In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Website maintenance
- * Refit news – help needed
- * Shorebased training weekend – 26-27 February – more details on courses and dates
- * Playing games on board Prolific
- * 2022 volunteer sea staff bookings
- * Volunteers gaining skills and earning qualifications
- * RYA Yachtmaster of the Year
- Core refit team needed
- * 2022 voyage availability – individual bookings
- 2022 voyage availability – group bookings
- 2022 adult voyages and volunteer training
- * Financial appeal
- Georgia leaving present – please give generously!
- 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
* Website maintenance
Our website was down for several hours today owing to essential work which meant there was no power to the server. This work will continue on Sunday 23rd January and Friday 28th January. We apologise for the inconvenience but we hope to have the site running smoothly before too long!
* Refit news
Welcome back to the refit team – Holly, Josh, Georgia, Iori, Sam and Oran – helped this week by Barry Walker!
Big thanks this week to Ally at Wescom for donating essential replacement flares as well as a brand-new set of dummy ones for training staff and teaching crew. Oran looks very pleased …
Meanwhile the windlass is back and in position:
Work is underway to get the prop shaft back in, and the rudder will follow. The fresh water system is being upgraded; the remaining seacocks have been going back on; the cleats are being sanded; the jonbuoy is off to be serviced; and there is more antifouling being done.
We are still being fairly cautious about numbers of volunteers at refit because of Covid, but if you are interested in helping out, please call the boat on 07990 518915 or email refit@oytsouth.org to discuss plans with Holly – she will be delighted to see willing helpers as long as she feels it can all be managed safely.
* Shorebased training weekend – 26-27 February – more details on courses and dates
Covid permitting, we are still hoping for a normal face-to-face shorebased training weekend in Gosport in February.
We are just in the process of confirming courses and dates with everyone who has already asked for a place, and we are also sorting other details such as the price of meals for those who want. We should have a booking form and payment link for everything in the next few days.
If you haven’t yet booked, we have at least one space for an RYA First Aid course; plenty of places on the Youthwork day; and scope for more people to do a GMDSS Radio – please email caroline.white@oytsouth.org if you are interested.
The one-day RYA first aid course is running on both the Saturday and Sunday, so we can cover two groups. Price £80 including first aid handbook. There is definitely at least one space available on the Sunday. If you can only manage Saturday, let me know as someone may be able to swap – email caroline.white@oytsouth.org.
Otherwise on the Saturday we have a three-part Youthwork course. From 0930-1030 one of our new trainee watchleaders, Anjelica Finnegan, is going to run a short session on recognising domestic abuse: helping our staff and volunteers identify if there is risk of domestic abuse at home to young people and also if a young person’s relationship is abusive and when we might need to report this. This is Anjelica’s professional speciality and is recommended for everyone but the idea of putting it on first thing in the morning is that if you are uncomfortable with this topic you can just arrive at 1030 and do the other sessions. The rest of the morning will involve Holly running through teaching young people about environmental issues and some of the environmental games sessions she developed pre-pandemic. In the afternoon Kerry McMillan, whom many of you will remember as a former OYT South refit and sailing volunteer, has a great session on games on board: what we can achieve by playing games with young people and how it can make a real difference; support for sea staff who are nervous about being asked to run games sessions; and lots of fun! Cost £10 for the whole day – you are welcome to attend one, two or all three sessions. Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org to book.
On the Sunday we have another two-part day, this time on electronic navigation and radar, but this course is already fully-booked.
Finally we can offer VHF/GMDSS – this is mainly an online course which you have to do in advance, but we can cover a short practical session and the exam for your radio licence at the training weekend. This can be fitted in somewhere on either Saturday or Sunday depending on what other courses you might be doing, but will be easiest to do on the Saturday afternoon. Cost £40 to OYT South and £60 to the RYA. Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org for more details.
* Playing games on board Prolific
Many young people remember the games they play on board Prolific as one of the most fun aspects of a voyage – whether filling a spare hour in the evening, or keeping people happy when we are stuck due to bad weather.
If you are a volunteer on board Prolific – whether you are a 16-year-old trainee bosun, or an experienced watchleader – how do you feel if you are asked to take charge of organising those games? Do you gleefully go off to find a box of After Eights or a slightly overripe banana or some sheets of paper and an oven tray full of water? Or do you find yourself nervously hoping someone else will offer to run a game?
We really need all our volunteers to have a few games and activities up their sleeves. Maybe other sea staff are busy with a maintenance issue or supporting a crew member who is unwell, and it really is down to you. So if you would like to make sure you have at least one or two activities you feel happy and confident about running, please book on the games course at our training weekend. You may be a brilliant watchleader on deck, or a super-efficient bosun, but if you can’t run a game which keeps up to 15 young people happily engaged. you really are missing an important skill for sail training.
And if you love playing games on board, please book on the course too and come and show others just how much fun it can be! The course will also help you understand why certain games work and what the young people get out of it.
* 2022 volunteer sea staff bookings
Huge thanks to everyone who has sent in details of when you would be available to sail this year. We are now hard at work on the immensely complex task of allocating everyone to voyages that fit their availability while giving us a team on every voyage with the right blend of qualifications, skills and experience, giving opportunities to people who are working towards assessments and upgrades, and trying to be as fair as possible to all the volunteers wanting to sail this year. It’s a complicated process and the voyages we offer to one person can depend on which options someone else accepts, often in quite a long chain. So please bear with us and we’ll try and get your voyage(s) confirmed as soon as possible.
If you haven’t yet contacted us or heard from us about voyages this year then please hold on – if there are spaces left once the main allocation is done, they will be advertised in this newsletter. But a lot of voyages, especially at popular times of year, are over-subscribed and we already have some difficult choices to make.
