Winch servicing

Newsletter

OYT South bulletin 7th May 2021

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


* Prolific news
This week Georgia has been finishing all the winch servicing and sanding the pinrails.

Georgia

Pins

She and Josh took the RIB on a test run and made sure the outboard was running well.

Josh has also run up the main engine and fire pump, and he has been working on the windlass. The oven has new thermostats. And there was a leak on the engine room bilge pump outlet pipe and so Josh has cut that off and a new section has been installed.

Refit

Josh and Georgia are now going on furlough again for a short period but Holly will be back at work next week. Huge thanks to all of them for all their hard work.

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* Peta’s leaving present – prints available to buy!
We have recently been able to hand over Peta’s leaving present - 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.

Peta

Now that Peta has the original, we are delightedthat Colin is able to offer smaller prints for sale (unframed).

Painting

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:

Postage / collection options

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

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* 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.

Despite news headlines about a possible end to restrictions after 21st June, a lot of the small print seems to mention “with mitigations” or “with appropriate precautions”; but no official details have yet been published. At this stage, therefore, we are taking bookings for much smaller groups (usually 8 young people rather than 12 or 15) which would allow us to operate with much more space on board – for example, using alternate bunks rather than having people too close. These priority berths have virtually all been filled by clients who had voyages cancelled last year; and in most cases, group bookings will want to fill any extra spaces on their voyages if we are allowed to take more people.

This leaves the voyages open to individual bookings, where the initial 8 spaces have all been filled but we can have a reserve list of up to 7 more people in case we are allowed to increase the numbers. This decision may be made at short notice, but if you would like to reserve a place on the waiting list for 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

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* OYT South CEO becomes Chair of the Association of Sail Training Organisations
Congratulations to OYT South’s Chief Executive, Mark Todd, who has just taken over as Chair of the Association of Sail Training Organisations (a voluntary position – he is not leaving his CEO position with us!). We wish him all the best in this role.

Mark says: “It is a huge honour to be appointed as the Chair of ASTO, the UK's National Sail Training Organisation. ASTO represents over 30 not-for-profit organisations which operate over 50 Sail Training vessels around the UK. Between them, member organisations take around 10,000 young people to sea each year for challenge and adventure.

I’d like to pay tribute to the outgoing Chair, James Stevens, who has been a passionate advocate for Sail Training and has played a vital role in supporting UK Sail Training organisations. He remains a close friend of ASTO and a champion of our work.

As with many outdoor education providers, it has been a very difficult year for most Sail Training organisations who have been unable to operate due to Covid 19 restrictions. However, I am looking forward to helping this exceptionally worthwhile industry get sailing again this year: doing what it does best and supporting people of all backgrounds and abilities, helping them recover from the disastrous effects of COVID-19 by discovering the joy of being outside, making friends and improving their mental and physical wellbeing. Valuable work at a time when it has never been more needed.”

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* Congratulations to Mollie and Sam!
Huge congratulations to Mollie Crawford, our Operations Assistant 2014-2018, and Sam Rawlinson, formerly a volunteer watchleader, who are getting married this weekend!

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* New campaign on wellbeing coming next week
Keep on eye on our social media over the next few weeks – along with the rest of ASTO, we are going to be talking about how sail training can support wellbeing and mental health. Please do share or retweet posts on this subject, and add your comments – there will be plenty of opportunities to talk about examples of experiences that you may have had on board during our voyages.

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* 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 the first week of May, 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!

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* The history of the charity – episode 4: the 1970s
You can read episode 1, episode 2 and episode 3 in previous newsletters, covering the idea that became the Ocean Youth Club, the stories of the founding vessels, Theodora and Duet, and the developments of the 1960s. This week: the 1970s. Thanks as ever to Emma Ellis for all the research from the 50th anniversary brochure.

1970 was the 10th year for the Ocean Youth Club and the annual report said it was “impossible not to look back on those ‘muddling through’ days with nostalgia and a lot of affection for all who took part." The romance of the old gaffers was real, but they could not go on for ever and OYC embarked on building a new fleet of vessels and bought for the purpose the yard ‘Freeman's Wharf’ near Penryn, Cornwall. This project was masterminded by Geoffrey Williams.

In the Eastern area, Lion d’Or, a Nicholson 36’ sloop, was chartered by the Club to replace Duet when out of commission in refit. Sir Thomas Lipton returned from her voyage to the Caribbean and then spent eight weeks doing service for the new North West area:

Sir Thomas Lipton

In 1971 the first vessel was launched from the new yard to serve in the south west area: Scott Bader was 71’ 6” length overall and at the time was the longest production fibreglass sailing vessel in the world. Subsequent vessels were slightly larger - 72’ 6” - and were planned to be launched at a rate of one every five months. OYT South supporters in the 21st century can only marvel at the Club being able to go from a standing start in 1960 to launching multiple large new vessels just eleven years later!

Of the two founding vessels, Theodora retired from service and was sold by Chris Ellis to the Maritime Trust. Duet served in the North West after a major refit and was skippered by Fred Dovaston as his first command for OYC.

Duet

In 1972 Falmouth Packet was launched in March for the Southern area, skippered by Peter Hambly; and Master Builder was launched in June for the Eastern area, skippered by Bruce Thorogood. The Robert Clark-designed ketches performed well and “dispelled any early doubts about the Club having Tupperware boats and pointed sails – no mean achievement in this stronghold of old gaffers” (Bruce Thorogood 1972). Falmouth Packet won the STA Southsea to Cherbourg race and Master Builder, on a two-week cruise from Brightlingsea, visited Kiel during the Olympic regatta. The 72’6” vessels were clearly the future of the club and so Scott Bader was sold.

