Prolific

Newsletter

OYT South bulletin 5th November 2021

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


Refit news and plans – help needed THIS weekend and next week
Prolific’s winter refit has started! For those who haven't been involved before, this means several months of servicing, repairs, cleaning, modifications, sanding, painting and much more - and we need plenty of help! There is a volunteers’ weekend THIS weekend so please do call the boat phone 07990 518915 if you can help. And if you can’t manage this weekend then please put the next one in your diary if you possibly can – 4-5 December.

Huge thanks to the people who have already been involved with refit work: Holly, Josh, Georgia, Hannah and Iori (new members of the core team), Ian Sillett (a special guest appearance by a former core refit team volunteer, bringing a massive and incredibly useful trailer), James and Unity. Thanks also to Glyn and Anna whose donation of furniture is arriving today, and to Rooby and Becky who have already donated some furniture.

All the sails, blocks and ropes are off the boat now and the team is now clearing the interior.

Next week the masts are coming out in Gosport and Holly could do with a couple more people (ideally experienced Prolific sea staff) to join on Wednesday morning for the passage round from Southampton to Gosport. It’s not yet certain whether the move back from Gosport to Southampton (with no masts!) will be on Thursday or Friday but if anyone can stay on board to help through the whole period, or just join for either passage there or back, that would be great. Call the boat on 07990 518915.

Other than that, this is a big refit as we need to have Prolific’s five-year survey. The boat has to come out of the water and there is a huge amount to do. We’ll be in Southampton all winter (apart from the brief trip to Gosport described above) – in Ocean Village at the start; out of the water at Saxon Wharf from 15th November; and then back in Ocean Village some time in January.

We are still looking for one or two more people for our core refit team – please do share this with anyone who is not working, on a gap year, or otherwise available for up to four months this winter. It will be a fun, friendly team and it offers free accommodation and food over the winter as well as lots of useful experience.

However, as well as the full-time team, we need plenty of casual volunteers coming for a few days spread over the winter, or a short block of time, or even just one day. We normally need helpers on weekdays but for those of you who aren’t available during the week, we are planning some volunteer weekends, including:

6-7 November (getting as much gear as possible off before the boat is lifted out of the water - call the boat phone 07990 518915 if you can help THIS WEEKEND).
4-5 December
22-23 Jan
… and more to be decided.

We’re always pleased to see people with maintenance and technical skills but there are plenty of jobs for people with no experience – whether it’s as simple as helping to move things between the boat and the store, or an opportunity to learn something new. We can find a suitable task for anyone who is enthusiastic, reliable and prepared to muck in.

We can't have people sleeping on board once the boat is out of the water but – with huge thanks to Fred Cole for organising it - the core team has a rented house and other volunteers can always ask us about accommodation - it just depends what space we have available at the time.

Refit volunteers should generally be aged 18+ but it may occasionally be possible to include 16- and 17-year-olds who have sailed with us and earned bosun recommendations - it depends what jobs are being done, who is around and what supervision is available.

Volunteer sea staff please note: if we get multiple applications to sail on popular voyages next summer, then people who have helped at refit (or raised funds, or brought us new bookings, or supported us in other ways) may well get priority over people who haven't been involved over the winter!

To keep everyone safe, we’re looking at asking refit helpers to do take Covid tests (the free lateral flow version) before coming on board, as we have been doing with everyone on voyages this season.

Please email refit@oytsouth.org or phone 07990 518915 to book yourself in to help.

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* Voyage news
The last newsletter ended partway through a voyage with east London charity Ambition Aspire Achieve, as the crew were stuck in Cowes due to bad weather. They put the time to good use with dinghy trips in the river:

And then they prepared for a spectacular Hallowe’en party:


They were able to sail on Saturday and went up and down Southampton Water taking turns to steer or going out on the bowsprit, before ending up back in Ocean Village as the forecast for Sunday was for very stormy weather. That evening they played lots of games and very much enjoyed the crème caramel game and the After Eights game. On Sunday the threatened storm did materialise and it was so dramatic that some people actually felt seasick while Prolific was safely secured in harbour! It was not a day for many activities on board so they managed a trip to the cinema ashore. Despite the two stormbound days, the voyage covered 46 nautical miles and everyone earned an RYA Start Yachting certificate.

