Newsletter
OYT South bulletin 6th August 2021
In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Sea staff vacancy in August - can anyone help?
- * Voyage news
- * Skipper news
- * Annual Report
- * Phillips66 fundraising
- * Adventure revolution – the life-changing power of choosing challenge
- 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
* Sea staff vacancy in August – can anyone help?
Many thanks to all the people who have responded recent requests for volunteers – most of them are filled now but we do have one remaining gap:
Sat 21 Aug – Thurs 26 Aug, Dartmouth to Poole – one volunteer needed (joining 5pm Fri 20 Aug to help get things ready for the voyage).
We have a strong team of qualified staff so all we need is one more reliable person to help out as needed. It needs to be someone with a current DBS recorded for OYT South as there isn’t time to do a new one, and if your references and minimum qualifications (including online safeguarding course) aren’t up to date then you’ll need to do them straight away.
Email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help.
* Voyage news
Last week’s voyage with MACS, the charity for young people born without eyes or with underdeveloped eyes, ended on a high despite bad weather – they had a day in harbour with all sorts of activities and there were plenty of people very sorry to leave. Most of the MACS group know each other well and had really missed seeing each other and sailing together because of Covid. One said the most memorable thing for him was “Just coming back and just seeing familiar faces, being a big family.” Another added: “It's been amazing to have some normality after the past 18 months.” And a third said: “Thank you for allowing me to be myself again. Also thanks for giving me the best week of the past 2 years of my life. I will remember this week for ever … I expect in a few years’ time I'll still remember everyone's faces around this table all smiling at me, and the laughter throughout the whole trip.” And someone else said: “As always, this trip is one of the biggest highlights of my year. I love that now I am older and a more experienced sailor, I am given opportunities to learn things that I would like to know more about.”
This week’s voyage involves a mixed group of individual bookings including four of the MDL Award Winners who should have sailed last year until their voyage was cancelled by Covid. These young people are selected by our major sponsors MDL marinas who ask schools and others each year to nominate some exceptionally deserving individuals. OYT South and MDL’s partnership goes back more than thirty years and we’ve had some fantastic young people on board through this scheme – and this year’s group were no exception. We also had two previous MDL winners returning on this voyage, having excelled on previous trips and shown an interest in developing their skills on board.
The crew also involved some fantastic young fundraisers who took part in last year’s #twopointsixchallenge which was set up when the London Marathon was called off. One of the MDL winners, amazingly, responded to the disappointment of seeing his voyage cancelled last year by setting out to raise money to help see us through what turned out to be a long period with no voyage income. Alex set up a lockdown garden exercise loop with his mum involving three different activities and they both vowed to complete it 26 times in the day. They started at 0500 and finished 16 hours 20 minutes later: 26 games of table football. 26 games of Swingball and 468 (26 x 18) holes of crazy golf - and didn’t stop even when mum sustained a broken finger in an early round of Swingball! Meanwhile trainee bosun Nathan pledged to run 2.6 miles every day for 26 days for us - a total of 67.6 miles (more than two and a half marathons) – which he completed despite a knee injury which meant he had to walk rather than run for a few days. We were delighted to have these two on a voyage together so we could show them how much we appreciated their efforts and what the funds had meant to us!
These were joined by some other individual bookings who quickly gelled into an outstanding crew – skipper Holly said the whole boat was filled with watchleading potential and there were several people she could well imagine as future skippers.
They started in Brixham on Sunday and sailed to Dartmouth on the first evening and moored alongside Pilgrim, an 1895 Brixham sailing trawler (about the same age as the original Prolific!). On Monday they enjoyed 70 nautical miles of glorious tacking to Fowey, with a mix of all 4 sails and a bit of engine. They saw several pods of dolphins and even had a friendly chat with border force!
We were later sent a great set of photos taken by Tim Miller who was nearby in his boat Eagle and ended up moored close to Prolific in Fowey:
Holly says that she needs to get out of the habit of worrying about what’s happening when other boats seem to be taking a keen interest in us and accept that it’s just because Prolific looks so impressive!
Next day they sailed to Gorran Haven, with a Mexican wave to the sail training vessel Pegasus on the way, and had a beach BBQ:
Wednesday morning saw breakfast on the bean bags:
It was the most gorgeous sunny morning and they all enjoyed a lovely downwind sail to Plymouth:
In Plymouth they saw yet more sail training friends – the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, and also Moosk. Our crew had showers and continued training towards their RYA certificates.