In 1973 Samuel Whitbread was launched for the Southern area; Falmouth Packet moved to the South West to replace Scott Bader; and Taikoo was launched in August, to serve in the North West.

Meanwhile, Crusade, on loan from Sir Max Aitken, sailed back from USA via the Azores with an OYC crew and was dismasted on passage!

In 1974 Sir Thomas Sopwith was launched to serve in the Southern area. OYC Scotland was established with Crusade, skippered by Colin Lewry. Colin wrote in the Club magazine, Spunyarns: “At 1815 on Saturday 3 August 1974, the Scottish Area became a reality. Crusade slipped from the yard at Penryn manned by her first [Scottish] Area crew. [We arrived] in Oban just in time to find that the pubs closed five minutes ago. Oh well ... Getting to Scotland and sailing here was not without problems. Trying to establish anything new is always difficult. Setting up OYC Scotland had a fair share of frustrating snags, but as all those who went crusading this year know, and those who come in the future will find, it was well worth sorting them out. There are many people who are owed a debt of gratitude for their untiring and ceaseless effort to make the area come alive. And they can be repaid! HOW? Grab a pen, fill in a booking form and COME SAILING!”

Colin Lewry

Colin became one of the OYC’s long-serving and memorable characters, who died in 2017 at the age of 80. One of his greatest contributions lay in running the Skippership Scheme which trained many of the people who skippered for the charity. Emma Ellis said: "Most of us remember Colin for his dedication to OYC as a skipper, enabling many hundreds of young people to have an adventure under sail. But many of us also remember him for his dedication to training new generations of sea staff, not just because he taught us that in any emergency we should put the kettle on, but because he taught us concepts that stuck hard and fast in our minds. From engine failures to hurricanes, boats - and no doubt lives - have been saved through recalling words of wisdom that Colin delivered in his unique style, whether on the Robert Clark ketches or freezing to death on the Hunter Duettes in the Hamble River. Just about every one of us who sailed with Colin can recall something that has been put to good use at some stage. The Ocean Youth Club/Trust owes Colin an immeasurable debt of gratitude for his contribution to the existence of the charity, to our own individual lives and to many, many other people - both within the sail training fraternity and beyond."

Caz White, OYT South's Business Manager, sailed with Colin in the 1980s as a teenager and added: "There must be so many of us who remember Colin insisting that no-one could call themselves a navigator unless they could write down the complete shipping forecast straight from the radio broadcast and then draw a map of the UK with isobars, using the burnt end of a match on the back of a cigarette packet. This was quite a challenge for. a fifteen- year-old non-smoker! But the fact that thirty-eight years later I am still involved with the charity is a tribute to those early days of sailing with Colin. He inspired me as he inspired so many others. He loved the Ocean Youth Trust to the very end and never gave up trying to persuade young people to sail. And wherever OYC and OYT sailors gather, I hope there will always be someone with a Colin Lewry tale to tell!"

Meanwhile, back in 1975, OYC could claim it was "the Club which probably takes more young people sailing offshore than any other organisation", and this was making an impact across the world. Sir Thomas Sopwith sailed to the Caribbean and back with a crew from Swansea University. Taikoo completed a round England voyage and a six-week voyage to the Azores and the Canaries. Master Builder, Sir Thomas Sopwith and Samuel Whitbread cruised the north coast of Spain. Duet took part in the 50th anniversary Old Gaffers Fastnet race and won three trophies. Master Builder and Taikoo were present at celebrations of Amsterdam’s 700th anniversary and then at London Festival of Sail. And Crusade, crewed by 15 young Scots and Colin Lewry, won the STA race in the Clyde.

Clyde

In 1976, Francis Drake was launched to serve in the North West, and Scott Bader Commonwealth was launched for the Eastern Area. Taikoo became OYC Scotland’s boat when Crusade was withdrawn from the fleet. OYC participated in their first trans-Atlantic race as Master Builder joined Operation Sail America’s bicentenary celebrations – completing 7,600 miles without incident or gear failure. The first OYC Rally of all the vessels took place in the Solent, covered by BBC TV, with a race won by Master Builder.

In 1977, an OYC Rally was held in Scotland. Master Builder cruised for 5 weeks in the Baltic; and Francis Drake in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year sailed with a message of goodwill from the youth of Britain to the youth of Iceland. For the first time in 20 years the Union Flag was hoisted alongside the Icelandic National Flag outside the Government Building in Reykjavik. And David James was appointed Director of OYC.

1978 saw a rally of the whole fleet from Cowes to Oslo. Following a suggestion from Governor Roger Murray, the folk and shanty group the Spinners sailed with OYC to Oslo in the Tall Ships Race of that year and released an album “The Spinners Sing Songs of the Tall Ships” with OYC members on the choruses.

Spinners

The first female staff skipper, Linda Bagshaw, was appointed, and a pilot project for crew members with disabilities was successful. And OYC Northern Ireland and OYC North East were officially constituted as areas.

1979 was the year of the infamous Fastnet Storm but all OYC vessels remained safe. Master Builder sailed to Norway and Francis Drake to Iceland; Halcyon was chartered to work out of Northern Ireland. A debate was started on the next generation of OYC vessels with proposals for a 26 ton ketch designed by Laurent Giles Ltd; but building a new class of OYC boats was not gaining sponsorship, so it was decided that instead a Camper & Nicholson 55’ yawl would be built, to be named Grania. With 9 vessels sailing, OYC clocked up 18,793 voyage days with 2,181 members.

Looking back, the 1970s appears to be a decade of almost breath-taking growth and ambition! There will be more chapters of this history in future issues of this newsletter.

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Financial appeal
Big thanks 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.

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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.”

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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.

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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!

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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 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