You can see the full voyage track here.

Skipper Holly said: “A lovely way to end a successful sailing season, with a group of young people who all really appreciated both being out of London and exploring new places, and the fun, games, and chilled times that we had.” A 13-year-old crew member said: “This has been the best trip I've ever had. If this was a hotel I would stay here for longer. I definitely would go again. The best bit was the sailing, driving, and THE FOOD. 5 stars all day. This place has helped me a lot.” A 15-year-old said: “I learnt a lot of different things about the boat and how to sail. I made new friends and travelled to different places. I also got to cook for the other crew members and got to bake.” And one of the group leaders told us: “On this trip I have had the best experience ever … The staff have been excellent, they have been welcoming and encouraging …  I would like to say that I have learnt so much about sailing and have been surprised at how much it takes to sail a boat. Every bit of this trip has been enjoyable.”

Big thanks to sea staff Holly, Josh, Georgia, Andrew, Lucinda, Tom and Patrick.

On Tuesday we had the final sail of the season, with our key sponsors, MDL Marinas. They have done so much for us over the years, from providing a home for Prolific, to supporting winter refits and sponsoring young people to sail with us. It was fantastic to have them on board to share in our celebrations for the end of a season that achieved far more than we ever dreamed. When we cautiously returned to running youth voyages towards the end of June, we hardly dared to hope that we would be able to run an unbroken series of voyages all the way through to November, with so many young people successfully completing their time on board. Planning a day sail in November can be a risky business but our luck held and we had sunshine and very light winds – too light for speedy sailing, but just right for a relaxing day in good company.



Big thanks to sea staff Holly, Josh, Georgia, Lee, Vince, Dave, Caz and Hannah.

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* 2021 season facts and figures
- After 603 days with no young people on board, from November 2019 to June 2021, we resumed operations on 26th June 2021, with 60% of a normal season still available to sail.

- We ran a full programme of 23 voyages and two day sails from June to November without having to cancel a single one.

- The season started with a maximum of just 8 young people per voyage instead of our usual limit of 15, to allow for some space and distancing on board. On 1st August we raised the limit to 10. The shorter season and reduced number of places meant that we offered 236 places on voyages this year, compared with almost 600 in a normal full season.

- We filled 219 places this year (93% of available berths). The shortfall is due to people dropping out at late notice, mainly due to positive Covid tests or close contacts. The actual number of cancelled places was significantly greater than 17 but we had a reserve list for many voyages.

- We also filled 108 volunteer berths, with volunteers giving 538 days to make these voyages possible. One-third of volunteer berths were filled by people aged 16-25, almost all having sailed first on an ordinary youth voyage and impressed the skipper enough to be invited back for further training.

- Prolific sailed 2,335 miles during the 2021 sailing season.

- 126 (58%) crew members had some specified disadvantage and a further 10 places went to adults essential for disadvantaged young people to sail but not themselves disadvantaged (e.g. carers and support staff) – so 136 (62%) of these berths in total come under the disadvantaged heading. 58 people on these voyages (26%) declared some form of physical or learning difficulty.

- 175 people completed pre- and post-voyage Outcomes Wheel self-evaluation sheets giving themselves marks out of 6 in different areas. Average changes during this year’s voyages showed some big improvements:

- 118 people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates, and 23 earned the more advanced RYA Competent Crew certificate. We always stress to young people and the staff working with them that these certificates represent much more than basic sailing competence: they can be used as evidence of transferrable skills. To earn a certificate, young people have to be able to listen, concentrate, work in a team, persist where they initially struggled, contribute to cooking and cleaning as well as the more exciting jobs, cope with living in an entirely unfamiliar situation and being away from home, undertake tasks which some will have found really challenging, take responsibility when asked, and much more.

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Core refit team needed
We are 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.

Core team

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Georgia leaving present – please give generously!
One of the most enthusiastic and capable core team refit volunteers we have ever had is Georgia Watson, who did so well in the role that she was invited to become one of the staff team on board. However, she is now coming to the end of her final season as OYT South’s Staff Cadet. She’ll be helping Holly and Josh get the refit off to a good start over the next few months but after that she will be moving on – though she has promised to stay involved as a volunteer. We are hugely grateful for all that Georgia has done for the charity as our Staff Cadet, and it’s been amazing to watch her progress as she worked through her qualifications. So we’d like to send her off with a really nice leaving present – please contribute if you can!

