In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * February shorebased training weekend for volunteers – a few spaces left, especially first aid
- * Winter refit news – and help needed
- * Website – Raise and Sail – help needed
- 2023 voyages available for young people
- 2023 adult voyages and volunteer training
- * Financial appeal
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made nearly £1,200 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please get involved
- Branded clothing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* February shorebased training weekend for volunteers – a few spaces left, especially first aid
All the planned courses at the training weekend February 11th and 12th now have enough people to go ahead! But there are still places available.
The full programme is:
Saturday: EITHER RYA First Aid OR a two-part day covering risk and harm online and disability awareness
Sunday: EITHER First Aid or a three-part day covering understanding autistic people, teaching RYA Start Yachting and Competent Crew on board; and a safeguarding update. Anyone wanting to do a GMDSS assessment could do it on the Sunday afternoon (missing part or all of the RYA and Safeguarding sessions).
See here for much more detail on all the courses, including course content, price, locations and timings.
The course which could REALLY do with a few more people is First Aid on the Sunday. We’d be happy to accept people who are not actively involved with OYT South on this course as it will help to make it work for everyone, so if you know anyone needing an RYA first aid qualification, please ask them to get in touch.
The Sunday course on understanding autistic people is very nearly full.
All other courses including Saturday first aid have just a few spaces left and we would welcome extra bookings.
Please email us to say what you would like to do!
Do have a look at the course details before you decide – the course titles alone don’t do justice to what should be really fascinating sessions involving superb instructors covering topics which will be of real value to the staff and volunteers who sail with us.
* Winter refit news – and help needed
Big thanks this week to Lauren, Sara and Unity who have been working hard on the refit. Thanks also to Josh who is on a training course but has been around and helping in the evenings; and to Cathy and Steve Lacey who are giving invaluable help, and Fred Cole who has very kindly offered to help with writing risk assessments!
Lauren has been working on the Systems Manual and figuring out the wiring for our new Raymarine kit:
The team has also pulled all the floorboards up to look at the grey water tank:
The galley has been resealed and is looking shiny and new (Lauren says: “We did lots of cleaning and some rearranging and the boat’s looking so much better!”).
The team has also been painting radiators; priming the blue bit of the shed; and sanding the inboard section of the bowsprit. They are hoping (perhaps optimistically) to finish painting the white areas of the boat over the next week but this absolutely depends on getting good weather!
We’ve got a reasonable number of people booked in to help over the next couple of weeks, but do keep an eye on this newsletter each week as we will let you know when we need people. One definite date for your diaries is a volunteer weekend 4th – 5th March to put the sails back on – a job that needs a good group of competent people – email refit@oytsouth.org if you can help. Also do let Lauren know if you are available to help at other times, so she can call on you if she needs you.
Sea staff – don’t forget that if we have multiple applications for popular voyages next year, priority goes to people who have helped the charity in other ways – coming to refit, raising money, introducing new clients etc. Helping at refit is also a great way to learn about bits of the boat you might not see during the season – and it’s always fun and sociable too!
The final photo received from the refit team this week is this – we’d be grateful for any caption or even an explanation … !
* Website – Raise and Sail – help needed
Regular readers will know that we are moving towards the launch of a brand-new website! One section that still needs work is to update Raise and Sail which was designed many years ago by volunteers Fiona Keen and Emma Burrows as a stand-alone area of the site full of ideas and resources for young people who want to raise money in order to come sailing. On the new site we would love to have this much more integrated with the rest of the site, but the current content is very dated (not only because it features John Laing rather than Prolific). Would anyone like to take on the task of updating this ready for the new site? You might just go through the current site and amend things as needed, or you might have ideas for starting from scratch and providing useful resources in different ways.
OYT South has a significant bursaries fund to help young people who can’t afford the voyage fees: but the fund has limits and every bursary we give leaves less in the pot for everyone else. So we massively appreciate it when bursary applicants do something to raise part of the voyage fee for themselves, even if they can only manage a small amount. And of course we like to give bursaries to young people who have shown that they want to put in some effort and commitment! But if we can have something on our website which makes it easy for a young person to get started, that can make a big difference.
You don’t need to know anything about web design – just provide good content and we can upload it. This job might suit a team of people who can share ideas, and it would be great to include at least one young person with experience of trying to raise money through sponsored activities or similar. Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org if you would like to help.
2023 voyages available for young people
Dates open for individual bookings are as follows. Please state your age when applying – we can sail with young people aged 11-25 but we aim to organise compatible groups and not have too wide an age range on any voyage.
7-11 April 2023, Southampton, 4 nights, £475
20-26 July 2023, Falmouth to Brixham, 6 nights, £675
9-15 Aug 2023, 6 nights, Brixham, £675
16-22 Aug 2023, 6 nights, Brixham, £675
29 Aug-3 Sept 2023, 5 nights, Poole to Southampton, £575
There is also a voyage 5-10 Sept out of Southampton aimed at people aged 16-25 who have already sailed with us and been recommended to train as volunteers to sail on future voyage. Places on this voyage are by invitation only but if you would like to be considered, please email us.
We’re happy to take smaller groups (e.g. three or four people) on individual voyages to mix with others; but many clients will want to book the whole boat exclusively for their own group (twelve to fifteen people, including any adult leaders who come with the group). Dates available for whole-boat bookings:
30 April-5 May 2023, 5 nights, Southampton, £575 per person
14-19 May 2023, 5 nights, Southampton, £575 per person
5-9 June 2023, 4 nights, Southampton, £475 per person
5-10 July 2023, 5 nights, Poole to Brixham, £575 per person
9-14 Oct 2023, 5 nights, Southampton, £575 per person.
Contact webmaster1@oytsouth.org to express an interest.
2023 adult voyages and volunteer training
We have adult voyages scheduled as follows:
5-7 May 2023, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £245 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening).
11-15 Sept 2023, Southampton, 4 nights, age range 18+, £475, adult week (Monday to Friday).
22-24 Sept 2023, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £245 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.
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to the Ormiston Trust for a generous donation, and also to Peter Hughes and Stuart Harrison for very kind contributions, as well as to several people who have made donations to our ring-fenced bursaries fund for young people from the Isle of Wight.
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.
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made nearly £1,200 through Easyfundraising!
“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!”
We have already raised almost £1,200 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
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!
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.