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Duke of Edinburgh’s Award voyages
Please contact us to reserve a place. See here for a list of available voyages – any voyage of five nights or more may be suitable for your Gold Residential.
Many people sail with us as part of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme – almost always for the Gold Award Residential Project. Ocean Youth Trust South is an AAP (Approved Activity Provider) for Residentials.
A voyage with OYT South allows you to complete your Residential Project within a relaxed, informal environment where you will learn a great deal – but you will also have a fantastic time!
Doing your Residential Project on board a voyage with OYT South will give you the opportunity to:
- meet new people
- experience an unfamiliar environment
- build new relationships and show concern for others
- work as part of a team towards shared goals
- accept responsibility for yourself and others
- develop communication skills
- show initiative
- enjoy living and working with others
- earn a recognised RYA sailing qualification
- have a fantastic, fun adventure which you will remember for many years!
In addition, the most impressive and enthusiastic young crew members each year can earn a recommendation to come back and train as a volunteer watchleader or bosun – which means years of free sailing and a chance for a really impressive addition to your CV, if you can demonstrate experience of leading, teaching, supporting and inspiring other young people from all backgrounds while working effectively as a member of OYT South’s team of staff and volunteers.
All OYT South voyages lasting at least five nights are suitable for your Residential Project, but most of our Duke of Edinburgh Award participants prefer to choose one of our more ambitious voyages. See the voyage programme, or email to ask about availability.
Please note that our voyages tend to start in the afternoon of the first day and finish in the morning of the last day, which makes it easier for everyone to travel to and from the boat – but it does mean that the first and last days are short and therefore the total time on board on a four-night voyage will not normally meet the criteria for a Gold residential.
FUNDING HELP AVAILABLE – please contact us if you want to complete your Gold residential but you are struggling with the cost.
You may want to sail with us just once for your Residential – but up to a third of Prolific’s volunteer watchleaders are aged under 25 and earned a recommendation to join the team for further training after impressing the skipper on an initial youth voyage. This can mean years of free sailing and a great addition to your CV, with a chance to volunteer on future voyages, often with disadvantaged young people – perhaps for just a week or so each summer but with far more opportunities for those who are interested. This can even be a step on the way to a sailing career – Prolific’s previous full-time Staff Mate, Lauren, first sailed with us as a 16-year-old doing her Gold residential!
General Information
Introduction to sailing with Ocean Youth Trust South
Don’t forget that your Residential MUST take place primarily among people you don’t already know.You might well come on a voyage where you don’t know anyone else at all; but we can include a few people who know each other (you are likely to be allocated to different teams or watches). But if you know anything approaching 50% of the other people on the voyage then please discuss this with us before booking as we won’t be able to sign you off if the voyage doesn’t meet the criteria for your Residential. You don’t want to find that one person drops out at the last minute, leaving you knowing more than 50% of those remaining!
At the start of the voyage, you should remind the skipper or first mate that you want to use the voyage as your Residential Project. They can then watch your progress during the voyage and ensure that you are given every opportunity to show what you can do to achieve a really positive report in your Record Book at the end of the voyage.
Award guidelines say that you should be assessed on:
- personal standards
- relationships with others
- responsibility
- initiative
- development of skills
- knowledge and general progress
Other DofE levels and sections
OYT South does not currently offer the Expedition section of the Award.
The Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections normally require people to take part in an activity regularly for a specified period, which means that a one-off voyage with us is unlikely to count, and that generally rules out anything at Bronze or Silver level. If you believe that anything you are doing with us could still count towards your DofE Award, please contact us to discuss it.
* Please note that a Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award is not something you can simply pay for. Very occasionally we have had young people on board who believe that “I have paid for the voyage, therefore you have to sign my residential”. OYT South reserves the right not to complete the Record Book for a crew member who does not put in a certain amount of energy, enthusiasm, commitment and co-operation. Any young person who is in danger of falling into this category should receive a debrief midway through the voyage while there is still time to turn things round. Keen Duke of Edinburgh Award participants have nothing to fear – we simply don’t wish to devalue your achievement by signing off people who haven’t put in anything like as much effort as most participants normally do!