In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * New Staff Mate!
- * Lauren’s leaving present
- * New Youth Trustee needed
- * Sea staff vacancy 6-11 October
- * Voyage news
- * Official Supporter of Pip Hare in the Vendée Globe race!
- 2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
- Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
- * 2024 AGM and Curry Night – 9th November – book now! Plus refit volunteers’ weekend
- * Financial appeal
- Maintenance days – PLEASE help
- Prolific earrings inspired by a crew member – and now NEW necklaces as well!
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,200 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
- Branded clothing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* New Staff Mate!
We interviewed a number of applicants for the post of Staff Mate which was advertised over the summer, and met a number of people who, although they didn’t get the job this time, would be very welcome if they wanted to get involved with OYT South in other ways. However, the choice was made, and the new Staff Mate, joining us in November, will be Sara Abdur!
Sara first sailed with OYT South as part of her school group, helped on our refits and then spent several months in 2022 as our Staff Cadet, and then volunteered as a watchleader when she could fit it around finishing university. She’s come a tremendous way in recent years and we are thrilled to welcome her back as a member of the full-time team!
* Lauren’s leaving present
Now that the decision has been made about a new Staff Mate, we have to face up to losing Lauren from the job! Lauren is outgrowing the role of Staff Mate and is ready to move on so she can start skippering.
Lauren first came to OYT South to do her DofE Gold residential at the age of 16. You can spot her in this photo from her first voyage, in John Laing’s final season before Prolific came into service:
She was invited to return as a volunteer and sailed as a bosun on a number of voyages before qualifying as a third mate on the first opportunity after her 18th birthday, and being upgraded to second mate later that season. Meanwhile she was completing a maths degree. She might have made even quicker progress in sailing if we hadn’t then lost a season and a half to Covid, but in 2022, aged just 22, she passed both the RYA Yachtmaster exam and her OYT South First Mate assessment – and started work as our Staff Mate at the end of the year.
She’s now done two seasons in that role, as well as two challenging refits where she had a lot of responsibility as we had significant gaps between Staff Skippers in both winters. Everyone who has sailed with Lauren knows how talented she is, and we have seen her invaluable positive impact on young people, staff and volunteers.
In February this year at the UK Sail Training Conference, Lauren won the award for Best Potential Sail Training Skipper, and this season she has taken every opportunity to develop her skills and realise that potential. We are delighted to announce that this week she successfully completed the first of two parts of an OYT South skipper assessment, confirming the view that she is ready for command and for new opportunities outside the OYT South family.
She has some exciting plans for when she leaves us – beginning with a voyage from the Canaries to Cape Verde and on to the Caribbean as part of the ARC+, She is also aiming to do some freelance work as skipper with other organisations, as well as making use of her RYA Cruising Instructor qualification. Any organisations which can employ Lauren will be very lucky to have her, and of course we hope to see her back on board Prolific from time to time!
If you would like to contribute to Lauren’s leaving present, you can find a link and all the details here.
* New Youth Trustee needed
OYT South’s Trustees are looking for someone aged 18-24 to join the Board at the AGM in November as our next Youth Trustee!
Sara Abdur is the current Youth Trustee but she will need to step aside as she takes up a position on the staff.
The Youth Trustee is a full member of OYT South’s Board of Trustees, looking after the governance of the charity. We always aim to have at least one Trustee in the same age range as our service users, to bring the perspective of crew members and young volunteers to the Board. It’s an opportunity to be part of the charity’s decision-making, and Youth Trustees over the years have used the chance to learn a great deal about how a charity is financed and run: it makes a very impressive addition to a CV.
The Youth Trustee must be an adult (i.e. aged at least 18 by the time of the AGM on 9th November this year) but young enough to stay in the role ideally for a couple of years or more. The Youth Trustee role needs someone aged 25 or under, so we’re looking for someone no older than 24 now, to give them time in the role before they turn 26.
It is a voluntary role involving four meetings a year (usually held online) but with involvement in projects and the chance to represent OT South at events. If you would be interested in finding out more, please email caroline.white@oytsouth.org.
* Sea staff vacancy 6-11 October
Owing to a cancellation we need one more member of sea staff to sail on the voyage 7-11 October, with sea staff joining the afternoon before. This could be a qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun – please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help!
* Voyage news
A new client this week, with young people chosen by Brighton & Hove City Council Children’s Services. The group joined on Friday and started with introductions, familiarisation and safety briefings before setting off. The young people were keen, enjoying the views down Southampton Water, with some of them going out on the bowsprit, taking a turn on the helm or learning how to fill in the logbook.
They anchored in Stokes Bay overnight and enjoyed the night-time scenery:
On Saturday morning they learned how to use the winches for sheets, halyards etc.:
They set off in the late morning to catch the first of the fair tide through Hurst narrows to leave the western Solent. They motor-sailed for a while, then hoisted the staysail and jib and were doing 8 knots towards Weymouth without using the engine. Although the weather was completely miserable and rainy, many of the crew were really involved, and even those who had to shelter inside enjoyed themselves.