* Volunteers gaining skills and earning qualifications
It’s always good to see our volunteers developing their skills and working towards qualifications over the winter, and this week Lauren Mackenzie and Cathy Ayres have been at sea – big thanks to Andy Gissing for arranging it and for his immensely capable instructing. Here are Lauren and Cathy like coiled springs approaching an anchorage … developing the essential skipper’s art of saving their energy for when it is really needed and grabbing rest when they can! Big congratulations to Lauren for earning her RYA Day Skipper certificate.
* RYA Yachtmaster of the Year
Every year people from all over the world take the RYA Yachtmaster exam – and the very best of the candidates is awarded the title of RYA Yachtmaster of the Year.
Back in 2012 and 2013, a teenage crew member named Harriet Averns had her first sailing experiences with Ocean Youth Trust South. Now aged 25, she has just become this year’s RYA Yachtmaster of the Year.
Huge congratulations to Harriet – and what an inspiration to all the young people who will be trying sailing for the first time this year with us!
Core refit team needed
We still need a core team of volunteers to come and help us this winter from now to March, or for a significant block within that period. 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.
2022 voyage availability – individual bookings
We are now able to accept individual bookings for young people on the following voyages (see following sections for group voyages and adult voyages):
15-19 April, Southampton, 4 nights, £425 – filling up fast!
9-15 July, Poole tbc to Brixham, 6 nights, £625 – possibly full – please ask
23-27 July, Brixham, 4 nights, £425
17-23 Aug, Brixham, 6 nights, £625
24-29 Aug, Brixham to Poole tbc, 5 nights, £525
30 Aug – 4 Sept, Poole tbc to Southampton, 5 nights, £525 – filling up fast!
21-25 Oct, Southampton, 4 nights, £410 (voyage starts later on Friday so people can join after schools break up for half term)
If you are interested in any of these dates. email webmaster1@oytsouth.org stating the age of the person who will be sailing. Our voyages can be open to people aged 11-25 but in practice we aim to divide people into compatible groups and not have 11-year-olds and 25-year-olds sailing together. If you are around the middle of the age range, any voyage on the list could work, but for younger or older people we will advise if your chosen date looks appropriate or not – sometimes it is hard to be sure until we have a reasonable number of enquiries.
If none of these dates are suitable, then we MAY also open up one or more of the following to individual bookings, depending on the levels of demand for individual mixed voyages versus group voyages. So do let us know if you would be interested in a place on any of these voyages once the decision is made:
2-8 July, Southampton to Poole, 6 nights, £625
10-16 Aug, Brixham, 6 nights, £625.
People who are aged 18-25 can apply for places on youth voyages but would also be eligible for adult voyages (18+ with no upper age limit).
2022 voyage voyage availability – group bookings
These dates are still available for group bookings (usually at least 12 people, which may be all young people but can include adult leaders). Please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org a.s.a.p. to discuss the requirements for your group.
We have had provisional enquiries for one or two of these dates but nothing confirmed yet so it is certainly worth asking, if you are interested:
26 April to 1 May, Southampton, 5 nights, £525 per person
10-15 May, Southampton, 5 nights, £525 per person
2-8 July, Southampton to Poole, 6 nights, £625 per person (this voyage may be made available for individual bookings if it is not required for a group)
10-16 Aug, Brixham, 6 nights, £625 per person this voyage may be made available for individual bookings if it is not required for a group)
10-15 Oct, Southampton, 5 nights, £525 per person
17-21 Oct, Southampton, 4 nights, £425 per person
2022 adult voyages and volunteer training
We have adult voyages scheduled as follows:
1-3 April 2022, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £215 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening). Provisionally full but we can take names for a reserve list.
12-16 Sept 2022, Southampton, 4 nights, age range 18+, £425, adult week (Monday to Friday).
7-9 Oct 2022, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £215 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening).
These are open to anyone aged 18+ but priority will be given to people who are interested in finding out more about volunteering with the charity and potentially hoping to use the voyage to earn a recommendation for volunteer training (especially those who have not had the opportunity to earn a recommendation on a youth voyage), as well as current volunteers looking for some extra training on a voyage where they can focus on their own skills without the responsibility of supervising young people at the same time.
Email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you are interested in an adult berth.
In addition, as we did in 2021, we have earmarked a special training voyage for young volunteers aged 16-25. This will run from 6-11 September and will be largely filled by invitation: we will be looking for young people who have excelled on a youth voyage and have great potential as volunteers, or people who have recently started sailing as young volunteers and whose training we are investing in for the future of the charity. We will be aiming to raise funds to make this voyage as affordable as possible: the priority is to focus on the best young people who could be part of the charity for years to come and will make it possible for us to sail with hundreds of other young people in future. Although we will be inviting people to join this voyage, if you would like to be considered, you can ask the skipper on any other voyage if they would recommend you, or you can email webmaster1@oytsouth.org asking to be considered. If not all the places are filled with young volunteers, we may open up a few places to others in the same age range who don’t mind getting involved while others practise their leadership skills.
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to Ernst Liehr, Peter Hughes, Steve Furniss, Felixstowe Master Mariners and Val Hague for very kind donations.
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.
Georgia leaving present – please give generously!
One of the most enthusiastic and capable core team refit volunteers we have ever had is Georgia Watson, who did so well in the role that she was invited to become one of the staff team on board. However, she is now coming to the end of her final season as OYT South’s Staff Cadet. She’s working on the refit with Holly and Josh and the team but after that she will be moving on – though she has promised to stay involved as a volunteer. We are hugely grateful for all that Georgia has done for the charity as our Staff Cadet, and it’s been amazing to watch her progress as she worked through her qualifications. So we’d like to send her off with a really nice leaving present – please contribute if you can!
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.