Urgent notices
OYT South and Amazon
If you look at the bottom of the OYT South home page at https://www.oytsouth.org/, you will find a link to Amazon. If you click on this link whenever you want to order anything from Amazon, they will give a small percentage of the price to OYT South funds. PLEASE use this link – it could add up to a useful amount of money each year.
Urgent crew vacancies
We still have a few spaces for voyage 16, which runs from 23-27 May (£200). There may be bursary funding available if you can’t afford £200. Please contact the office urgently if you can go. NB we could also take sea staff aged 25 or under on this voyage to make up the numbers.
Voyage 20 is still completely empty: 6 – 11 June – please help us make sure this trip goes ahead. We have sea staff who have booked time off work to do this week so it will be a huge let-down if we have to cancel it for lack of crew. If you have any suggestions for finding individuals or groups to fill this voyage, call David Salmon urgently on 0870 241 2252.
Open Day this weekend
We have a number of people coming to look round the boat tomorrow (Saturday 14th May) – if anyone else wants to take advantage of the opportunity, call the boat on 07990 518915.
Day sail this weekend
We currently have three spare places for an adult day sail this Sunday 15th May. Anyone interested, phone the boat on 07990 518915.
International Festival of the Sea (IFOS)
Thurs 30th June – Sun 3rd July: We need volunteers for the OYT stand at IFOS in Portsmouth. It will be a fantastic experience, with a chance to see round the rest of the festival as well as helping on our stand. You might think that you don’t need to make a decision about something like this for a few weeks yet, but PLEASE volunteer now as David Salmon has to arrange security passes for all volunteers and the deadline to be sure he can do it in time is rapidly approaching. Please call him on 0870 241 2252 if you can help.
Voyage news
Last week’s voyage was yet another great success: organised by Naomi House Children’s Hospice, for brothers and sisters of children who had been cared for by the hospice. This voyage was partly funded from money raised by Abbie Shoebridge in order for her to take part in a round the world race. Unfortunately she had to pull out due to injury, and she decided that some of the remaining money should be spent on voyages like this. Both OYT South and Naomi House are immensely grateful for her support.
Sea staff on this trip were Wolf, Hels, Tom Kemp, Neil Fairbrother and Craig. However, Princess Craig fell ill during the week and was forced to go home. Shortly thereafter, Gizmo received a voice message from someone doing a Dalek impression: “This is your leader! I need you now!” Not put off by this peremptory summons, Gizmo caught a ferry to Cowes and spent the rest of the week as bosun.
Apart from some seasickness on the first day, reports of the trip are nothing but a list of highlights. Wolf particularly remembers four crew members standing at the bow with waves coming over them, whooping as if on a rollercoaster. Another memorable moment was when the crew gave him a makeover, leaving him still chipping off the nail varnish a week later. His feminine side was particularly in evidence this week as he also enjoyed a session of reading Bliss magazine aloud. (Wolf’s teen mag moments are always popular on board, especially when he gives his own unique twist to the answers on the problems page). Not to be outdone, Tom Kemp led the team in a lively dance to Robbie Williams’ Millennium. And it was quite a musical week all round: they had a great sail back from Weymouth at 10-11 knots accompanied by Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Take That. But the crew worked hard as well as played hard – they all got their RYA Start Yachting certificates.
All in all it was an excellent voyage, and with luck we’ll be seeing crews from Naomi House crews. Group leader Jan sent a lovely email of thanks to the sea staff, claiming that the week “has left me ‘boat sick’ – searching around the house for ropes to tidy, and swaying on the loo!!!! WEIRD – how can I explain this to people……” She was also really impressed to see the difference that a voyage like this can make to a group of young people who have been through extremely difficult times at home.
That voyage was followed by a mates’ training weekend, largely consisting of people with assessments booked in the next few months plus others hoping to be allocated assessment berths. We sailed to Poole and back, with lots of exercises en route: which watch could reef the main and then shake the reef out again in the shortest time? Who could get the boat from all set up on one tack (including backstays) on to the other tack in the shortest time? All with time penalties for any errors and anything not done safely. We also had several people practising driving the boat back to an object in the water, which allowed Dawn Marshall to spend a lot of time dangling over the side in a climbing harness. It seemed from the squeaking noises that she was enjoying it! A lively night out in Poole was followed by a very sunny sail home. The good news from the voyage is that everyone on board would be welcome to sail again; there were lots of good potential sea staff; and if everyone can sort out CRB checks in time and organise the dates, it looks as though we can now fill all the remaining assessment berths for the season.