After arriving in Weymouth, the group had time for dinner, and then an opportunity to use the showers on land – which was appreciated after a night spent at anchor! Although Sunday morning still wasn’t quite beach weather, the crew enjoyed some shore leave in Weymouth, exploring the local area and shops. The crew were working hard towards their RYA Start Yachting certificates, and learnt about points of sail (how to adjust for the wind when sailing in different directions):
They hoisted sails and practised what they had learned about points of sail – with everyone on deck!
Because the sailing was so lovely, they all kept going until they reached Swanage, where they sailed up to their anchorage. After hot chocolate and a summary of the day, the crew were gently (or not!) rocked to sleep.
Monday dawned with an early departure, leaving at 8.30am with a brilliant view of Old Harry’s rock and the caves in the early morning sun. The crew sailed the boat under mizzen and staysail across to Hurst and into the Solent, and everyone took a turn steering:
After a fire drill and lunch, the crew worked hard to get the sails down and take part in a man overboard recovery drill. Everyone came up on deck to help with the final mooring back in Ocean Village. The crew got some shore leave and a chance to go to the park, and others stayed on board and baked a delicious lemon cake and flapjacks. After a dinner of fajitas, everyone had a relaxed film and games night, and discussed a summary of the voyage and what they had all achieved.
Tuesday was the final morning of the voyage, with the crew all up early to eat breakfast, pack, and get involved with happy hour before departure to their minibus. They did 136 miles at sea and you can see their complete voyage track here.
Comments included:
“My most memorable bit is knowing that everyone will go back to their normal lives happier now that they have discovered what it’s like at sea … I had such a nice time making friends and new memories.”
“I was very happy with this trip. We really had a good time and I thank everyone very much. The social workers were very sweet and the staff were very kind and sweet.”
“My most memorable part was definitely driving the ship. I had fun doing stuff round the ship like hoisting the sails and so on, but in summary….. I really enjoyed it.”
“It felt like a mini family. It was fun getting involved.”
“The crew were so nice and were really funny nice, and I love working with them and making new memories with them and learning new skills. 5/5 love it!!”
Some social workers sailed with the group and added:
“Best bit was just seeing the really lovely friendships that you guys have made, of people who may have never met each other in a different life so it was really nice seeing that … The most memorable was sort of seeing you guys doing things like the steering or the knots or anything just like that when you weren’t being told what to do, that was really nice, ‘cos you picked that up a lot more quickly than I did. So it was really lovely to see you do that.”
“The lovely staff were very welcoming and patient with us, which I really appreciated. I loved learning about sailing and seeing everyone getting stuck in and persevering even when it got tough. Everyone left with lifelong memories – thank you so much!”
“The thing I loved the most was just seeing you being really supportive of each other, particularly when you were having some, like, moments and just having each others’ backs really and I just thought that was amazing … It was lovely to watch a group of young people embrace a new experience, overcome personal and group challenges to form wonderful friendships whilst learning new skills.”
Big thanks to sea staff Diggory Rose, Martyn Powe, Glyn Collins, Phil Loutsis, Jack Thompson, Val Hague and of course extra huge congratulations to our Staff Mate Lauren Mackenzie who passed her Part 1 Skipper assessment on this voyage, as described above!
That was followed by the very welcome return of boys from Bruern Abbey School which specialises in Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia and other learning difficulties. They started with an evening sail to Gosport:
Yesterday they left Gosport and honed their sailing skills on the way down to Yarmouth:
Yesterday afternoon they had a great time relaxing on the bowsprit, plus a man overboard recovery drill, before a night on the mooring buoy. Lots of giggles, lots of bubbles!
Today they headed for Poole, where Susanna drove Prolific alongside. More news on their voyage next week, but in the meantime big thanks to sea staff Andy Viney, Lauren, Mark Dent, Nige Bush, Susanna Paynter, Niamh Lamin, Lucy Mitchell and Chris Threapleton.
* Official Supporter of Pip Hare in the Vendée Globe race!
Last month one of our youth crews was lucky enough to meet Pip Hare and get a tour of Pip’s boat Medallia, ahead of the Vendée Globe single-handed race around the world. Thanks to our mutual links with the Pointer Family Trust, OYT South has been chosen as an Official Supporter for Pip in the race, which starts in November, and we’ll be sharing updates as the race goes on. As she says: “More men have walked on the moon than women have completed the Vendée Globe, which is all the inspiration I need to succeed”.
In 1995-7, the Ocean Youth Club took two boats crewed by young people round the world. As an Official Supporter, OYT South’s logo will be going round the world again – this time much faster! – accompanying Pip in Medallia’s cabin:
We are very proud to be supporting her and we hope that when she sees the logo, it will remind her of what an incredible inspiration she is to young people – both those who are already keen sailors and those who might be encouraged to try sailing. Pip’s website https://www.piphare.com/ has some fantastic and exciting videos – very well worth a look!
2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
Our 2025 programme is open for bookings, with plenty more exciting opportunities for young people to join us next year.
A lot of OYT South’s voyages are taken by organised groups such as a school, charity or youth club, who book the whole boat; but we always designate a number of voyages in school holidays for individuals who want to join a mixed group and make new friends. We have provisionally identified the first few individual voyages for next year (we will add more later) including some in the summer holidays 2025.
