and greater understanding of other people
A further development said: “To use a sailing ship as the classroom and the sea as a teacher to encourage young people to develop a sense of co-operative responsibility for themselves and the community in which they find themselves.”
There will be more chapters of this history in future issues of this newsletter.
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to Mike Bunton and Technip for another very generous donation. Big thanks also to all our other 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.
Trans Awareness – zoom session
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.”
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.
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!
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 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.