Finally, this week saw one of our regular bookings: six young people and six carers from Alfreton park school. All the youngsters had various learning difficulties; some have Downs’ syndrome, or mobility problems. As always with the Alfreton Park group, everyone had a fantastic time. We do less demanding sailing with this group than we might do on other trips; but make up for it with lots of games and other activities. Sea staff this week included Hels as skipper – her last voyage before going abroad for the summer – she will be much missed and we hope to see her back on the boat in September! Graeme Cole and John Smith came for a few days each as first mate, since no-one was available for the full trip; but continuity was provided by Jonny Holman, doing his first mate’s assessment, which was all successfully completed apart from a man overboard exercise under sail, so congratulations to Jonny. He also needs to do his RYA Coastal Skipper but after that he will hopefully be filling some of the 1M vacancies mentioned elsewhere in this bulletin! We then had two second mates, Mike Makepeace and Special K; plus the return of Princess Craig, not yet fully recovered from his illness but still able to enjoy many of the activities. Jonny is currently hoarse from reading “George’s Marvellous Medicine” (a free book from a cereal packet) and doing dozens of different voices for all the characters. Craig enjoyed Melissa’s 17th birthday party with hundreds of balloons and “far too much cake”.
Sea staff vacancies
First mates still needed for: 31 May – 4 June; 24-28 June; 16-26 July; 12-17 August; 26 Aug-2 Sept; 3-9 Sept; 12-16 Sept; 19-23 Sept; 24-30 Sept; 10-14 Oct; 15-20 Oct; 21-25 Oct; 26-31 Oct; 1-5 Nov.
Second mates needed for: 10-11 Sept; 2-7 Oct; 26-31 Oct; 1-5 Nov. Not all of these are entirely straightforward as it may be essential to have a female second mate on some of these trips.
Although not all third mate berths are allocated yet, I am hoping to be able to fill all the remaining spaces with people doing assessments and other 3Ms who have already expressed an interest. If you are a 3M who hasn’t been in touch lately and you would like to sail this season, you will need to let me know urgently if there is to be any chance at all of a space.
We still have spaces for future prospective sea staff on a familiarisation voyage 12-16 September (£200); and there are also spaces on the mates’ training weekend 16-18 Sept (£100)
Please email me or call 07986 354697 if you want to do any of these voyages.
Future crew bookings
Apart from the urgent vacancies advertised above, we still have spaces on the following voyages:
JL05-30: 10 nights, 16-26 Jul, Cherbourg to Newcastle, £600
JL05-31: 9 nights, 27 Jul – 5 Aug, Newcastle to Fredrikstad, £585
JL05-32: 4 nights, 6-10 Aug, Fredrikstad to Bremerhaven, £260
JL05-34: 5 nights, 12-17 Aug, Bremerhaven to Ipswich, £325
JL05-40: 4 nights, 12-16 Sep, Southampton, £200
JL05-41: 2 nights, 16-18 Sep, Southampton, £100
JL05-42: 4 nights, 19-23 Sep, Southampton, £220
JL05-46: 2 nights, 7-9 Oct, Southampton, £110 (whole boat group booking available)
JL05-47: 4 nights, 10-14 Oct, Southampton, £210 (whole boat group booking available)
JL05-48: 5 nights, 15-20 Oct, Southampton, £225 (whole boat group booking available)
JL05-49: 4 nights, 21-25 Oct, Southampton, £200
JL05-51: 4 nights, 1-5 Nov, Southampton, £160
For information on latest vacancies, please contact the office on 0870 241 2252, or email office@oytsouth.org.
We are now taking bookings on the 2006 programme, also available from the office, or on the website at www.oytsouth.org.
Dates for your diaries
Saturday 14th May: Open Day on board John Laing – all welcome but please phone the boat first! (07990 518915)
Sun 5th June: John Laing maintenance day, Poole (call Wolf 07771 771864).
Weds 29th June: John Laing maintenance day, Portsmouth (call Wolf 07771 771864).
Thurs 30th June – Sun 3rd July: IFOS, the International Festival of the Sea, in Portsmouth: volunteers needed on the OYT South stand for all four days, and to show visitors around John Laing on Thursday and Friday, before she sets sail for Waterford.
Thurs 11th August: John Laing maintenance day, but this one is in Bremerhaven so we don’t expect many casual helpers to drop in!
10th and 11th September: More John Laing Open Days.
Friday 16th Sept: OYT South annual dinner, Royal Southern YC, Hamble, held jointly with two local children’s hospices. Tickets £65 each.
16th – 25th September: Southampton Boat Show: volunteers needed for the OYT South stand.
Saturday 1st October: John Laing maintenance day, Southampton (call Wolf 07771 771864).
For more information on any of this, email me or contact the office on 0870 241 2252, office@oytsouth.org.