6-12 July, Le Havre to Dunkirk, £735 per person, 6 nights, minimum age 15 – this is a Tall Ships Race with a fantastic festival at either end – a truly exciting adventure and a chance to create memories for a lifetime!
30 July – 4 Aug, Brixham to Brixham, £630 per person, 5 nights – standard youth voyage for individual bookings.
11-15 August, Brixham to Brixham, £525 per person, 4 nights, age 11-16. A lot of our individual voyages attract keen young sailors, over-18s, people doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and people wanting to test themselves with a challenging adventure; and, weather permitting, longer passages such as Channel crossings. But this doesn’t suit everyone! So for next year, we have designated this one shorter coastal voyage as a gentler opportunity, ideal for the younger end of our age range (11-16-year-olds) and passports not required. If you know anyone who is unsure about coping with a more ambitious voyage and wants an easier introduction, this is the voyage for them!
See the 2025 programme for other individual and group voyages (and contact us to be added to the mailing list as we designate additional dates for individual voyages).
Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
If you are planning a gap year, or you are between jobs or for any other reason potentially available for several weeks or months this winter, might you be interested in joining our full-time refit team? We will need a couple of full-time volunteers between November and March. More details here. Plenty of our previous refit volunteers have gone on to great jobs in the marine industry – it really helps to have maintenance experience as well as good sailing skills when applying for sailing jobs! And any refit volunteers who want to sail in Prolific can be offered berths as watchleaders, bosuns, or relief engineers. So it’s a great way of developing useful experience, contributing to a good cause, securing free food and accommodation for a few months, and having a positive experience with a fun group of people! If you’re interested, please read the web page and email us with the details requested at the bottom of the page.
We’re looking for at least one of the core team volunteers to have a driving licence and be able to drive the refit car, to help get people between the accommodation and the boat, or for fetching kit and taking parts for servicing.
We’ll also need lots of casual volunteers helping for a day, a few days or a weekend, but we can get people booked in for that much nearer the time – at this stage we are really just thinking about the core team.
* 2024 AGM and Curry Night – 9th November – book now! Plus refit volunteers’ weekend
You can BOOK NOW for our Curry Night following the AGM on Saturday 9th November. As last year it will be the excellent buffet at the Coriander Lounge in Southampton.
Details for the AGM and Curry, with locations, timings and menu as well as a payment link are all on the website now.
The official AGM paperwork will be sent out to members in advance of the meeting. Anyone can attend the AGM but only members are eligible to vote. You can be a member of OYT South for just £36 (£18 for people aged 25 and under) – pay here now to ensure you are on the mailing list for the AGM. Contact the office if you are unsure about whether you are a member already.
The AGM and Curry Night will also be part of a refit volunteers’ weekend when lots of gear needs to be cleared off the boat for the start of refit, so we massively appreciate anyone who can help on Saturday 9th November, Sunday 10th November or both. If you are helping with this as well as attending the Curry Night and would like to stay on board over the weekend, please ask!
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to the Pointer family trust for another wonderful donation towards bursaries. We’ve also had a pledge this week from another bursaries donor who prefers no publicity – many thanks to them.
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 we can claim back tax on your donation.
Maintenance days – please help
We have several planned maintenance days during the season – these are essential to keep Prolific in working order and avoid losing voyage time to maintenance issues. We need all the help we can get, both skilled and unskilled – there are easy jobs for people not used to boat maintenance, or maybe we can teach you a useful new skill!
Just one more left this season:
Sunday 20th October – Southampton
If you call the boat on 07990 518915, or email refit@oytsouth.org, we can get you booked in for maintenance days. We can feed you on board and probably offer accommodation the night before or after if needed. Generally we need over-18s, or 16- and 17-year olds who are sailing as bosuns or trainee bosuns.
Sea staff on the voyages immediately before and after these days should plan to include the maintenance day as part of your booking unless specifically agreed. If we don’t have enough people at a maintenance day and there are significant jobs to do, it might even affect the start of the next voyage, so please do make sure you are available to help!
Prolific earrings inspired by a crew member – and now NEW necklaces as well!
Exciting news – sales of the earrings based on a drawing by a young crew member have been strong enough that our friends at Vurchoo have been inspired to add necklaces to the range!
£68 in silver or £85 in gold – click the pictures to go to the website and see how to buy them:
You can read the full story here of how the design was based on an idea from a Prolific crew member, with part of the proceeds coming to us to support our charitable work! The original earrings are still available for £40 in either gold or silver – click the pictures to see how to buy them:
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,200 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 over £2,200 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
If you look at the top left of any page on our website, you can click on icons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. We are also on TikTok. Please share our social media posts as widely as you can – with the help of all our supporters, this charity is doing some amazing work and we need more people to hear about it. You don’t need to do anything more than share a post, or perhaps add a comment which could be as simple as “I’ve sailed with this charity!” or “I volunteer for this charity!”.
Please note that OYT South has a policy that our adult staff and volunteers should not make or accept personal online connections 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 11-25, 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 11-25 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, mate 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.