Yesterday they had lunch in Cawsand Bay and then had a big sail in quite different conditions - much lumpier seas than the rest of the voyage, but luckily everyone had their sea legs and enjoyed it. They saw even more dolphins and finished off with some proper night sailing before anchoring off Babbacombe.
The voyage will end in Brixham tomorrow. Huge thanks to sea staff Holly, Josh, Graeme, Hannah Brown, Val Hague and Sara Abdur, who has been working hard with Josh to learn all the skills required of a bosun:
* Skipper news
OYT South is delighted that in the few short weeks since we start sailing again, two people have joined our list of fully-qualified skippers. Holly Vint and Lee Mosscrop both successfully jumped through the final hoops required to take sole charge of Prolific and we are delighted for both of them.
Holly is of course our full-time staff skipper and has progressed all the way from teenage novice sailor with OYT South, which is quite something for present-day young crew members who have really enjoyed their time on board to think about: it genuinely is possible for someone like you to come on your first-ever voyage and to decide that you would like to come back, learn more and see how far it can take you. In Holly’s case, commitment, enthusiasm, hard work, genuine sailing talent and a fantastic ability to work with young people, clients and volunteers has taken her all the way to her present job.
Lee took a different route, sailing with us first in 2010 as a highly experienced RYA instructor on a day sail. The following year he was back for a mates’ training voyage and some youth voyages, and in 2012 he passed a first mate assessment and has been volunteering in that role ever since – as well as being elected to our Board of Trustees. He will now be joining our list of relief skippers, able to take command of voyages when Holly is on leave.
OYT South is very proud of both of them and we know they will be a great inspiration to all the young people who are lucky enough to be able to sail with them!
* Annual report
We have just published a somewhat unusual Annual Report. As the introduction says: “This Annual Report covers the financial year 1st November 2019 to 31st October 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this was the first year in the charity’s history when we were unable to run any voyages or take any young people to sea. However, it was also a year of extraordinary effort from all sorts of people – volunteers, staff, donors, sponsors, supporters and friends – who did everything they could to safeguard the future of the charity despite a full season with no voyage income, in order to ensure that we can continue to offer life-changing experiences to young people who will need opportunities like this more than ever. This report includes examples of some of the support we received during the year, as well as evidence of the lasting impact that our voyages can have on the lives of young people who have the chance to sail with us. With the continuing support of all the friends of Ocean Youth Trust South, we look forward to continuing our work once the Covid-19 crisis has passed, playing our part in the effort to help young people recover from the lasting effects
of the pandemic.”
If you want to see how we survived a year with no voyage income, thanks to all the people who supported us so generously, do have a look at the report. And in the absence of new voyage stories and quotes from clients and young people, we have used this report as an opportunity to look back at the achievements of recent years: this is our “Greatest Hits” report, covering some of the highlights going back to the early years of OYT South, and some cumulative statistics rather than focussing on a single year.
Please do read it – and share it with anyone who might have an interest in our charitable work. It really does show how we can make a genuine lasting difference, and it is packed with facts, figures and crew comments which might inspire people to support us.
* Phillips66 fundraising
Regular readers maybe aware that we have had a lot of support over the last couple of years from Phillips66 who have arranged a fantastic array of activities for their staff to raise money for us. The latest was a photography competition on the theme of Water and you can see the results here:
Huge thanks to all the P66 staff who took part! Does anyone else work for a company that might consider doing something similar?
* Adventure revolution – the life-changing power of choosing challenge
Those of you who are taking an interest in our #SailToWellbeing programme might like to hear about a new book, just published, called “Adventure revolution – the life-changing power of choosing challenge”, by Belinda Kirk. Peta and Caz attended a conference organised by Belinda before lockdown last year, looking at the links between outdoor activity – such as sail training – and mental wellbeing. The book looks at how adventure outdoors can help people to manage anxiety, overcome fear, build relationships and be happier and healthier. Maybe an interesting read for sail training enthusiasts!
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
Huge thanks this week to the Honourable Company of Master Mariners for a very generous donation towards next year’s seagoing staff salaries - and also big thanks to P66 as mentioned above!.
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.
