Pliers
Has anyone accidentally taken the boat pliers home? It’s easy to put them in your pocket after undoing a shackle, and this time they haven’t reappeared!
Tall Ships Race Charts
Because the Tall Ships races this summer will take us to southern Ireland, and later up the east coast of England to Newcastle, across the North Sea to Norway, and back home via Germany, we have calculated that we need 88 additional Admiralty charts, which would cost £1,500. A cheaper alternative would be to hire or borrow at least some of these charts. Does anyone have up-to-date charts of these areas which you won’t be using this summer? Or can anyone put us in touch with individuals or organisations which might have charts we could borrow or hire?
Overseas crew members
We have been trying for some time to tap into sources of crew members from overseas, especially the countries which John Laing might visit (France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, among others). This year we received a specific donation to allow us to offer an initial cut-price trip for overseas crew members, with the aim of using the experience to build long term contacts. Two OYT South supporters, one in France and the other working with overseas students in London, have been trying very hard to find suitable crew members; but sadly it begins to seem as though they might not succeed in filling all the places. So we really need other contacts and suggestions. The voyage is from 3rd to 8th September this year, starting and finishing in Southampton. The trip would normally cost £350 (around 510 euros) but because of the donation we are able to offer it at the very special price of £150 (around 218 euros). All ideas to me a.s.a.p. – we’ll have to return the donation if the voyage doesn’t succeed!
International Festival of the Sea (IFOS)
Thurs 30th June – Sun 3rd July: We still need more volunteers for the OYT South stand at IFOS in Portsmouth, especially on the Friday and over the weekend. It will be a fantastic experience, with a chance to see round the rest of the festival as well as helping to promote OYT South. This is the last chance to call David Salmon if you can help, as it will take some time to arrange security passes – please call him on 0870 241 2252.
Voyage news
Not the easiest week on board John Laing, as the gearbox has been giving us problems which have affected the last two voyages.
The Bank Holiday weekend trip was booked by Sunnydown School, which takes boys with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and Asperger’s. They were scheduled to join on Friday night; but we were able to warn the school in advance that we had had to order a new part for the gearbox, which was meant to arrive on Saturday morning. Star engineer Chris from Contact Marine came down to Poole to fit the new part, and the hope was that we could keep the crew occupied during the day on Saturday and perhaps sail in the evening.
However, the whole plan was scuppered by TNT’s delivery service, which inexplicably seemed to lose track of the package. (In fact, our “Saturday morning guaranteed delivery” reached its destination at 5pm the following Wednesday.) Things really looked very gloomy, until Chris tracked down the part supplier, Newage Transmissions, who, with quite exceptional commitment and quality of service, agreed to get someone to go in on the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend to track down a new part, if we could get someone to the midlands to collect it and bring it back. Special thanks to Andy at Newage for going to so much trouble to help us salvage the trip.
Since we had on board as second mate Mark Boggis, the chairman of OYT South, skipper Wolf was able to announce with enormous glee: “I’m sending the chairman to Coventry!” This involved Mark catching the train to his home in Weybridge to pick up his car, and then spending most of Sunday driving. It also turned out to involve a train journey for trainee third mate Mark Huckerby, following a slight problem with the chairman’s keys (left on the boat).
Meanwhile, the saving grace of the whole experience was that the crew (nine boys and three group leaders) could not have been nicer and more understanding. Those of us left on board divided the time between sail training sessions, fishing, trips to the beach and the swimming pool, and some very funny games: the Cardboard Box game, the Chocolate Game, the Boat Race game (in which Mark Huckerby got extremely wet), and an elaborate game organised by Wolf. This involved a very long line wound round the boat, above and below deck, through hatches, around masts and under the table. The crew were blindfolded and clipped on to the line with their harnesses, apart from one in each watch who was given the responsibility of guiding his team mates round the course. This was complicated enough but when some of the bystanders (sea staff plus group leaders from the school) introduced water pistols and ripe bananas (not a nice thing to have smeared round your ear when you are blindfolded) it all got very entertaining indeed.
Eventually by Sunday night, the mates were all back on board, the new part had been successfully brought back from Coventry, and hero Chris got everything working, in time for a good sail in brilliant sunshine on Sunday. The boys threw themselves into it with great enthusiasm, and it was an immense shame that such a good crew got so little time at sea. We went as far as Swanage, where we anchored for lunch, before returning to Poole (some very excitable navigation from 13-year old Antonio) for the voyage end. They were a really lovely group and we very much hope to see them again for a less problematic trip.
The other great shame was that a shortened voyage meant that we didn’t make as much progress as we would have liked with Mark Huckerby’s third mate’s assessment, though he did get very high marks for organising games and cooking meals! I’m sure we’ll see him back again to complete his assessment before too long.
Thanks to all the sea staff for their efforts on this trip, and extra special thanks to Chris from Contact Marine, and his assistant Tristan for giving up their time on a Bank Holiday weekend.
The latest voyage started on Tuesday with a crew from the Lancing Youth Centre – seven teenagers aged 15-17, and three youth leaders. So far they have sailed from Poole to Weymouth and on to Brixham. They are currently at sea on the way back, with the phone out of range, so I’ll have to put other news from the voyage in next week’s bulletin.
Sea staff vacancies
First mates still needed for: 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, but do let me know if you are interested in doing one of them anyway.
We still have spaces for sea staff and prospective sea staff on a familiarisation (or re-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 call for overseas crew members on JL05-37, 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
JL05-42: 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.
People news
Many congratulations to Ian and Lisa Long on the arrival of James Philip Long (8lb 8oz). Since Ian and Lisa first met on a mates training weekend on board John Laing, James is obviously an OYT South baby and already has a berth reserved for him to sail in the summer of 2017! If only more people could show this level of commitment in response to my desperate appeals for help in filling berths…..
Also had an email from bosun Katy Tarrant, away travelling and currently in Australia. A brief summary: “sharks dolphins kangaroos rays turtles parrots diving surfing crocodiles snakes eagles” plus a sailing trip in which she climbed a mast (good practice for a bosun who might do a rig check) and a beautiful site by a lake where Katy wanted to camp but was prevented because the rest of her group couldn’t bear the thought of a night without a shower – which really shows the effect of Katy’s training in John Laing. We really do teach life skills – look what you can miss if you don’t acquire the knack of coping with shower deprivation!
Dates for your diaries
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 in Bremerhaven.
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).
Saturday 5th November: End of season party and possible other weekend activities tbc. Individuals welcome aged 18+; crew members under 18 who have sailed this year and would like to keep in touch are welcome to come to the weekend with a parent or group leader.
For more information on any of this, email me or contact the office on 0870 241 2252, office@oytsouth.org.
Don’t forget the OYT South link to Amazon!
At the bottom of the OYT South home page (https://www.oytsouth.org/) is a link to Amazon. Use this link whenever you order anything from Amazon and they will give a percentage of the price to OYT South funds.