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 OYT South AGM – online – Thursday 9th December – all the details
OYT South’s AGM will take place on the evening of Thursday 9th December, on Zoom – all welcome! There will be a very short formal meeting followed by a review of the year from our Chief Executive Mark Todd. After that people can stay online and chat.

The formal mailing to members went out in late October– if you think you are a member and you haven’t received it, please let us know! But the meeting is open to anyone (and if you are not a member but would like to be, you can join now – it is not too late). Please note that only members can vote at the AGM, or propose or second a motion.

All the details and papers for the meeting are available here.

It would be helpful if you could email caroline.white@oytsouth.org to say whether you are hoping to come and whether you would you stay online for a social event after the meeting.

Would anyone like to volunteer to run a quiz or another fun event?

Anyone who is unable to attend or can’t manage a video call can submit questions in advance, and members can vote by proxy: in both cases, you need to email office@oytsouth.org by 1700 on Tuesday 7th December with details of your question or your appointed proxy.

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* Shorebased training weekend - 26-27 February
We are keen to run a normal face-to-face shorebased training weekend in Gosport next February, with a dinner on the Saturday night as usual. More news to follow in the coming weeks about what courses can be arranged but for the moment please put the date in your diary!

The one thing already arranged is the RYA first aid course. Everyone who did an online extension last winter needs to renew as that was only valid for one year, and then there will be all the other people due their three-yearly update this winter, and new volunteers doing the qualification for the first time. So Tony Salmon will be running courses on Saturday 26th February and Sunday 27th February. Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org if you are interested.

Please email caroline.white@oytsouth.org with any thoughts on other courses you would like us to run!

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2022 voyage programme – OPEN for individual bookings
We are now able to accept individual bookings for young people on the following voyages:

15-19 April, Southampton, 4 nights, £425
9-15 July, Poole to Brixham tbc, 6 nights, £625
23-27 July, Brixham tbc, 4 nights, £425
17-23 Aug, Brixham tbc, 6 nights, £625
24-29 Aug, Brixham to Poole tbc, 5 nights, £525
30 Aug – 4 Sept, Poole to Southampton tbc, 5 nights, £525
21-25 Oct, Southampton, 4 nights, £410 (voyage starts later on Friday so people can join after schools break up for half term)

If you are interested in any of these dates. email webmaster1@oytsouth.org stating the age of the person who will be sailing. Our voyages can be open to people aged 11-25 but in practice we aim to divide people into compatible groups and not have 11-year-olds and 25-year-olds sailing together. If you are around the middle of the age range, any voyage on the list could work, but for younger or older people we will advise if your chosen date looks appropriate or not – sometimes it is hard to be sure until we have a reasonable number of enquiries.

If none of these dates are suitable, then we MAY also open up one or more of the following to individual bookings, depending on the levels of demand for individual mixed voyages versus group voyages. So do let us know if you would be interested in a place on any of these voyages once the decision is made:

2-8 July, Southampton to Poole, 6 nights, £625
10-16 Aug, Falmouth to Brixham tbc, 6 nights, £625.

People who are aged 18-25 can apply for places on youth voyages but would also be eligible for adult voyages (18+ with no upper age limit). We have adult weekends scheduled as follows:

1-3 April, Southampton, 2 nights, £215
7-9 Oct, Southampton, 2 nights, £215
There will also be a longer adult week – date to be decided once more youth groups have chosen their dates. Again, email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you are interested in an adult berth.

Please don’t contact us yet about sea staff bookings – we’ll ask for volunteer bids from late November or December.

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2022 voyage programme – OPEN for group bookings
We are just finalising bookings for the last few groups which had places cancelled last year or this year, as well as for our regular clients; but if anyone else is looking for a group booking (12-15 crew, including young people and any accompanying adults), please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org a.s.a.p. and we can discuss available dates.

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First mates next season - job advertisement
Ten days until the closing date to apply for our first mate position next season!

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Chris Ellis Award – win £££s off the price of your next voyage!
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!

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* Financial appeal
Big thanks this week to the Ellis Campbell Foundation for another very generous donation to staff salaries.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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